Letterman has Gore for the entire show

Gosh I hope he is the next president

mAnn got on leno, y'mean?

I hope there's a torrent of the show tomorrow!!

Is the Letterman show available on iTunes?

How proud we could be of him vs the W.

It's only 9:52 p.m. in Anchorage and it doesn't come on for another 45 or so minutes..

Anyone already see it?

eom

No fluff. Pure politics.

going to extricate ourselves from Iraq, I understand. Anyone have a video link to Gore's appearance yet?

.

I thought I had read that here on DU a few days ago. The post may have been mistaken, but it certainly sounded legit.

on Friday.

obvious caution on exiting from Iraq. Here is a description of what Gore said from someone who was there at the taping on the 20th which was shown last night. I do think Gore would not have voted for the Kerry/Feingold amendment, but would have sided with Hillary and others and voted for the Levin amendment, although neither Kerry or Gore were suggesting pulling out without thinking" as Gore describes it.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/6/20/102043/590

On Iraq

Here, Letterman was barely holding back his contempt for what is going on there, and I totally applaud him for that. The exchange went something like the following:


DL: We have over 2,500 of our soldiers dead. Anywhere between 60,000 - 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Are we knee deep in a mess of our own making?
AG: Yes.

DL: What happened?

AG: There was flawed decision making. Now, there are no good options and we have to find the "least bad option" to get the troops home quickly (this got major applause). Even those of us who opposed the war initially share in the obligation to help think through a process to not make it worse ot to increase the odds of anarchy or civil war.

DL: And now we are asked to be patient with the trouble that we caused.

AG: There are now factions fighting each other, and we are both in the middle of it and a magnet for it. However, there are also areas that could descend into a total bloodbath if we pull out without thinking.

DL: What about the WMD that we were told was there?

AG: Well, we know that Saddam was a bad guy - I supported the first Gulf War, but he had nothing to do with terrorism and nothing to do with 9/11.

DL: Well, prolonging this war is not a road to stability.

AG: I agree, but we can't make the moral mistake of pulling out without thinking and making things worse. We need a fresh team in there, not the ones who got us in there. (he mentioned Rumsfeld here, and got lots of applause)

he could have ended up siding with Kerry-Feingold amendment. Heck - 7 senators changed their minds in a week.

I'm optimistic more will be following soon enough.

sided with Kerry and Feingold, but I wish that everyone in the country would see his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." I do not share Gore's optimism that something will be done in time to avert catastrophe for our planet. I hope I am wrong, because I fear for the world that our children and grandchildren may be headed for with folks like the Bushies in control!

This is ABC News coverage of Al Gore on This Week in Politics with George Stephanopoulos from June 10th. It was before Kerry amended his proposal to set a later deadline, but Gore's comments challenged the wisdom of setting a hard deadline, his concern wasn't over the date chosen:

"Gore, however, disagreed with Sen. John Kerry's, D-Mass., call to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

"I would pursue the twin objectives of trying to withdraw our forces as quickly as we possibly can, while at the same time minimizing the risk that we'll make the mess over there even worse and raise even higher the danger of civil war," Gore said.

Dismissing calls for any deadline, Gore added, "It's possible that setting a deadline could set in motion forces that would make it even worse. I think that we should analyze that very carefully. My guess is that a deadline is probably not the right approach; but again, you have to weigh that question in the context of how the political decisions are made between the Congress and the executive branch. Sometimes the Congress itself has blunt instruments and limited options to play a role in matters like this."
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/story?id=2037158&page=3

It is misleading to lump together all Democrats who don't support setting a hard date for full withdrawal as being "Pro Iraq War", that simply isn't true or fair to many of the Democrats who supported the alternate Levin/Reid Amendment. One of the Democrats who supported the Levin Amendment over Kerry/Feingold is Ned Lamont, who is running against Joe Lieberman in the CT Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate largely because of Lieberman's Pro-War stance.

This was on Lamont's web site the other day:

"I am running for the US Senate because we deserve a Senator who will stand up for Connecticut and stand up for our progressive democratic values. Rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars a day in Iraq, it is time for America to refocus on issues back home: fixing our health care system, upgrading our schools, and rebuilding our aging infrastructure. We will start winning in Iraq as the Iraqis take control of their own destiny, just as America has to start investing again in our own future."

