As I sit here and think about it, the magnitude of what has transpired today is huge for me.

I hope everyone can post their own thoughts on this thread on how this will affect them.

Al Gore will not be a candidate for president in 2008.

Everytime I see another candidate's ad I think of Al not running. I remember why I wanted Al to run. I'm hearing the positivity of Gore's message of hope and trying to find it in another candidate's voice.

What it really means to me is I am back to searching for an oasis in the middle of a desert. Like that polar bear in AIT when the flow of ice breaks apart and there's 40 miles of swimming to the next one.

There is hope though, there are plenty of good people in politics. And Gore will not stop with his message, that is for sure. Neither will I stop searching.

boy, for someone who put me down for talking 3rd party or rallying if he didn't run to get him a VP slot,

you sure give up easy don't you??? :wtf: :wtf: :spikey: :spikey:

Fight for a 3rd party run in summer 2008, with or without Bloomberg or a brokered convention hope in Summer08.

IF the Dems nominate Rudy, and Ron Paul runs 3rd party himself, then there is a wide-open space for a major 3rd party run by a liberal, and then with 4 people running its even easier than 3 for that liberal to be elected outright...

Why, it is concievable Al could be President and Rudy and Hillary come in 3rd and 4th(with RP being 2nd ) in actual votes

But here I sit seeing you are giving up...now is the time to strive harder

Because I heard nothing from Al that he would not could not run in Summer 2008 if things are not going well

(remember too, the new "venture" he did and everything else, he would have to divest or put in a blind trust...by waiting til Summer 2008, he could hang on to it longer...

And remember too, who is putting these stories out? Hillary most likely...
if there is a brokered convention, Al easily can still be called

So now is not the time to give up
:spikey: :spikey: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :spikey:

^^^^^^^^ nut case

Gore said he would not seek office or a supporting role. Your fantasy is over nutking.

Go back to your Repugs. At least then you'll have a reason to "give up" because you are going down and Democrats will occupy the White House in 2008.

BYE!

BTW nut case, thanks for polluting a heartfelt thread with your spew.

When??

Oh, for the love of Gore, REAG2008, get real, PLEASE!
What is this nonsense about molesters, Bill, and Craig - STOP ALREADY!!!!

If the Repugs want to splinter into a 3rd party, fine! They'll just loose worse than they already would have.
But Al Gore is a uniter, not a divider - he'll NEVER go 3rd party!! No matter how many times you say it!! So get a grip on reality!

Just because we don't support your 3rd party delusion, it doesn't mean we're necessarily giving up.
I would personally like to hold on to a shred of hope by thinking, for now at least, since Gore himself has not spoken to the issue, that they are asking us to stop our ballot efforts because he is planning to enter the race. This will negate the need for us to collect signatures and spend more of our time and money in this effort. He knows that saying he's in automatically puts his name on the ballot and that he instantly changes the entire race. Many current candidates will immediately drop out and endorse him; it will change everything.

That is where my hope lies at least. I am 99% sure that Gore would feel the need to address us more directly - and he hasn't done that yet. Having a staff member tell us to stop the ballot efforts is not, IMHO, saying he will NOT run in 2008. Maybe I'm just having a hard time letting this one go, but do we really think that's all we're going to get from him? I don't!! My fingers are crossed that it's because he's getting ready to jump in and doesn't want us to waste our valuable resources on something that will soon be for naught.

That's at least less delusional than the 3rd party dream, so I'll stick with that for now!


Rubber room for one, please! :dripple: :wacko:
And I want a BLUE straight-jacket!
And hangingchad, don't forget to put a Gore pin on for me, please!

algorefan is the one quitting, not me.

He already has put up 4 threads bemoaning the fact

btw-Rape/sexual abuse is no laughing matter with me, just becuase the rapist is a democrat,(Clinton) that doesn't make it a funny situation.(or an elderly person abusing a person young enough to be his granddaughter).

Be my guest folks and vote for Hillary. I sure won't. We don't want a monarchy.

Obama is another story. If Gore backs him, I shall support him(should he win, although he is 50 percent behind Hillary at this point, and no one else is close)...

I never said you were quitting - clearly you don't know how.

Your comments about Clinton are inappropriate.

