gore and obama in detroit

I stayed home last night, nursing a bout of what was probably psychosomatic back pain, instead of going to the big Obama rally in Detroit. In retrospect, I wish that I’d gone. I tend to shy away from 20,000-person crowds chanting slogans, but I realize this was probably my best shot to see him in person. Unlike John Edwards a few years back, I seriously doubt that Obama will be requesting a personal meeting with me… And, worst of all, by not going last night, I missed my chance to see Al Gore.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but, last night in Detroit, Gore introduced Obama and gave him his endorsement. I’m not sure why the Obama campaign keeps choosing to have these big endorsements made in Michigan. First it was John Edwards, and now this. Maybe the campaign feels as though they owe us something for skipping over us during the primary season. I’m not complaining, but it seems to me that some of these announcements might have been better made in more contentious states. Michigan is definitely competitive, but there are other states out there, according to the most recent polling data, that are even closer… Don’t get me wrong, I like the attention, but I’m just having a hard time figuring out the strategy behind it.

You can see Gore’s speech here:

And, as you might have guessed, the minute Gore and Obama were on stage together, the talk started of a possible ticket. I personally don’t like the idea of Gore serving as VP again, but I suppose there are worse choices out there. (I think Obama needs someone with better military and foreign policy credentials, like Wesley Clark or Sam Nunn. I also think that the Obama/Gore ticket would make a lot of people say, “This would be great, if it were just flipped.” Plus, I think that Gore’s already got his hands full saving the planet from immolation.) Anyway, here’s a clip from John Nichols’ article in “The Nation,” on the possibility of a Vice President Gore… He raises some good points.

…But, in many senses, Gore is an even stronger vice presidential prospect than Edwards. He has far more legislative and executive-branch experience. He has global respect. He is recognized as a moral leader in the environmental debates that will be central to defining the 21st century. And no one is better positioned to unite Democrats. Always popular with the party base, the Nobel Peace Prize winner is arguably even more well-regarded now – especially with core Democratic constituencies that may still be smarting over Obama’s defeat of New York Senator Hillary Clinton in the race for the party’s 2008 nomination.

The notion of a former vice president or other top figure in a national political party joining a new ticket is hardly radical.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan seriously considered — and almost agreed to — selecting former President Gerald Ford, who had also served as vice president, to a GOP unity ticket. In 1964, there was much talk about making United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, who had twice been the Democratic nominee for president, Lyndon Johnson’s running mate…

And, if you haven’t yet, you can donate to the Obama campaign by clicking here (and entering your credit card number).

This entry was posted in Politics. Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

7 Comments

  1. Dick Cheney's Extending Taint
    Posted June 17, 2008 at 10:40 pm | Permalink

    I stayed home last night, nursing a bout of what was probably psychosomatic back pain

    Can’t you just eat an M&M and tell yourself it’s a miracle cure?

  2. Brackache
    Posted June 17, 2008 at 11:02 pm | Permalink

    That’s really brave of Al to risk it all at this point endorsing Obama in this still hotly contested primary. Que balls.

  3. mark
    Posted June 17, 2008 at 11:13 pm | Permalink

    I hear you, but I’m willing to cut Al some slack. The most important thing for him right now is global warming, and he couldn’t afford to alienate Clinton, as she might have won the nomination. If you’ll notice, he’s also quite kind to McCain in this speech. Personally, I think he’s right.

    And, Taint, given the fact that Drew Barrymore is coming to town, I’ve taken to only eating Reese’s Pieces.

    And, yes, I have gotten confirmation that Drew Barrymore has chosen Ypsi as the scene of her directorial debut… Things are about to get a little weirder around here.

  4. egpenet
    Posted June 18, 2008 at 12:20 am | Permalink

    Thanks to the likes of Gerald Ford and H. W. Bush and G. W. Bush … and even Clinton to some extent … the office of the President of the United States has become just another U.N. office-holder in the deck.

    Yah, our economy … blah, blah, blah.

    Clout, credibility, all that … we are no better or no worse than any of the major E.U. member natons in their eyes and the eyes of the world … thanks to Bushie.

    And in hard currency terms, we are far weaker as a trade negotiator than we have evwr been in world financial, food and resources markets … witness the rise in oil, farm commodities, nad gold.

    Look to the FED for an interest rise later this summer or early Fall … which, IMHO, will ve a disaster in the stock market and a disaster to all of us stuggling to hang onto our skyrocketing variable mortgage rate loans.

    Major banks nd money-lending institutions on Wall Street are diving in value every day. The “bottom” is NOT in. Worse, there us no who has stepted forward with a plan. No one, yet, has tried to jswbone the speculation in oil and commodities in the market.

    We have anothe rbubble in tech, commodities, farming and other commodities. AAPL recently corrected to its 50-day moving average, and went up from there today. But commodities continued to percolate upward.

    It’;s wild speculation and a set-up for the unwary.

    And all of this because a liberal Democrat, who knows very little about economics, is making “pork barrel” promises. Here we go!

    2008 will be a very exciing year.

  5. KD2
    Posted June 18, 2008 at 10:32 am | Permalink

    I figure the Obama campaign is doing things like this to make up to Michigan for ignoring us during the primary season.

    We may not have the quite clout that we used to but still retain a respectable share of actual electors and even though we’ve started going purple this last decade or so we still vote blue during presidential elections.

    In short, we’re an easy place to secure some electoral votes without too much work. Not to mention a good place to highlight any points you want to make about the nations collapsing economy, racial division, etc.

  6. Oliva
    Posted June 18, 2008 at 11:35 am | Permalink

    Lucky me was at the rally. What energy. It was an incredibly exciting time. I don’t think Obama’s visit was purely strategic. The smile that broke upon his face as he entered the arena with President Gore said it all. He was as thrilled to be there, I think, as the gigantic crowd was to see him. It was, as everyone around me kept saying, “awesome.” A woman who walked in with us said, “This is the best damn day of my life.” She’d taken the bus from Chesterfield Twp. and stood/sat with us in line for several hours before climbing those many steps and entering the Joe.

    Awww, such a good thing. (Chauncey was wonderful. Granholm flipped over several pages of what remained of her speech, skipped to the end, when she realized her words about Clinton weren’t pleasing the crowd so much.)

    “Detroit Barack City” signs all over the place . . .

  7. Oliva
    Posted June 18, 2008 at 11:38 am | Permalink

    Lucky me was at the rally. What energy. It was an incredibly exciting time. I don’t think Obama’s visit was purely strategic. The smile that broke upon his face as he entered the arena with President Gore said it all. He was as thrilled to be there, I think, as the gigantic crowd was to see him. It was, as everyone around me kept saying, “awesome.” A woman who walked in with us said, “This is the best damn day of my life.” She’d taken the bus from Chesterfield Twp. and stood/sat with us in line for several hours before climbing those many steps and entering the Joe.

    Awww, such a good thing. (Chauncey Billups was wonderful. Governor Granholm flipped over several pages of what remained of her speech, skipped to the end–clearly realized that her words about Clinton weren’t pleasing the crowd. Wrong audience that night for too much Clinton talk from her.)

    “Detroit Barack City” signs all over the place . . .

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative Frankenstein Escape