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| Dear Al Gore 08 Volunteer, It's been a long time since I last wrote to you. I'm sorry about that. I've been busy with other things, but I'm sure no busier than you. The plain fact is there wasn't much to do for a Gore presidential candidacy in the last six months of 2005. Top and mid-level leaders of the Al Gore 08 organization all spent the months trying to plan their next move. Well, times have changed, and the agent of change has, of course, been Al Gore himself. If you've been attending to recent news about Gore, you know that on January 16, Martin Luther King Day, Gore gave probably the greatest speech of his career and one of the great speeches in recent American history. In my opinion (and the opinion of many other political observers), the speech was a turning point in the nascent campaign to elect Gore as the next President of the United States. In February, 1860, Abraham Lincoln, then a one-term ex-Congressman and ex-Senatorial candidate from Illinois barely known in the Northeast, gave a speech at the Cooper Union in New York City calling for resistance to the South's defense of slavery. He said, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to that end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” By the account of most historians, the speech was a transforming event, gaining Lincoln the presidential nomination and presidency later in that year. I believe that Gore's speech on January 16 will do no less for him. And he comes to this pass far better known in America than Lincoln was at a similar time. If you haven't heard or read Gore's speech, you must. You can see it at http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Cur...ArchiveDays=365 and read it and all of Gore's recent speeches at http://www.algore-08.com/index.php?option=...id=71&Itemid=84. Gore's recent speeches have been consistently eloquent, honest and unsparing, calling all Americans, leaders and followers, to dedicate themselves anew to American democracy and constitutional government. Though Gore has continued to describe himself as a “recovering politician,” his close friend Howard Fineman, appearing on the Chris Matthews show in Feburary, 2005, said Gore was “considering another run for the presidency.” Since then, he has consistently avoided closing the door on another run. But the problem for Gore—indeed, our whole country—is to gain and wield power while remaining true to himself. His recent speeches provide the best argument that he can. I urge you to read them and to circulate them to as many people as you can think of. Between now and the spring of 2007, when presidential aspirants must begin competing in earnest for allies and money, we must do all we can to convince Al Gore to run for president. In addition to circulating his speeches, you can now buy Gore 08 buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers and other paraphernalia at https://www.cafepress.com. Buy them, show them, distribute them. Participating in Internet blogs, you can also talk up a Gore candidacy whenever and wherever you can. In addition, the Internet is now circulating several petitions supporting a Gore candidacy; the one I like best is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/...?ltl=1138464895. Finally, if you are an active member of your local Democratic party organization, you can build support for a Gore candidacy locally. In fact, anticipating a possible declaration by Gore that he is seeking the nomination, you may want to position yourself to run as a Gore delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2008. I think Gore is his own best spokesman. Still, I hope you won't mind my sharing my own thoughts about why Gore would make the best Democratic candidate for president in 2008: Gore appeals to moderates as well as liberals and to blacks and Hispanics as well as whites. Of importance to the many Americans (right and left) concerned about the decline in American values, Gore and his wife Tipper are deeply religious, without however exhibiting their religion merely for public consumption. Gore is not afraid to use American power, but he is wise in its use. He supported the Gulf War as Senator during the administration of the elder Bush, voting against the majority of Democrats; the interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo as Vice President, ahead of President Clinton, whom he spurred to action; and the war in Afghanistan after 9/11 during the administration of the junior Bush. But he opposed the Iraq War (again, opposing the majority of Democrats) because it was not justified and would weaken the war on terrorism rather than strengthen it. Gore is impassioned about the major issues of our time: the threat to our constitutional system posed by unlawful practices of the Bush administration, especially warrantless wiretapping; the now proven catastrophe of global warming (as Gore said at the Sierra Club in September, 2005, we are "entering a period of consequences"); the spread of the Internet and accelerating globalization of international commerce and discourse; the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction (Gore negotiated the agreement with the former Soviet Union to destroy or safeguard its nuclear weapons); and the cutback in federal programs for the middle and lower classes in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy. Concerning the last, Gore was reported by Fineman to say that, if he did run again for President on the populist platform he adopted in 2000, he would "have the wind at his back." Gore has called out to us; it is now time for us to answer. Sincerely, Stephen Cohen Al Gore-08 Acting Head of Rapid Response Team and NY Area Liaison 401 E. 86th St., #10E New York, NY 10028 tel/fax 212-423-9500 cell 917-658-5177 |