No one has said they were transferring their vote to Hillary. At best they've said, IF she gets the nomination, they will only to vote against the Repugs. She's not a 'given'; we're still a year out, and it's going to be a loooooong year!

never forget- had Clinton resigned, Gore would now be wrapping up 10 years as President with the greatest peacetime presidency ever
That Clinton didn't ruined the party, and Gore is still not president thanks to that

Your opinions regarding whether Clinton should have resigned or not have absolutely nothing to do with the inappropriate nature of your prior posts.

Well, to add to what Algorefan started out as a heartfelt thread...I'll add my 2 cents

I feel disappointed. It's not to say that I'm giving up yet. I will still hope against hope that Gore will get in himself in the next few weeks, as hopeless as it may seem.

If he doesn't, I too, will be looking for who to support. I will probably support either Kucinich or Dodd in the general election. However, if Hillary gets the nom, it's going to be painful voting for her in November, but I will do it just to hopefully avoiding getting another Republican in office. I only considered the 3rd party option if Gore was a possibililty, but consider that grasping at straws on my part.

However, given the likelihood that Gore is not going to run, that doesn't leave me feeling very optimistic about any real changes in our government or Democracy. Who knows? Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised if Hillary should win and do something great....

Yep, it's going to be a loooong year. :(

I posted my feelings and thoughts in Earthmother's thread entitled "Ending Petition Drives to Put Gore on Ballots".

Bottom line: why is there no crying "clickable smilie" on this forum? I need one today.

Very, very disappointing, but not surprising. I'm voting for Obama.

Why? Far as I can tell, Obama is all flash and no SUBSTANCE. Out of the entire Democratic field, I find him the least impressive.

Obama is about 1000 times more experienced, able and exciting than John Edwards (who was for the war before flipflopping, and who never was a liberal in the first place)...
plus Edwards didn't help Kerry in 2004, didn't win one state in the primaries (but his home, and that was after Kerry already was the winner anyhow)...

So there is no other choice between Hillary and Obama who can actually win

About all Edwards can do is....ahh, ....hmm, what exactly? There was a reason Al Gore didn't want him in 2000

I'm still trying to figure out where this came from.

Thnx for this thread AlGorefan....sorry it was unceremoniously interrupted. It's raining here today on the Big Island of Hawaii...I think that expresses my sentiment entirely.


"Disappointments are to the soul what the thunderstorm is to the air."
-Friedrich von Schiller

Gore said himself he has no intentions many times, his office has requested we stop efforts. He said directly that he would not accept other positions in the administration. What more do people need?

As for the nutking, at least I did something to draft Gore. I made a physical and financial effort, what did you do? Anything? No, don't answer. Your putrid spew calling me a quitter is so ludicrious, hateful and insane that you should be banned from this site. I will never FORCE Al Gore to be president so if that bothers you then take that with you to your repug-loving friends and have a party. Just get the hell away from me as I have asked over and over. :spikey: :bad: :wacko:

What more do people need... for what?
My question was regarding your statement that Gore had
said 'he would not seek office or a supporting role.'
It looked as if he had made a statement yesterday or
today regarding these events.
Also his office (a staffer) requested that we stop the ballot
efforts only. Not the draft. Or anything else. Because the ballot
efforts could cause other problems.

The more info I get about todays events, the more I
believe that this is not the end of the road for a draft effort.

As much as I don't want to give anyone false hope, I think earnAlGore's got it right. We were asked to not put Gore on any ballots. That's all. Of course, since really the only activity we've been involved in for the last month or so is the petition drives to put him on the ballot, that pretty well shut us down. We are out of ideas. We have shown Gore in every way we know how that America wants him to be president. Thousands of volunteers spent this year writing letters, standing on street corners with petitions, attending speeches and book-signing events and being sure everyone there had a Gore 2008 sticker on, blogging, strategizing, giving money for newspaper and TV ads, begging, pleading. We did what we could. Gore gets it. He has heard us. It's not because he doesn't know we want him that he's not running. So, now it's up to Al. Either he'll run or he won't. But we have done our part. The rest is up to him.

He continues to refuse to rule out getting back in politics at some point in the future. When is the future? Roy Neel was quoted a month ago as saying the future was any time after today. What do we take that to mean? Who knows. In today's Financial Times interview, Gore is quoted as saying, "I haven't made a Sherman statement." He follows that by saying he sees no need to do so. I disagree. If he knows he's not running, given the millions of people who see him as their only hope and have made it clear to him that they want him to run, I do believe that there's a need to tell people if he truly knows that he won't be a candidate in 2008. I don't say he owes us much, but I do think he owes us that.

