2008-07-21

Post-Speech, Gore Meets the Press. By David Roberts, Grist, July 20, 2008. "Following his blockbuster speech on Thursday and his appearance at Netroots Nation yesterday, Al Gore was on Meet the Press (text, video) today to talk about his new proposal. It was ... painful. First off, Tom Brokaw's questions were, almost without exception, awful. Just awful. They reflected the most brain dead, ill-informed D.C. conventional wisdom you can imagine... But honestly, and this is a little more sad to say, Gore is just not the best spokesperson... Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, respect him enormously, but having just watched Van Jones set the house on fire this morning, listening to Gore is a let down. After all Brokaw's questions about cost and pain, Gore never forthrightly and confidently asserted that this is an economic win. He nibbles around the margin about it, diverts into a counterproductive riff on CCS, hand waves at engineers and declining renewable costs, but never grabs the bull by the horns. I'm glad Gore's using his profile to do what he's doing, but we need an army of Van Joneses behind him, who haven't been trained by a life in the D.C. glare to deal with the press from a defensive crouch. Americans need to see someone confidently telling them that this is what's going to save us, economically and environmentally. This is not pain they have to endure. It's a lifeboat off a sinking ship."

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