Al Gore and the New Game in Town

I've been really inspired by reading Gore's Assault on Reason.

The thing I most take from it is that Al sees reality. He understands the depths of depravity that characterize the administration; he knows about the media takeover; he knows, in short, just who the enemy is and how they operate, and he has given deep thought to beating the one-way (dis)information flow that passes for public discourse in this nation. I believe he could lead us out of this mess if anyone can. And that begins with taking power.

I trust him to run a winning campaign where I think any of the others stands at great risk of failing to comprehend the nature and pervasiveness of the power structure which they face. Hell, I'm not sure Kerry gets it yet, even after he watched himself getting run through the meat grinder of the Corporate State. His deepest analysis of 2004 seems to be that he didn't respond adequately to the Swiftboat attacks. In fact, I don't think it would have mattered much. Whatever he did, the press would have kept re-running the attack ads and given virtually no air time to his response, whatever it might have been.

The first rule of the new political game is that Democrats can't win if they depend on the mass media as their playing field. They have to get the game into new territory, onto a new field--and the obvious new territory is the Internet.

In the old territory, i.e. the mass media, the bias is automatically toward the Republicans, simply because the people who own the field favor them. The Republicans will get free favorable coverage no matter what, while the Dems have to pay big money for what little coverage they can get. Half the time, progressives can't even get the media to accept their issue ads for pay. Think of the Swift Boat ads, replayed hundreds of times for free under the guise of "news coverage." Think of the million replays of the entirely bogus Dean Scream.

The internet, on the other hand, is a very different game. Silicon Valley may be a hotbed of libertarian geeks, but most users seem to be rational, reasonably well-socialized, and highly educated--i.e., predominantly liberal, so the general tenor of net conversation is liberal, no matter what some of the major portals (e.g. AOL) try to do. The Republicans and friends have to basically pay big money to push their message out, hiring paid trolls and whatnot to "catapult the propaganda," because the interactive internet medium is naturally hostile to their brand of nonsense. Sure, Drudge is out there, but more people read Kos and find his site a lot more exciting and interesting. I bet also, if you did a content analysis of YouTube, just scoring each politically-flavored clip, you would find more liberal-friendly than conservative creative content (come to think of it, "conservative creative content" is an oxymoron). And so on.

The future of political discussion is the Internet, and that future is ours for the taking, provided we can hang on to net neutrality and openness of discourse. Information always wins over ignorance, freedom over suppression. And never forget--Al Gore invented the Internet!!

Gore certainly has the MCM figured out. His new book is a gem of ideas and solutions. I think he knows that he can harness the netroots - many of us are willing to do what we can gratis in that regard.

Kerry, in my opinion and many others, DID win the election in 2004. The fix was unfortunately 'in' thanks to Rove & Co. His campaign certainly wasn't perfect but it was significantly better than * (or old Whistle Ass).

Would be interested to see an analysis of You Tube. I would think that too but I am just a bit biased as to what I view there.

wanted him, and a fair count of both FL & OH would have awarded him the electoral votes from those states, taking him well over the top. But I don't detect his presence in the White House, so in the ultimate sense, he lost. My point is that Gore is very clear-eyed about how the game is rigged, and he knows what needs to be overcome in order to win in actuality and take the reins of power. No other kind of "victory" matters. If Gore runs, it will be because he thinks he has figured out how to beat the crooked game. Otherwise he'd be totally crazy to take it on.

Gore has spent his time 'away' from the fracas in DC well. He has analyzed what they are doing and I bet has a plan on how to beat them at their own game. I think he has already initiated the playing of that game. Or so I hope. He is keeping his cards pretty close to his chest. Whatever that means, I hope it translates to a run in 08.

"If Gore runs, it will be because he thinks he has figured out how to beat the crooked game. Otherwise he'd be totally crazy to take it on."

I'm taking it with me camping ..

that Democrats can't win if they depend on the mass media as their playing field."



I just wanted to repeat that great sentence. Thanks.

Even now, I don't think that enough DUers grasp this point -- like Kerry they still pine for a fair shake. Others are waiting for the next JFK or Slick Willie to charm the idiot box.

Gore is on the dime here. And so is the OP.

with all the beauty contest my-candidate said something smarter than your candidate crap in the media and, sadly, here in DU.

There is an expression that armies are always ready to fight the last war, but not the next one. I see a lot of dems planning to fight the last war - or the one before that, oblivious to the fact that THE MACHINE knows what is happening, knows what the 2006 results were, and is not going to come stumbling back like a bloodied fighter in round ten. It is going to try to be three steps ahead of anything the dems do. And it probably will be. So the winning strategy is, to draw on a Monty Python expression, "something completely different." Rove has to be left saying "what the hell just happened?"

