Comments on: Prediction: Al Gore Will Be Elected President in 2008

By: Ed Slavin

Ed Slavin — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:54:37 +0000

Now that Al Gore has won the Nobel Prize, he should seriously considering running for the job to which he was elected in 2000, but which was stolen from him by James Baker III, his thuglike Repug plug-uglies and the U.S. Supreme Court.

By: Ed Slavin

Ed Slavin — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:40:59 +0000

If Al Gore runs,Exhibit A for why he should be President is “An Inconvenient Truth,” which won two Oscars (R).
I have admired Al Gore’s work since he came to Oak Ridge on July 11, 1983 to investigate the world’s largest mercury pollution event (4.2 million pounds).
America and the world needs his intellect, whether as President or Secretary of State.
How about a Gore-Edwards or Edwards-Gore Democratic ticket, likely carrying Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi and Virginia?
Two progressive Southerners will win, as in 1992 and 1996. And as Al Gore, Sr. said on Election Night 1970, “the truth shall rise again.:
What do y’all reckon?
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-471-7023
904-471-9918 (fax)
EASlavin@aol.com

By: Ed Slavin

Ed Slavin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 03:27:48 +0000

Next time, Gore needs to leave no vote uncounted. He must reach out to victims of industrial diseases and “dance with the ones what brung him.” The corporate-wiener-Blackberry-punks don’t know anything about history (or who Al Gore is). Gore must campaign as the candidate of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, not like a Tony Coelho clone in search of corporate largesse.

By: Ed Slavin

Ed Slavin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 03:24:31 +0000

Gore won Florida — I agree. Living in St. Augustine during the election, we saw police state tactics used in this area.
27,000 votes were not counted in Jacksonville (20,000 African-American).
Democratic lawyers were ill-advised when they dropped the ball on this in the recount effort. They were erroneous in failing to litigate the statewide recount we were promised.
Governor Jeb Bush’s and local Repugs’ influence led to petty extremes, well documented.
One I know of personally is a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) officer pulling over a car by the Bridge of Lions for not having its license plate lit well enough — our car had a Gore-Lieberman sticker. The lights on the license plate had not dimmed in three years.
The FHP had just announced publicly that week that it could not afford gasoline to patrol I-95.
The FHP’s fine for the Gore-Lieberman sticker was $10.
The police state tactics of the Jeb Bush regime: priceless.

By: Ed Slavin

Ed Slavin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 03:13:45 +0000

“DOE’s Toxic, Hostile Working Environment Violates Human Rights,” my 3/22/2000 written Senate Governmental Affairs Committee testimony on Oak Ridge and other nuclear weapons plant Company Towns’ deadly poisons and worker health sequelae.
http://www.downwinders.org/slavinhtml.htm/

By: Ed Slavin

Ed Slavin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 03:06:20 +0000

I think Al Gore has grown since 2000. Tennesseans thought he became remote as VP.
As Senator and Congressman, he was engaged and alive, holding 1200 town meetings in Tennessee. I saw him at one in Memphis in 1984 — he was witty, charming and answered every question.
As VP, he grew remote from his state, which he failed to carry in 2000. He allegedly frequently flew into Nashville for weekends, with the reputation of having clogged traffic for 42 miles with his motorcade, losing votes.
Al Gore should have carried his home state.
I was deeply disappointed when he refused to meet with sick Oak Ridge workers injured by nuclear weapons plant workers there — as the former Editor of the Appalachian Observer and advocate for workers, I tried to get a word with him when he visited Deerfield Beach, FL as VP — the twenty-somethings with their Blackberries had my card but refused to arrange a meeting. As a Florida voter, I probably would have worked hard in Gore’s Presidential campaign. The lingering resentment of his not wanting to talk for a minute about Oak Ridge environmental crimes (and compensation of workers) left me voting for him in 2000, but not working in the campaign. I felt like he and Bill Clinton were both deeply insensitive to worker rights causes. It was not always that way.
I was honored to testify before Al Gore at his July 11, 1983 hearing on the Oak Ridge mercury pollution crisis, which was a classified secret (kept even from President Jimmy Carter), until my FOIA and declassification request was granted by DOE on May 17, 1983. Gore sworn in all the witnesses, conducting an investigative hearing. Yet no one ever went to prison or jail for even a day for putting 4.2 million pounds of mercury into local creeks and groundwater, and into workers’ lungs and brains, without signs, fences, respirators, warnings or basic protections. Half the free world’s mercury was in Oak Ridge, which “LOST” 10% OF IT.
Gore’s environmental values, as expressed in Earth in the Balance, are first-rate. He championed Global Warming as an issue, holding the first hearing, in 1978.
Al Gore deserves to be President because of his grasp of environmental issues alone. Time will tell if he has re-acquired the common touch, the populist legacy of his late, great father.