It's irrelevant now, though. As I said, there's really nothing else for us to do. Undoubtedly there will be some groups that will splinter off and continue on, despite what we've been told. I was one of the people who did that in the last election cycle, and it was a big mistake. I won't be doing that again. If we've been asked to stop the ballot drives, we'll stop. And I don't see any other activity that makes sense at this point. We've put in almost a full year of executing every idea we could come up with. We've done our job. It's Al's turn now.

Earthmother,

Sorry to be chatting you up on different lines. I'm new to how this works. I just wanted to make clear that I understand that some of you have been at this for a long time but the election's a long way off ther and there are newbees like me who've only just gotten involved, as well as many others who haven't though Al Gore was an option. I had to actively seek out info on the internet. I didn't see anything out in the public that led me to believe Al Gore was an option. I live in a well educated and progressive community. If I didn't see anything around here, there's got to be more can be done to inform the people.

It's a shame we're being asked not to petition to put Gore on the ballot. It would have been a great way to educate people.

Hmm, it would have been better having Gore give the message, instead of having a member of his office do it. Odd that he would do this, since he just said the following not too long ago in the Rolling Stones interview"

"If I do get back into the political system in the future - well, keep that energy stored up and lets have a go at it then."

"But what politics has become requires a tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I personally find I have in short supply. That's not to say that at some point in the future, I might not see a situation that convinced me it was worthwhile to get involved in politics again."

That interview looked like the closest thing, that I have yet to see, of Gore sounding like a candidate in an interview.

Yes, Thnx for this thread AlGorefan.

EarthMother, you hit that one out of the park. Long ago, it reacehd a point where the effort was so strong and continuous and over so many months without ANY clear directive from Al Gore's mouth that he OWED us his candidacy. Period!! I could not in good conscience, in his position, have allowed our efforts to spawn and then, without even wasting the three sentences from his own mouth, send out some underling to deliver the message, which still is not very clear. I have never been so confused and disoriented in my life by the actions of a public figure. We deserved better. He should have stopped us months ago and told us to spend our time on a project with a return in investment. The whole thing stinks and reeks of gross inconsiderateness. I praise the man when I think he deserves praise. I have never diefied him and thus he is not above my criticism. The whole thing stinks and was handled VERY VERY callously and clumsily and duplicitiously. I am one angry DEM. 2012 is a long way off, but given his handling of 2008 after being so clear and unequivocal in 2004 (2002), I would be hard pressed to support him again. There is a morality and empathy and character threshhold that I am starting to realize is not met. Oh, for the days of John Kerry.

Very disrespectful post jharri.
Doesn't even deserve the 'honor' of a quote.
Will you be leaving us now?

I think we all have earned the right to be a little angry. Sometimes I know I need to vent some steam. Things may become more clear in the near future. We'll see...

I wish John Kerry was running now too :spikey:

maybe it's the one paradox...

In the last couple of weeks, people have talked about a brokered convention, and al swooping in and suprisiing people

Now, how can it be a surprise if his name is on the ballot?
So maybe this is the devil's advocate way of surprise...
telling everyone no, then it becomes a yes

(though I don'[t think so...

That being the case we need those backup plans for next year more than ever
either that, or he was made an offer he could not refuse without having a horseshead show up in his bed courtesy of the McAuliffee foundation for the Clinton's

But jharris-a number of us feel the same. AL GORE is the only person in the world who is perfect for the job, not running is shirking his duty. He was the knight in shining armor riding to the rescue, and he decided not to do it
(Imagine if Paul Revere decided he didn't want to take that Midnight Ride)

No billion dollar foundation can do the same as the President (OR VICE PRESIDENT, who is the real authority anyhow in Bush's administration).
Being an elder statesmen does nothing...how many people run to Walter Mondale for answers? No one...

It's like the ole' Irving Berlin White Christmas song "What do you do with a general, when he stops being a general"
Just insert Al Gore in that song, because 2 or 4 years down the road, he will be just as irrelevant not being in politics...

And sing "What might have been" because forget 2012 or 2016-if Hillary wins, it will tie down both those, then her VP will be 2016 and 2020...and if there is no country democracy left by then, as this world really sucks and is on the edge, then there won't be elections anyhow, and we will be in dictatorship.

