Ride the wave, Al.

 

Al Gore has today endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States. Yes, this may have been seen as predictable, but it is extremely important.

Gore has always been seen as the ‘President that nearly was’ or the candidate that had the Presidency ‘stolen’ from him in 2000. I sometimes wonder what our world would have been like now if Al Gore was at this point in time coming to the end of his 8 years as President. I dare say the world would be a very different place, and the United States would be a much more respected nation.

Gore has been pressured to stand as a candidate for the Presidency again, but he knew that such a move would destroy his credibility. He has poured too much time and energy in being seen as the credible voice on environmental matters to ruin that, so the best thing he could have done was to endorse Obama; and what an endorsement it was.

Gore was scathing in his criticism of the Bush administration, more than any other political figure. He knows just how much punch he packs, and he is using it.

“After the last eight years, even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter,” Gore said, adding, “After eight years of lost jobs and lower wages, we need change. After eight years of incompetence, negligence and failure, we need change.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/16/gore.obama/index.html

Don’t hold back Al. And he didn’t.

Gore said the Bush administration has “dishonored and disrespected” the Constitution and led the nation through “eight years of the most serious foreign policy mistakes in the entire history of our nation.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/16/gore.obama/index.html

Al Gore has been trying to ring the environmental emergency bell for many a year now, and it is only now that we are ‘sort of’ listening. What he sees in Barack Obama is someone who is whipping up the winds of change, and change can bring about the environmental outcomes he has been hoping for for as long as I can remember.

He called for Americans to move beyond partisanship and select in Obama a leader who can “solve the climate crisis and create a bright future.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/16/gore.obama/index.html

Momentum is building. Some could call Gore opportunistic, and maybe he is. But he knows that since Australia signed the Kyoto Agreement, the United States is very alone in its attitudes towards the environment. Gore has already praised the new Australian Government on their signing of the Kyoto Agreement, and now he feels its time to ride the same sort of wave that made people like John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. the historic icons that they have become. How amazing is it be to not only be associated with one of the most charismatic figures in US politics in years, but to see his environmental plan finally taken seriously, and something done about it.

“…Gore praised Obama as someone who could mobilize people, young and old, who had never before taken part in politics. Gore went on to praise the nominee’s vision on the environment, domestic and international issues.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/16/gore.obama/index.html

Mobilisation is the key word here. In this world where many countries are still way, way behind the eight ball in regard to taking this crisis seriously, we need to mobilise ourselves into action. As I have intimated before, whatever your political leaning, Barack Obama has revitalised the young, and made them interested in our world, and what matters. He has been the centre of more debates on issues than any other Presidential candidate since JFK. So, to use a surfing analogy, when the wave is big and it’s coming in, the surfer would be silly to ignore it.  Al Gore is the surfer, and Obama is the wave in a normally quiet ocean. 

Gore has been dressed in the wetsuit and waiting on his surfboard for a long time waiting for the wave to come in and carry his message to the world. He would be a fool to let this once in a lifetime wave wash over him now.

Enjoy your day.