I know, I rarely do full posts on politics, just the occasional jab. You can even see from my categories that there is no “politics” category. It’s just not my thing to rant about on here usually. Not that this is a rant by any means.

I was reading a TIME article today called “The Last Temptation of Al Gore.” While I was reading it, and looking at the picture gallery of him over the years, I realized how much good this man has actually done for our country and how much courage he has to keep doing it despite his “loss” in the 2000 election. I really like it when people stop caring about what they should be and just be themselves and I feel like that is what Gore has done since the election. I wish this Al Gore was the same Al Gore that ran for president in 2000. I love the fact that since then, he has really fought for what he believes in, and stuff we should all believe in like our environment, he didn’t care to speak out against the war, because what does he have to lose. He has showed much more passion than we ever saw when he was Vice-President or running for President. He has somehow managed to grasp the advantage the President Clinton had over him–personality. A straight-up environment-loving, computer geek with personality. Yeah, so what if he said he “invented the internet” (actually what Gore said was “I took the initiative in creating the Internet”). A wording blunder, yes–complete fabrication, no. At least his blunder didn’t say that “human being and fish can coexist peacefully” (although, I’m sure he would be all for that too).

I guess what impresses me most with him is his quiet dignity. He didn’t sit by during the 2000 election and let things happen, but in the end, he had respect for our system. After that, I think most people would have went on a rampage saying how the process was wrong and it needed to be changed. He didn’t do that. He just did what he’s been doing forever, focusing on his passions, and doing so in such a way that he doesn’t care if people judge him. Why should he? He lost a the popular vote to a complete moron. He challenged it and he still lost. He lost his own state. I think most self-respecting men would have went into hiding for the rest of their life. Gore? He decided to write a couple of books and make a movie which resulted in an Academy Award and a Pulitzer. I don’t think that constitutes as running home with your tail between your legs.

And still, he’s not running for President. At least not right now. He should. I mean, he has the best of some of the Democratic front-runners all rolled into one. He’s “a candidate with the grassroots appeal of Barack Obama—someone with a message that transcends politics, someone who spoke out loud and clear and early against the war in Iraq. But you would also want a candidate with the operational toughness of Hillary Clinton—someone with experience and credibility on the world stage.” I’ll go one step father to that. He would be a candidate who doesn’t care about judgment anymore. A man kind of like John Edwards who took his shot and lost it and came back with this side of him we’ve never seen before. A side of him with personality and charm. He’s a southern. He’s not black (and you know there are still people out there who won’t vote for Obama because of that). He’s not a woman (same thing with Hillary losing votes because of being a woman). And frankly, I think he’s done more for our country during the last 5-6 years than our own President has. He hasn’t been creating legislature, he’s being creating awareness and I think I would argue that that is the most important first step to any kind of change. I’m not convinced he has to run for President to continue to make an impact. In fact, maybe he can accomplish more by not running and maybe that is his reasoning. However, if there is any man, or woman, in this country who should be our President, someone intelligent as well as personable, someone who has the ability to create real change and pull us out of this hole we keep digging deeper and deeper, then that man is Al Gore.

Here’s info on his books and movie: Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, An Inconvenient Truth, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

An interesting picture I found on creative commons taken between Mission and Bryant on 24th St in San Francisco.