Friday, October 12, 2007

FLASH: AL GORE
WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Posted by Editor at 12:17:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A POTENTIAL TRUTH

Friday morning could bring big news for Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States who went on to star in the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth and win an Emmy for his interactive television network CurrentTV. According to numerous experts, he and co-nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier are the odds-on favorites to win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Gore and Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian activist, are nominated for their work to promote education and awareness about environmental issues like global warming, and would join the likes of Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Kissinger, Nelson Mandela, George Marshall, Yitzhak Rabin, Theodore Roosevelt, Anwar Sadat, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Woodrow Wilson, and the Dalai Lama as winners of this highest international honor.

Gore won the popular vote—and arguably the electoral vote, as well—for the presidency in 2000, and that was before he became a pop-culture icon. Could a Nobel win provide Gore with the political justification, popular support, and media attention necessary to mount another presidential campaign in time for the 2008 election?

(Odd Nobel-related fact: The co-winner of the 1907 Nobel Peace Prize was named Louis Renault, which is also the name of the character portrayed by Claude Rains in Casablanca.)

Posted by Editor at 00:01:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, February 02, 2007

GORE TO ANNOUNCE '08 PRESIDENTIAL BID IN OSCAR VICTORY SPEECH?

Ever since Al Gore's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth hit theaters this summer and became the hands-down favorite for the Best Documentary Oscar, I've been telling people to wait until his Oscar victory speech before ruling him out as a 2008 presidential candidate. Now, Gore's former campaign manager Donna Brazile is apparently telling people the same thing.

While some say it would be an inappropriate time to make such an announcement, I disagree, and I think it would be tremendously pragmatic of the former Vice President and 2000 Democratic nominee (and popular vote winner):

  • Gore, often labeled a loser, would be celebrating a triumphant moment in front of the entire world
  • The liberal Hollywood audience in the Kodak Theater presumably would be overwhelmingly receptive to and supportive of such an announcement
  • He would never have a better opportunity to reach as large an audience as the hundreds of millions who tune in for the Oscars

This week, we learned Al Gore has also been nominated for and may well win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Next month, he is going to win his Oscar. The question now is whether or not he'll seize the moment... in a lockbox.

(PLEASE NOTE: Since this story first posted, some readers have asked me to clarify whether or not Gore would actually receive the Oscar. The answer is no, he would not. Davis Guggenheim, the film's director, would receive the Oscar, but I'm quite certain he will ask Gore to join him at the podium, as it is widely regarded as Gore's film about Gore's mission.)

Posted by Editor at 15:13:05 | Permanent Link | Comments (5) |