(btw-"What might have been" was #1 and sang by a group called Little Texas...
anyone even know what any of their members are doing since 1993? (Nothing).
a lesson to be learned...

earnAlGore,

It's not the end of the draft effort but I think we have to evaluate what we are doing. Al's camp said don't try to put him on ballots. That's pretty plain. The only thing I can tell Al himself hasn't said is stop right now. Earthmother is right, Al knows we are here. Al knows what we want and what we worked so hard for. Maybe I said it wrong but I think I get the message loud and clear. Not right now is what Al is saying. When he says now, I will be there. I am an Al Gore fan for a myriad of reasons. Politics is one of them. I want him to serve as US president and I'll work towards that. Only if he chooses to do that. I try to persuade him but only he knows the right thing. I listened to Singh in the video I posted say "We don't care what he says, we are going to draft him." I'm not entirely on that wagon I guess. I trust Al to do the right thing and he is doing it his way. I do think he will run again for president. Just not right now.

If he does though, I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo there! :D

Then you are saying you hope the democrats lose in 2008, so there is an opening in 2012 or 2016, aren't you
So it is negative campaigning to achieve a future goal

Gee, that is why some people said let Bush have a second term, 4 years is not too long, and well, only another 10,000 dead Americans in the war in 4 years, just a small number.

The time is 2008, not down the road a piece. It won't happen.
People in America don't like it when someone doesn't do now just because later might be easier. Later never comes. We already have had 7 1/2 years of our lives
wasted and ruined by George W. Bush and his family.

(and the wait later logic works more for Jeb Bush anyhow, waiting in the wings for people to tire of President Clinton 2nd. and have Clinton fatigue instead of Jeb fatigue)
Your logic is just that or just hoping HIllary will lose and Rudy will be president(where the first thing he will do is pardon Kerik).

"Here comes the nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut king"



People like me don't vote repug, boy.



Grow up and pay attention.

Then why are you giving up on Gore so quickly, which directly leads to the corronation of Hillary?
Your insults are laughable. But it doesn't hide the truth.

YOU are the one giving up here...

Get on the Al Gore doing things different bandwagon, or elect Hillary.
There is no other choice. Because she will be the nominee, and unlike you, I think she will easily win (any democrat will easily win so you in effect must love Hillary

there is no other explanation for your giving up so easily (as your 4 threads today you started indicate).

btw- John and Yoko would strongly support a great 3rd party independent run for the president.
(of course, you probably think some tourist from Hawaii on his own got rid of John, but that is another issue altogether).

You are putting something in quotes I did not say, and you are not funny(or ever were)

That is illegal, and is right up there with YOUR idol, KKKarl Rove and Terry Goofy Grin McAuliffe- who is NOT a friend of Al Gore

Why are YOU a quitter algorefan? Why do you give up so easily?

Gore/Bloomberg Unity08
The only way to stop Hillary.

Fixed it for you again. :tongue:

I'll keep helping you out as long as you keep violating my request for you to leave me the hell alone, you nutcase.

Ask yourself why you have done nothing for Gore 2008 and have a party with your repugs.

Tootles! :lol:

I didn't see you out protesting in 2000 on the streets of Florida or DC
I looked around, you weren't there

I look now, YOU are quitting.

Gore/Bloomberg08 on the independent line to stop Hillary
(and you will come with your tail between your legs supporting the ticket when it happens, so why fight the inevitable?)
Take it or take Hillary, the choice is yours.

*ears pricking up*

Interesting.

Well, as you point out, there is nothing more that we can do now. It is up to Al Gore. No matter what he decides, I respect and support him, his decision, and his tireless, amazing work to protect our planet. I just hope he knows that, even though most of his supporters, me included, are publically stating support for other candidates now, if he announced his candidacy, we would TURN THE CAR* AROUND, screeching brakes, no regard for traffic around us, in a HEARTBEAT. It's up to him, but I hope he knows, he says the word and we are with him.