By: Trish

Trish — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 20:21:12 +0000

At the risk of butting in again…

Jon, if by “outlawyered” you mean Bush had the Supreme Court on his side, I agree. I also agree with Gore2008 that it’s a lot more complicated than that. And I don’t think it’s really fair to expect Gore to carry Tennessee. I lived part-time in Kingsport and I’m not seeing the whole state go for a Gore type for president. Certainly many Tennesseans would and did, but I think it would have been a tough nut for any Clinton heir-apparent to have cracked in 2000.

I also agree with Gore2008 that Nader and the misguided people who voted for him really sealed the Bush victory. The Republicans wouldn’t have tried so hard in 2004 to get Nader a slot on the Florida ballot if it had been otherwise.

As usual though, we all have to point the finger in the general direction of the mirror. Had we, as Gore supporters or Bush detractors, risen up and demanded a different outcome, we’d have it. Had we used the time since then to demand reform (or better yet, abolishment) of the ridiculously obsolete electoral college system, we’d have it. And we all know if Bush had been cheated out of an election victory in 2000 because of the electoral college system, it would have disappeared in 2001.

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 19:58:12 +0000

I absolutely agree that the Bushes stole the election in Florida. What the Republicans did there was dirty and corrupt. I also agree that the media went after Gore, just as I believe they kowtowed to Bush.

But in the final analsyis — and if you re-read what you just wrote, Gore2008 — we were outgunned. They swarmed us on the ground, they pelted us from the legislature, they sent goons to intimidate recounts, on and on and on. Florida GOP pols from the governor on down were willing to take actions that went up to and beyond what was legal or ethical. They played harder, faster and meaner. They had the power of the majority and they took it.

We agree on the facts but have reached different conclusions. I think Gore is ultimately responsible for losing the election, and you think I’m blaming the victim. It is possible that we’re both right.

If Gore does run in ‘08, it will be interesting to hear what he thinks of Florida in ‘00.

By: Gore2008

Gore2008 — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:53:29 +0000

John Ponder still doesn’t get it! He’s trying to claim he knows what happened in Florida in 2000 despite the fact that he’s never worked on an election campaign there. His attack against Al Gore makes it clear that he doesn’t have a clue about what Florida election law was in 2000. I’ve actually worked on election campaigns n Florida so I know from first hand exerience. It’s not about the lawyering, it’s about counting the votes. Florida election law in 2000 clearly required that the uncounted votes be counted. Ponder is completely oblivious to the fact that there were 10,000 absentee ballots in Florida in 2000 that the counting machines couldn’t read that were hand duplicated and counted as Florida election law allows. Most of these absentee ballots are located in the most heavily republican counties in Florida. They favored Bush by more than 2 to 1. The Bush campaign never challenged the counting of these absentee ballots because they so heavily favored Bush. The ballots cast on election day that the counting machines couldn’t read should’ve been treated the same way the absentee ballots that the counting machines couldn’t read were treated as thats what Florida election law says but the Bush election stealers deliberately broke the law and made sure that these legal votes weren’t counted because they knew that counting all of the votes meant victory for Al Gore. Furthermore, a hand count just as the Gore campaign had requested in the Presidential race was in fact done in a local fire department advisory board race in Pinellas County that changed the outcome of that local race in Florida at the very same time that Bush campaign co-chair was on national tv denying the very same request of the Gore campaign in the presidential race. Let’s also not forget the lies of Ralph Nader and the fact that a wing of the republican party, the republican leadership council, spent $5 million on a tv ad campaign that spread Nader’s lies about Al Gore in crucial states like Florida which resulted in Nader siphoning off crucial Al Gore votes in Florida with republican help. Let’s also not forget the pro Bush mainsteam media’s unprecedented “war against Gore” while they let Bush off the hook for the many lies he told during campaign 2000 and since. The only documentation of the pro Bush mainsteam media’s “war against Gore” can be found at, http://www.dailyhowler.com. The truth will always be that despite everything that was thrown at him, Al Gore is the rightful winner of the 2000 election. He got the most votes nationally and in Florida. What the Bush campaign did in Florida in 2000 to stop a legal vote count was a broad daylight coup. In the words of famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, “none dare call it treason”. Ponder’s effort to blame Al Gore for what the Bush election stealers did to steal the 2000 election has no basis in fact. It’s long overdue for the ugly truth about the Bush election stealers ending of democracy in America with their theft of the 2000 election from Al Gore in Florida to be told.

By: Jon Ponder

Jon Ponder — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:41:29 +0000

Believe me, Gore2008, I am quite familiar with the the situation in Florida. I agree with your description of what happened 100 percent. But In the final analysis, there was a legal dispute and Gore got out-lawyered.

He should have never been in the situation of depending on the Florida vote in the first place. He lost Tennessee!

The Gore campaign made mistakes, as did Kerry’s, as my Florida cousin said.

The intersecting personality in the two losses is campaign manager Bob Shrum, so if it makes you feel better about Gore, blame Shrummy. (I know I do.)

If Gore wants to try to redeem himself with another go, I’m for it. I can’t say I’ll vote for him in the California primary but if he wins the nomination, he’s got my support, for what it’s worth.