Friday, October 12, 2007
AL GORE'S DEFINING MOMENT
Generally, I avoid commenting on primarily political stories but this one merits an exception.
Former Vice-President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, in conjunction with UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Regardless of what one thinks about Mr. Gore as a politician or of his heavily propagandistic but Oscar award winning film, the Nobel Prize represents the capstone of one of the most remarkable political comebacks in American politics since Richard Nixon.
It is true that Al Gore did not self-destruct after his razor-thin defeat in 2000 ( yes, give it up, he lost) quite the way Nixon did when he lost the California Governorship in 1962 back to back with the presidency in 1960 but neither did " the New Nixon" of 1968 reach such illustrious heights. Americans with Nobels are rare; Americans with Peace Prizes are the most exclusive circle of all. Many conservatives are quite upset at this development and are venting, some of their complaints have my sympathy but their sense of timing does not. They are spitting into the wind right now and to the extent that anyone outside the movement conservative choir is paying any attention, bitter anti- Gore jeremiads only serve to alienate moderates.
For once, I can say the Bush administration struck the right political note with a simple gesture of congratulation to a former adversary enjoying a moment in the sun, without getting too excited about it. If anything, given recent decisions by the Nobel Committee to honor Communist frauds and terrorist kleptocrats, we should be relieved that the Peace Prize this year went to Al Gore and not, say, Kim Jong Il or Robert Mugabe. I'm the first not to confuse Mr. Gore with Andrei Sakharov or Aung San Suu Kyi but even I must concede he is a qualitative moral improvement over Yasser Arafat by many orders of magnitude.
Much speculation (i.e. wishful thinking) exists as to whether Gore will now jump into the race for the Democratic nomination for president. That would be fun to watch but I doubt that will happen as it would require that Gore extricate himself from around $ 100 million dollars of VC enterprises that he is deeply involved in, so as to compete at a complete organizational and financial disadvantage with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Why accept those headaches and fritter away his newfound political capital when as the Democratic Party's star elder statesman and counterweight to the Clintons, Gore is a " must-have" insider for a new Democratic administration ? That's a lot of clout to throw away on a last-minute vanity campaign.
Mr. Gore is enjoying his moment but in all probability, this episode represents his peak.
Generally, I avoid commenting on primarily political stories but this one merits an exception.
Former Vice-President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, in conjunction with UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Regardless of what one thinks about Mr. Gore as a politician or of his heavily propagandistic but Oscar award winning film, the Nobel Prize represents the capstone of one of the most remarkable political comebacks in American politics since Richard Nixon.
It is true that Al Gore did not self-destruct after his razor-thin defeat in 2000 ( yes, give it up, he lost) quite the way Nixon did when he lost the California Governorship in 1962 back to back with the presidency in 1960 but neither did " the New Nixon" of 1968 reach such illustrious heights. Americans with Nobels are rare; Americans with Peace Prizes are the most exclusive circle of all. Many conservatives are quite upset at this development and are venting, some of their complaints have my sympathy but their sense of timing does not. They are spitting into the wind right now and to the extent that anyone outside the movement conservative choir is paying any attention, bitter anti- Gore jeremiads only serve to alienate moderates.
For once, I can say the Bush administration struck the right political note with a simple gesture of congratulation to a former adversary enjoying a moment in the sun, without getting too excited about it. If anything, given recent decisions by the Nobel Committee to honor Communist frauds and terrorist kleptocrats, we should be relieved that the Peace Prize this year went to Al Gore and not, say, Kim Jong Il or Robert Mugabe. I'm the first not to confuse Mr. Gore with Andrei Sakharov or Aung San Suu Kyi but even I must concede he is a qualitative moral improvement over Yasser Arafat by many orders of magnitude.
Much speculation (i.e. wishful thinking) exists as to whether Gore will now jump into the race for the Democratic nomination for president. That would be fun to watch but I doubt that will happen as it would require that Gore extricate himself from around $ 100 million dollars of VC enterprises that he is deeply involved in, so as to compete at a complete organizational and financial disadvantage with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Why accept those headaches and fritter away his newfound political capital when as the Democratic Party's star elder statesman and counterweight to the Clintons, Gore is a " must-have" insider for a new Democratic administration ? That's a lot of clout to throw away on a last-minute vanity campaign.
Mr. Gore is enjoying his moment but in all probability, this episode represents his peak.
Labels: 2008, al gore, politics
¶ 8:24 PM
Comments:
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'counterweight to the Clintons'
counterweight to everyone! ;-)
http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/alGoreFat.jpg
(sorry. couldn't resist ;-)
counterweight to everyone! ;-)
http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/alGoreFat.jpg
(sorry. couldn't resist ;-)
Zen,
I respectfully disagree with your comment that "Americans with Nobels are rare." By my count, nearly 1/3 of all 774 Nobels awarded have gone to Americans -- or to researchers affiliated with American universities and research centers (qv. Nobel Laureates and Universities).
The Univ. of California system alone was the sponsor of 31 Nobel laureates (half of those -- 15 -- from Berkeley).
sf/ shane
I respectfully disagree with your comment that "Americans with Nobels are rare." By my count, nearly 1/3 of all 774 Nobels awarded have gone to Americans -- or to researchers affiliated with American universities and research centers (qv. Nobel Laureates and Universities).
The Univ. of California system alone was the sponsor of 31 Nobel laureates (half of those -- 15 -- from Berkeley).
sf/ shane
Hi Sean, Haiku -master
Gore is a Democratic "heavyweight" after all.
Hi Shane,
I see your point. I was thinking in terms of rarity of Nobel prizes among Americans rather than Americans among Nobel prize winners but you're right, we've cleaned house in that regard.
I have to axe the foreigners-affiliated with US institutions objection, that's just too unfair to the rest of the planet. We maximized our post-WWII comparative advantage by creating the greatest postsecondary education system in the history of the world. For a very long tome, some things could only be tried in American facilities.
But thanks to a shortsighted Congress and an administration that caters to an anti-science fringe, that's changing fast. The leading edge in physics and biotech will be abroad, not here.
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Gore is a Democratic "heavyweight" after all.
Hi Shane,
I see your point. I was thinking in terms of rarity of Nobel prizes among Americans rather than Americans among Nobel prize winners but you're right, we've cleaned house in that regard.
I have to axe the foreigners-affiliated with US institutions objection, that's just too unfair to the rest of the planet. We maximized our post-WWII comparative advantage by creating the greatest postsecondary education system in the history of the world. For a very long tome, some things could only be tried in American facilities.
But thanks to a shortsighted Congress and an administration that caters to an anti-science fringe, that's changing fast. The leading edge in physics and biotech will be abroad, not here.
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