"Ned Lamont statement on the Levin/Reed Amendment

Currently, our troops are stuck in a bloody civil war in Iraq, with no exit strategy. The violence continues unabated and the continued presence of our forces with no sign of a reduction fuels the insurgency and further destabilizes the region. President Bush and his allies believe American troops should stay in Iraq indefinitely – he said that it would be an issue for “future Presidents and future governments of Iraq.”

“I support the Levin-Reed Amendment on U.S. Policy in Iraq, and I urge Senator Lieberman to do the same.

“It represents the minimum needed, but will build a Democratic coalition to establish and stick to a plan to end the war.

“The three main provisions of the Amendment – expediting the
transition of U.S. forces to a limited mission, a phased redeployment of U.S. forces, and requiring the administration to submit to Congress its plan for continued redeployment beyond 2006 – are all critical to
ensuring that the we move forward from our current failed strategy.

“This is an issue that needs to be dealt with by the current President
and the current government of Iraq. ‘Stay the course’ is not a
strategy for any real victory, and it is time that the President and Congress recognize that fact and take the steps needed to ensure true safety and security for the region and for America.”

http://nedlamont.com/

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/story?id=203715...

Dismissing calls for any deadline, Gore added, "It's possible that setting a deadline could set in motion forces that would make it even worse. I think that we should analyze that very carefully. My guess is that a deadline is probably not the right approach; but again, you have to weigh that question in the context of how the political decisions are made between the Congress and the executive branch. Sometimes the Congress itself has blunt instruments and limited options to play a role in matters like this."

(This last part really muddies his answer. What is he trying to say here? That the Democrats and in fact, Congress itself are without any power to do anything anyway in Iraq--other than cut off funding.)

He might have been pro Kerry-Feingold. Until he actually states his opinoin on the matter point blank it's hard to interpret.

"precipitous pullout" even by some on our side--which burned me up!

They've only asked him "should we pull every single soldier out this second", which is something nobody's advocating, not even Kerry or Feingold.

Gore's answer is the same as he's been giving - - that things are so bad in Iraq that we don't have good options about how to get out of Iraq, instead we have to choose the least bad of very bad options. The important thing (according to Gore) is that we need to get our people out as fast as possible - - but we also have a moral obligation to make sure we don't do it in such a way or at a time that makes the situation even worse than it is now - - i.e. that leads to civil or regional war. Gore called again for Smirk to replace Rumsfeld, Rice, and the rest of the folks that "planned" the mess we're in now.

(F.Y.I. earlier on Charlie Rose Gore called the invasion the worst tactical mistake in U.S. history.)

I still think Gore would not have voted for the Kerry Feingold amendment. I would like to think otherwise, but I don't.

Perhaps someone will ask him, and then we'll know.

& Letterman talking about it and although Gore was "cautious" I think I would wait to hear his exact opinion too before I knew what he was thinking.

It is the "worst tacktical mistake in U.S. history" and the bushtapto are out there trying to cover it up with the willing help of the corporate U.S. media.

Or the Dick Cavett show.

Back in the days when all of television, including news, wasn't "infotainment."

Gore was fantastic. I'm glad Dave gave him the show.

... when the format is broader than a 4-minute soundbite between a comedy bit and a musical guest. I know that there are many guests who won't (or can't) carry on a long conversation with a host, and the "quickie" format probably ends up making them look as good as possible ... but there are also people like Al Gore (and Bill Clinton too) who really deserve more time. Kudos to Dave for making that call. (He's flexible and adept enough to do an excellent job as an interviewer, in either the short or long formats.)

I didn't realize it was on and tuned in late. That was a great show, people. Letterman has my respect all over again.

Perhaps it will work for you.

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/dave_tv/ls_dtv_big_show_highlights.shtml

Enjoy it while it lasts. Copyrighted material tends to get pulled quickly from this site:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tf7s0kTlftg&search=al%20gore%20letterman

:hi: :kick:

David Letterman had such good insight on the subject matter, and Al Gore was just great. My husband remarked that "it would sure be nice to have an intelligent president again." Hope he will run.
We both like Al.:thumbsup: :dem: