The Outermost Boundary of Arrogance

Eight years ago, Al Gore won the Democratic presidential nomination, fought gamely against George Bush in a rough general campaign and finally lost the presidency thanks to some some shady dealings in Florida. In the process, Gore was labeled too boring, too soft and so lacking in charisma that he couldn't even win his home state.

He became a loser, and people forgot about him for the most part.

Fast forward a few years and 4,000 deaths in Iraq, and Al Gore is suddenly everybody's favorite almost-president. He's an expert on global warming, a fairly funny nerd and compared to the loser who actually won the presidency in 2000,
Gore looks like a butt-naked Beyonce on Valentines Day.

He looks pretty damn good.

Don't believe me about Gore's reversal of fortune? Well let me prove to you just how far that old Tennessee boy has come. When he lost in 2000, Gore was ridiculed by the press as the only man in America who could have squandered the amazing popularity of William Jefferson Clinton and lost to a former crackhead. Now, without campaigning in a single state or garnering a single primary vote, Gore is being floated by at least one pundit as the solution to the Democratic party's current nomination dilemna.

That is really amazing.

I mean, eight years ago this cat was a pariah. Actually, even in 2004 the name Al Gore was still a synonym for bumbling buffoon. Now, Joe Klein is writing in a national news magazine that Gore should really be considered for the Democratic nomination.

That's such an arrogant proposal that Dick Cheney is genuflecting at this guy's feet and chanting, "That's a bad motherfucker right there."

It takes boulder nuts to propose that Al Gore should leapfrog two candidates who have raised more money than he ever raised, inspired more people to vote than he ever inspired, and, here's the shocker, have actually run primary campaigns. To then take things one step further and posit that Obama should sign up as Gore's vice president, well I'm damn near flabbergasted.

The writer details the shortcomings of both Obama's and Clinton's campaigns, but seems unable or unwilling to consider the huge problems with a potential Gore run. Klein correctly points out that black people would feel cheated if Clinton was named the nominee without besting Obama in a single category, and would probably sit out the general election. He also notes that Obama could still face a huge backlash among white voters because of the media-fabricated Rev. Jeremiah Wright fiasco.

Yet, in his rush to anoint Gore as the party's Savior, Klein doesn't bother to explain why black people would go along with a plan that forces Obama to play second fiddle to some white dude who jumped in the race at the last minute and won even fewer states than Hillary. Nor does he explain why white middle class Democrats would suddenly be enamored with the same cat they despised eight years ago and who is pretty much a John Kerry clone.

Klein coyly attempts to downplay his suggestion and evens jokes that it's a kooky idea during the "silly season" of politics, but the very fact that he wrote this column for Time Magazine suggests that he's taking this proposal very seriously. Klein clearly thinks this is a viable and logical solution, and he implies that when he floated some trial balloons about it to Democratic party bigwigs they liked the idea, but lacked the chitlins to pursue it.

I must say, this is one of the few times when I have truly been shocked at the arrogance of a white person. It doesn't happen often, in fact I was only mildly surprised when Hillary made her own pitch to name Obama vice-president. But, when you pull some innocent political bystander off the street and prop him up as the perfect presidential nominee, well you've entered a whole new realm of arrogance.

You're now Rick James arrogant--slapping the darkness brothas at parties, dancing on coaches in platform and telling groupies their breasts are subpar(Four thumbs down, bitches!).

Arrogance is a helluva drug.