Monday, December 16, 2002
NO GORE IN 2004. Al made it official, announcing he won't run for president. I heard on Washington Journal this morning that some of the reasons Gore decided not to run again include the media's response to his recent book tour (reminding him how nasty the media can be) and the fact that he enjoys his current life in which he makes a lot of money (giving speeches at $100,000 a pop) and gets to talk policy wonk talk about global warming and the like with experts.
My general reaction is to congratulate him for his good sense and to wish him well. Still, I can't resist one dig: This is the man who campaigned as a fighter for the common person against evil corporate interests. His mouth didn't open during the campaign without decrying the fact that most of the Bush tax cut would go to "the top 1% of Americans." OK, Mr. Gore: giving speeches at $100,000 a piece surely puts you in that top 1%. Will you give back that extra money the Bush tax cut gives you? Surely the government needs this money for defense, welfare, the common man, and "the children," right? Keeping it would mean that you aren't all that different from the wealthy corporate interests you so fervently criticized.
UPDATE: One reader takes issue with my criticism of Honest Al
My general reaction is to congratulate him for his good sense and to wish him well. Still, I can't resist one dig: This is the man who campaigned as a fighter for the common person against evil corporate interests. His mouth didn't open during the campaign without decrying the fact that most of the Bush tax cut would go to "the top 1% of Americans." OK, Mr. Gore: giving speeches at $100,000 a piece surely puts you in that top 1%. Will you give back that extra money the Bush tax cut gives you? Surely the government needs this money for defense, welfare, the common man, and "the children," right? Keeping it would mean that you aren't all that different from the wealthy corporate interests you so fervently criticized.
UPDATE: One reader takes issue with my criticism of Honest Al
But permit me to quibble with your snarky comments
on Al Gore -- a hundred grand per speech is indeed
the phat bucks to guys like us. It probably gets
eco-Al into the top 10% of Americans. But it puts
him nowhere near the folks raking in the biggest
windfall from Shruby's giveaway. The top 1% -- and
really, we're talking about the top 0.1% -- are rich
beyond our (& Al's) imaginations. The Bush clan
doesn't even really qualify, tho they're close enuff
to know the reality. Gore & Clinton & Cheney & etc
exist about 2 or 3 classes below the Super-rich ---
they work for them, as servants in the political and
corporate-board level, getting paid high wages for
making sure that their sponsors keep their inherited
megabucks and gather in ever more to leave to the
next dynastic generation...
