-By Vince Johnson
Some will say the Clinton/Obama bashing and counter bashing is a clever orchestration arranged by moles working for Al Gore. The more they bash and counter-bash, the bigger the hero he will be when he suddenly arrives just in time to convert his party into an unstoppable effort to put himself in the Oval Office.
Others will say this is simply a case of mismanaged political strategies that are playing into Al Gores hands. This scenario was predictable so why not sit back and wait for the most appropriate moment to make a move? Why should he spend his money or energy running for President until his opponents spend all of theirs convincing America that neither one is fit to be President?
Is the Clinton/Obama deadlock by design or by accident? I say it doesn’t matter. I say it is not only “convenient” to Gore’s ambitions, it was sufficiently predictable to count on as a stepping stone of “heroic” proportions. When two candidates are perceived as equally inexperienced, it is predictable that both candidates will focus on the other’s weaknesses rather than the issues. When two candidates have a young and extremely dedicated following, there will be impulsive trash talk and there will also be emotionally driven remarks that belittle those they were aimed at them as well as those who uttered them. In their efforts to tear each other apart, they will tear themselves apart. And Mr. Gore will arrive as a great and benevolent hero without spending a dime!
There is something else about Albert Gore to consider. He is either one of the most savvy gents of our times or the luckiest. He didn’t invent Internet, but he helped push through legislation that got it established. Internet research discloses two interesting items:
From FastCompany.com, June 21, 2007: (Liberal slant)
“What no one is talking about is that Gore has also become a stunningly successful businessman and entrepreneur, using the Petri dish of business to explore his deeply felt ideas about how the world works, doesn’t work, and could work better. (In addition to being associated with two of the most successful technology companies in history, Google and Apple, he has also co-founded a cable network and an asset management company, both boasting radically new, and profitable, business models. They are becoming quiet forces in their respective fields.) And this, in many ways, has fueled his extraordinary comeback.”
From NewsMax, May 11, 2006: (Conservative slant)
“Gore became a senior adviser to the Internet search engine (Google) back in February 2001, and is a close friend of CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt. Google shares went public in 2004, and the stock has soared from $85 a share to more than $400. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are worth an estimated $11 billion each. Gore “owns a ton of Google and he’s made enough money that he could wait until a month before and just drop $50 million in to launch a [2008] race,” a well-placed Democrat told Deborah Orin of the New York Post.
Check out the ingredients:
Opportunity: It’s there just waiting. Money: Clinton/Obama are going broke and Gore is loaded. History: Gore ran once and won the popular vote. Maturity: He’s been there, and knows when to make his move. Personality: Gore can unify his party while Clinton/Obama can’t. Electorate: The media is making sure several million people are weary of Clinton/Obama. Reality: Gore is either very lucky, or very savvy and maybe both.
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Vince Johnson welcomes comments. Please send them to,Vince Johnson(vjadtrak@wvi.com)
See Vince in the new book Americans on Politics. Policy, and Pop-Culture.