Former Vice President
Al Gore will endorse Senator Barack Obama tonight at 8:30 EST. Whoa…it’s about time. Video here.
President Gore?
Okay, this is a bit odd. Rep. Tim Mahoney, who replaced Mark Foley in the 2006 election has an interesting prognosis if this convention really does come down to the convention in Denver.
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, whose district includes much of Martin and St. Lucie counties, is hoping he won’t have to attend the Democratic Party national convention in Denver in August.
If he does go, that will mean the Democrats still haven’t decided a nominee for the presidential election. And if neither Sen. Hillary Clinton nor Sen. Barack Obama has clinched the nomination by August, Mahoney says we may see a brokered convention, meaning the nominee could emerge from a negotiated settlement.
“If it (the nomination process) goes into the convention, don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket,” Mahoney said.
A compromise candidate could be someone such as former vice president Al Gore, Mahoney said last week during a meeting with this news organization’s editorial board.
This is just wishful thinking. However, I do believe that ultimately Al Gore will have a role to play in this nomination fight. If the spats continue through the spring and both Clinton and Obama are weakening in head-to-head match-ups against Johnny McCain, I’d imagine Gore, Edwards and Carter will step in to help ease tensions and likely convince Clinton (unless there is a major sea change between now and then) that it’s time to step aside and allow for the general election campaign to begin.
Mar 24, 2008 by Peter Slutsky in
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A Very Inconvenient Truth
As the November General Election rapidly approaches, politicians on both sides of the aisle scramble to select key issues to connect with voters: National Security, the war in Iraq, and illegal immigration generally top the list. But it was just earlier this summer that an issue reached the front lines, only to be buried beneath death tolls and border walls.
Energy. This is an issue that Democrats have yet to fully understand the power of. Wielded correctly it could be the unifying issue that carries them to victory in 2006.
A New York Times article today outlined the potential resurgence for nuclear power plants to once again dot the American landscape. A cleaner, considerably cheaper alternative to coal or oil, nuclear power is just an example of alternative energies.
Wind power has been embraced by the Democratic Gubernatorial candidates in Massachusetts, much to the dismay of wealthy Cape Coders who fear the large turbines will disrupt their view of the ocean.
Lower gasoline prices make for a good gimmick as well. Recently Col. Mike Weaver, running for Congres in the Kentucky 2nd district, held an event at a gas station offering gas for $1.20, the price it cost when his Republican opponent took office in 1994. A powerful reminder of how little Republicans have done to free us from our dependency on oil.
If the Democrats are to take the commanding control our country so desparately needs, they will need unity on the energy crisis. Have we already forgotten what we’ve learned from Al Gore?
Aug 23, 2006 by Guest Contributor in
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Clintons: Do They Really Help?
Here is an entry from The New Republic’s Blog by editor-in-chief Martin Peretz. Last night’s win by Lamont is just further proof that TNR is less and less relevant every day.
THE CLINTON FACTOR:
I was for Joe Lieberman. I wrote an article about the race between him and Ned Lamont in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. It was not neutral. But, though it got plenty of attention in the blogs and on television, it did not, alas, help Joe very much. Worse can be said of Bill Clinton’s stumping in Connecticut for Joe (and Hillary’s endorsement, too.) When Clinton came into the state, Lieberman and Lamont were running dead even in the polls, more or less. Clinton’s appearance began Lieberman’s decline. Within two or three days, Lieberman was down by ten points. (In the last few days of the campaign, Lieberman recovered considerably … but not enough.) I know there’s some nostalgia in the Democratic Party for Clinton and for Hillary, too. But for many, in the party and out, the Clintons are a nightmare. A nightmare, as James Joyce said, from which we are trying to awake. The common wisdom is that Al Gore would have won in 2000 had he embraced Clinton more or had he allowed Clinton to embrace him. Well, look at what happened to Joe.
-Martin Peretz
And if Lieberman had won last night, Peretz would have said it was Clinton that turned it around. C’mon Marty, learn your logic.
Aug 9, 2006 by Matthew Slutsky in
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