* hybrid, of course

Sweetie, I understand your frustration, but please consider this: I don't think Al Gore meant to string anyone along, I think he honestly has been very, very profoundly considering running this entire time and has only very recently concluded that, in his opinion, his talents can best be used in other ways at this time in history. You are entitled to your feelings, but I hope you and everyone will remember that one of the things we respect and admire most about Al Gore is his integrity and dedication to serving the ideals and issues he is passionate about. I strongly believe he is just doing what he feels is the best and right thing for him to do at this time. And he didn't give a clear signal/direction to his supporters because he had not decided. Perhaps he soon will make a "Sherman statement", as people are calling it. Or perhaps he felt, for some reason, it was better to have his staff quietly request that his supporters stop trying to get his name on the ballot, so as not to divert attention from other Democratic candidates with the media coverage of the aforementioned Shermanesque statement. Who knows? I only know--or strongly believe, anyway--that him not coming out earlier and asking people to stop their efforts was because he had not decided yet! It was not meant to be inconsiderate or disrespectful of his supporters. Quite the opposite, he has probably been agonizing over if he should run, apparently not wanting to do so, yet taking his time deciding partially because of all the support he sees out here. Taking his time has been a respectful and considerate act on his part: Respectful and considerate of both the weight and import of the decision at hand, as well as of his many ardent supporters.

I have to agree. Gore owes us nothing. He never came to any of us asking for our support. We went to Gore asking for him to run. He repeatedly stated that he was not a candidate but we decided to interpert that he was willing to consider a run. The fault lies with us for not taking the man at his word.

One thing we have to be very clear about: The communication we received was NOT a Sherman statement. It didn't come from Gore himself, as did the letter the draft organizations received in the last election cycle, when he clearly told us that he would not be a candidate in 2004 and that we should not continue with our activities. The communication we had a few days ago was specifically addressed at specific draft activities (the ballot and write-in drives). Gore did not come to us and say stop because I absolutely know that I won't be running in 2008. Without going into details I'm uncomfortable giving, this communication came to us in direct response to something. It didn't just fall out of the sky, and it didn't come from Gore himself. As such, it should not be interpreted as Gore giving the Sherman statement. He has repeatedly said that he doesn't see a need to do that, but he has also said that he hasn't made one. He has left the door open. Should we continue to hope against hope? That's a personal decision. Could it yet happen? Anything's possible, but we've been given no reason to believe that it might.

There was mention a few posts back about how getting him on the ballot would interfere with any thoughts of him riding in at a brokered convention. That's not accurate. The point of putting him on the ballot was three-fold: 1) to show him how much support he has by virtue of all those people signing the petitions; 2) to show him that the draft movement has its act together and can mobilize people for a successful campaign if he chose to run; and 3) to get enough Gore delegates to the convention so that, in the case of a brokered convention, there would be people to vote for Gore and persuade others to turn to Gore. Our activities in no way spoiled the surprise of a brokered-convention scenario. But it doesn't matter now. Gore's office has asked us to not get his name on ballots, and we will respect that.

And yes, while I'm a bit resentful at not having been told sooner to stop our activities (we have, after all, made his office aware of what we've been doing for quite a while--one-way communications only, just to be clear here), but I'm a Gore supporter because I believe in the man's vision and abilities, and none of that has changed because of what has happened. At any point, if he were to get in the race, I will be there in a heartbeat to support him.

I didn't post here for a while because it would have to have been a blank box, for shocked speechlessness.

I'm still wondering what this all means - the halt to the ballot initiatives, but no Sherman statement. Thank you Karen - and a big, big hug to you for being on the front lines so long, and for being so kind and patient with us, and also for being as specific as you are able to be without betraying confidences. I can't help but try to guess at things. I know that there was a letter that went out from AGO asking him to not stop these ballot initiatives, and it makes sense that this contact was a response to that. But I don't really know.

But the lack of a Sherman statement is, to say the least, tantalizing, and making my heart go pitter-pat just a little. Maybe there's a decision to do nothing, but to potentially be open and move forward with a campaign IF (a big if) there's a brokered convention (i.e., if Hillary falls off her inevitability pedestal, and never gets to 50%). Anyway, that's my hope. Because, while I'm adjusting to being in limbo, I still haven't let go of the dream. I certainly think that Al believes that he's got more to offer than the other candidates, but that getting into another national campaign is like walking your soul through a minefield.

I send my love to everyone. I always had this fantasy that we'd all meet up at the Inaugural. Who knows about that now? But I'm so grateful to have your company on this journey!

No, we never did receive a response to that letter. :wacko: