After conceding, Gore disappeared. In hindsight, I believe he had a midlife crisis. Like a Kennedy, he had been groomed for public office and the presidency and when he didn’t get it he was adrift. But I never thought Gore looked, well, comfortable when he was a public servant. Remember the cracks about him being a phlegmatic robot? He was like the kid whose overbearing parents molded him from Day One to be the ballplayer or the doctor, when inside there was an artist or writer bursting to get out, but dutifully following orders nevertheless.
Then he finally emerged with “An Inconvenient Truth.” Gore had been talking about climate change for years, mostly to complacent audiences. The media called him “Ozone Man.” But he was ahead of his time then, and now with high gas prices, rising seas and a population weary of its wartime leader, his time had come. What a change! Gore was hailed as an environmental messiah, and the once-scorned VP was now adored by the public and the media, who implored him to run for president again, all inconveniently forgetting how dispassionately and poorly he ran last time.
I think much of Gore’s resurgence is due to Bush’s unpopularity and that nostalgic look back at choices made that we now regret, much like wishing we really hadn’t broken up with that college girlfriend when a marriage turns bad. But I also think much of it is that Gore, who never seemed happy in the role he was somewhat forced to play, is finally doing what he wants to do. He evangelized about the environment long before it was fashionable to do so, and it clearly is something he is passionate about. That passion, combined with his celebrity, is the true reason for his renaissance. He will not run for public office again – this is the role he was born to play.
And his new book? I read the Time excerpt and was intrigued. I haven’t read the entire book, but did flip through it and came back to earth a bit. Blaming today’s problems on the media (I rip the media at least once a month, but don’t blame it for collective idiocy) is a bit too easy. I actually find it fascinating the same media that was so harsh on Gore when he was in office now worships him, a sure sign that the media is overly negative on politicians and politics in general.
The book also reminds me of his turgid, flat speaking style with passages like:
“The remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way — a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response.”
I don’t know about you, but that run-on sentence brings back the terrible speeches and debates Gore would make on the campaign trail. I am fully confident this book was not ghost-written.
Would I change my 2000 vote today if I had the chance? No. Gore has already achieved more for the environment than he ever could as President, especially with the Republican Congress he would have inherited. The new book, while guised as either a wannabe dissertation on American Society or a logical blueprint to fix the systems that run it, looks like a slog. But the guy has finally found his calling and is living his life the way he wants, and that is what I truly admire.
More Info:
An interesting review by the New York Observer, by a media person that somehow takes offense that the media is to blame.
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