What part of "lockbox" don't you understand?

It’s been seven years since Al Gore ran for president. Most of us wished he had won then, but now it is truly his (last) time to win us over once and for all.


Al Gore on Saturday Night Live, 13 May 2006
“Parallel Universe—if Al Gore was elected in 2000”

In 2000, the United States made a huge mistake and elected George W. Bush as our president. His opponent, former Vice President Al Gore, was the obvious choice and has since then moved on without us. He’s the face of climate change awareness and is leading a crusade to save the earth. Every once and a while, I wonder what it would have been like if Al Gore was president…

Would 9/11 have happened?
Would an unnecessary war in the Middle East have been launched?
Would his “lockbox” idea have worked? (to save money from the surplus)
Would we still have a surplus?

Saturday Night Live cast Al Gore to conduct a skit of what the world would have been like if he was president in 2006 after his documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was released and he was stepping back into the public spotlight. It reminded me, at least, of what we missed out on. I can only hope other SNL watchers that night became nostalgic (and hopeful) like I did.

I sometimes wonder if Bush was fated to be president for eight years. Al Gore lost when it seemed like the whole country was on his side. Was it fate for Bush to ruin the world and Gore to come back in and save us? Strangely enough, I believe that’s the correct way to think about it. Gore returned to mainstream politics two years before the next presidential election after years of us not knowing what he was up to. Why did he bring up the dire need to save the environment in 2006 and not 2001? Maybe people are right—‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is a 93 minute long presidential campaign commercial. And what a successful campaign run it has been so far.

Whether Gore thought this through or not, he’s back in our minds and the US is itching for him to announce his candidacy. We've more than realized what a huge mistake we made in 2000, thank you very much! Maybe he'll be like Bobby Kennedy and put his bid in a few days before the first primary; which in 2008 it's in Iowa on 13 January. If Gore doesn’t run for president in 2008, he most likely never will and most importantly—we wouldn’t want him to.

Basically, this is how I see it: if he doesn’t want to help lead our country towards a better path NOW then there will be no use for him after the 2008 election. The media has been concentrating on the Democratic candidates as opposed to the Republicans, which is installing hope that a Democrat is going to win. Assuming a Democrat does take office in 2008, I doubt they’ll ruin everything like Bush did. We wouldn’t need Al Gore to come in and clean house after Mr. or Mrs. Democrat is president for four to eight years. The candidates are capable of installing at least half of Gore’s ideals on their own, so there’d really be no use for him to come into office after the next president’s term is over.

This is Gore’s final hour and I believe he’d win by an overwhelming majority. How can any Republican candidate compare to Gore? They’ve all flip-flopped on their political stances in the last few months, said really terrible and embarrassing things that have been detrimental to their campaigns, and none of them have that sparkle in their eye and a comforting smile like Gore does.

What makes me so sure about Gore’s ability to win the presidency is the fact the attitude of the country has changed. In 2006, US voters showed they were angry at the current administration (regime!) by electing an overwhelming number of Democrats into Congress. And the only person who seems to understand the anger we had in November 2006 and right now is Al Gore. People are increasingly rallying behind him and the messages he’s sent through his documentary and books. In all honesty, though, his words would be much more powerful if he was the leader of the United States.

It's always comes down to "shoulda, coulda, woulda" when it comes to US politics. No matter how hard I wish we were sucked into a time continuum and transferred back to 2000 so we can make up for our mistake, it just won't happen. But now Gore can finally win us over with the new and improved Gore, version 2.008. He's won most of us over as the modest spokesperson of climate change. He's made some of us giggle with glee with some of the things he's said about Bush. He's no longer the guy who tried too hard to get the youth population to vote for him. He's the guy that will draw in voters of all ages with his messages on saving the earth. He's finally looking at the bigger picture! I think only Gore can save us (and this is the only chance he'll get to do it). We have to make up for a majority of voters electing Bush to office (twice) somehow!!!