What countdown should we start?
Three weeks til' deadline? 21 days?

Now would be good for me!!!! :D

I heard on MSNBC just now that a reporter who was present with Gore when the announcement was made reported Gore as saying he would enter the race only if the Iowa primary was held in Stockholm. :bad:

I think the reporter's name was Harwood.

He said in his conference today that he needs to "decide" how he can use the Nobel Prize to further climate change awareness. October 17th looks like a good date. I can't think of another one.

I say, I say, that's a joke son


Well, paint me green and call me a pickle!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...it/wgore312.xml

Al Gore's Nobel win sparks presidential calls

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 10:09pm BST 12/10/2007

Al Gore, the environmental campaigner and former US vice president, has heightened speculation he might mount a dramatic bid for the White House after jointly winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

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He stated that he was "going back to work right now" to "elevate global consciousness" about the "planetary emergency" of climate change but declined to answer shouted questions about whether he would enter the 2008 race for the presidency.


Joint Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore

He stated that he was "going back to work right now" to "elevate global consciousness" about the "planetary emergency" of climate change.

He ignored shouted questions about whether he would enter the 2008 race for the presidency.

"I will be doing everything I can to try to understand how to best use the honor and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness, and the change in urgency," he said in Palo Alto, California.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee gave the award jointly to Mr Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, citing their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it.

advertisementMr Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar for best documentary in February .

Five months later he was the headline speaker at the worldwide series of "Live Earth" concerts.

His book "The Assault on Reason", a biting indictment of the Bush administration on a full raft variety of issues, reached the top of the best-seller lists.

The prize committee was made up of six Norwegians nominated for six-year terms by the Norwegian parliament. They included Berge Ragnar Furre, a professor of theology and member of the Socialist Left Party, and Inger-Marie Ytterhorn, a political adviser to the Progress Party.

Although Mr Gore declined to rule out he would run for the presidency, his evasion yesterday made his candidacy even less likely.

He has just three weeks before papers need to be filed should he wish to take part in the New Hampshire primary.

Formerly a centrist Southern "New Democrat" in the mould of Bill Clinton who backed the 1991 Gulf War, Mr Gore has reinvented himself as a populist progressive railing against the Iraq war and reaching rock star status as an advocate of battling climate change.

Polls show him securing the support of about 10 per cent of Democratic voters, some distance behind both the clear front runner Hillary Clinton and her main challenger Barack Obama.

But his entry into the race would plunge the Democratic contest into uncertainty as Mr Gore's supporters attempted to turn his new celebrity into the crucial votes that eluded him in 2000.

On Wednesday, supporters paid for a full-page advertisement in The New York Times pleading with the Democrat to put 2000 behind him and mount another challenge for the job for which his father Senator Albert Gore Snr of Tennessee groomed him from childhood.

"Your country needs you now - as do your party and the planet you are fighting so hard to save," said the ad, which boasted 136,000 signatures on a petition to draft Mr Gore, 59, for president.

Many Democrats believe that the presidency was stolen from Mr Gore by George W. Bush in 2000 when the then vice president won the popular vote but lost the election after the US Supreme Court ruled against further ballot recounts.

In many respects, the Nobel prize was was in many ways a vindication for Mr Gore, who was mocked derided during the 1992 election as "ozone man" by -President George Bush Snr, whose son was to defeat him eight years later.

Mrs Clinton expressed public delight at Mr Gore's award. "Congratulations! Congratulations to Al Gore for his well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize," her campaign website declared in a message alongside a large picture of at thoughtful-looking Mr Gore. "His dedication and tireless work have been instrumental in raising international awareness about global warming."

Bill Clinton, who has had a somewhat testy relationship with his former vice-president after Mr Gore distanced himself from the then president in 2000, was effusive.

"He saw this coming before others in public life and never stopped pushing for action to save our planet, even in the face of public indifference and attacks from those determined to defend the indefensible," he said.

Even the White House put up a brave face. Tony Fratto, a spokesman for the president, said Mr Bush was "happy for the vice president" and "obviously it's an important recognition" for Mr Gore.

But when asked if the Nobel award would pressurise the Bush administration into adopting a "Gore-style" approach to tackling climate change, Mr Fratto replied: "No."

A High Court judge in Britain ruled this month that Mr Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" promoted "partisan political views" and should only be if teachers followed new guidance to prevent his views being wrongly "promoted" to children.

Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president and a critic of what he regards as Mr Gore's alarmism said he was "surprised that Al Gore was awarded a peace prize because a link between his activities and the global peace is unclear and blurred."

But Jeremy Leggett of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute reflected the views of many scientists when he said: "I can't think of a better combination for this award - the previously unsung and much-falsely maligned legion of scientific whistleblowers, and their tireless chief advocate."

toby.harnden@telegraph.co.uk

If I were Gore I would want to enter the race no later Oct. 29th. That way he is able to attend the Philly debate the following day. Then he could head to Vegas for the next debate on Nov. 15th. After that he would be unable to attend the Cali debate as he would be in Oslo, Norway accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day as the Cali debate.

""I just hope the next time people go into the voting booth they don't say, we took a chance and we elected a guy who we wanted to have a beer with, maybe next time voters will understand, we need an exceptional person in this job and Al Gore is an exceptional person." Bill Maher, from his HBO stand-up special, The Decider "

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :good:

MY BILL!!!!!!!!!! :clap:

Right on, mikeporter!! :D

If I could get down on my knees and BEG Al Gore to run, I would. I believe that if he still has any faith in our political process - and he has no reason to - then he has a moral and ethical responsibility to run. Hillary is not going to provide the leadership that we deperately need on this issue, and from what I have seen, neither will the other candidates.

The global warming crisis is indeed a global emergency, and we need strong action now, or it will forever be too late. Who else with the 'street creds' to actually have a chance to make this change happen is there? I know that the work he is doing now is important, and even though I have long been ecologically aware - I am studying to be an ecologist - his film moved me more than anything I have ever seen. It made me laugh (a time or two), it made me cry (a lot,) and it made me scream with rage at the people in this country who simply will not open their eyes to reality.

Nonetheless, I believe he could do far more by getting into this race, and by using our political system to effect great change. Isn't that the purpose of such a system? I have never before watched and heard Al Gore be so passionate and clearly speaking from the heart at any other time. If he could bring that passion to the electoral system, I cannot imagine that we would not vote for him. Again.

To paraphrase a line from an old movie -- "Help us, V.P. Gore - you are our only hope."

Is there anything special about the 17th?

Gore is giving a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. It is his only scheduled appearance in the second half of October, I believe.

I remember Blueraider posting something quite a while ago about where Gore would announce, if he ever did. He said that Al was traditional and would probably do it from the steps of the courthouse in Carthage, TN.

Come home soon, Al!

I posted this question elsewhere on this site and am dying for an answer so that I can hang my hat on some fodder of hope. All day, we heard several of Gore's "close associates" say that he is not going to run or that he would like to but, for several reasons set forth, he will not. We also heard from those a part of the Hope Crusade saying they yearn for him to run. Did anyone who purports to be close to Gore state that he or she believes he WILL run?

I think all he needs to do is tomorrow or Sunday or even early next week release a statement or say during an interview the following: "I have heard the calls for me to enter the race and I heed them seriously. I do not want to place myself above the cause of the climate crisis and therefore do not believe it is appropriate to respond now. I will pray and debate the merits of me entering the race over the next several days and will reveal my decision when I have reached one."

Then, in anncouncing he will run, he can say the he is answering his country's call.

A perfect idea, jharri! Now if only he'll do it!!!!