And the non-candidacies of Gore and Clark certainly make possible a rabbit or two being pulled from hats at unexpected times, in unexpected ways.

Al Gore is rewriting how to run a campaign for POTUS - and hopefully for many other offices as well. He is campaigning by 1st Not Campaigning and not "signing up" with the DNC/DLC, he is running his own way - a way that is reaching out and converting millions by speaking ISSUES and TRUTHS w/o having to be "beholden" to anyone.

So many are waiting for this guy to jump in that it astounds me that this isn't obvious to everyone here. We are lucky enough to be sitting in the front seat and watching history in the making, a revolution of sorts has started and we will be blessed if "like a perfect" storm, it all comes together....and I believe that it will.

only one who can win back all of us disaffected Dems. If SCOTUS hadn't stolen the election for W, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Gore would have done a far better job. He was raised to be president. In the Bush family, Jeb was raised to be president. 'Nuff said.

"The Assault on Reason" is a most trans formative, enlightening and empowering book. If you only read one book a year, I would highly recommend this one. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


That's four thumbsup and I only have two.

then I totally expect Gore2012, when the Internets are REALLY up and smoking...

:mad:

The internets are the only thing that have kept me sane the last 6 years (cause that is where I found DU). :D

for even Conservatives to willfully screw it up.

IMHO

but there are also motives, both political and financial, for wanting to control it.

No one understands and can play "the new game in town" like Al Gore. At every television appearance for the book he has repeated that "expensive 30 second sound bites" are crucial to winning elected office. He speaks of the internet as the uniting force behind what he calls in Chapter 9- "A Well Connected Citizenry".

Well, we need to convince him that indeed "We The People" are willing to play a big part in this new game. Yet we need leadership. His is a voice of leadership when, at the end of his book, he calls for us "to examine our role as citizens in allowing and not preventing the dangerous imbalance that has emerged with the efforts by Executive Branch to dominate our constitutional system and reverse the shocking decay and degradation of Our Democracy.... It is my greatest hope that those who read this book will choose to become part of a new movement to re-kindle the true spirit of America... The question before us could be of no greater moment-'Will we continue to live as a people under The Rule Of Law as embodied in our Constitution, or will we fail future generations by leaving them a constitution far diminished from the Charter of Liberty we have inherited from our fore bearers?' Our choice is clear."

The choice could not be clearer.

Gore has been using disintermediation for some time now. He cut out the political media altogether and has been focusing his efforts in areas that reach the people who don't normally pay attention to politics. He has gotten his message about global climate change out because he refused to play the usual media games. He stayed away from the political media which would have focused on Gore the man and not the message. Instead he did a media blitz in everything but the political pages.

Gore knows the first rule of getting a message out is repetition. That's why he was so adamant on focusing only on global climate change when he did interviews for AIT. Gore was featured in everything from the entertainment section of the newspapers to Oprah. To paraphrase the "Men In Black" tag line: People got to know Gore all over again for the first time. The public got to know him through the eyes of people who were sympathetic to his cause and were willing to listen to what he said. As the public got reacquainted with the real Gore they began to think for themselves and a lot of them thought, "what if this guy had been in the WH all these years?"

But, even in the early interviews there was the subtle repetition from the reporters of a possible Gore candidacy in 2008. Remember, these were often non-political media interviews and it got people thinking. He brushes the idea aside - but has never ruled it out - and the idea was out there and being repeated. Every interview he did had the reporter asking "the question" of him. And the repetition continued when the interviewer quoted (and in the case of television played the video of Gore saying), "Hi. I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States." If Gore had wanted the '08 talk to stop he would have issued a Sherman statement but to date he hasn't.

In short, Gore bypassed the political media and has reached out to people in ways that the declared candidates can't begin to replicate. By staying out of the race Gore has increased the talk of him getting into it. It is absolutely brilliant. It's like a judo on the press. And all the while, the political media is sitting on the sidelines waiting to Gore to jump in as soon as possible so they can begin their hatchet job on him. By not playing the "get in the race now" game that the political media is doing Gore increases his base with each passing day and will make it more difficult for the political smears to have any effect. He's stopping the swiftboating by the beginning the conversation on important issues now. By the time he would declare the lies of the political media will be largely short-circuited.

At least that's how I see it.

It helped me understand what was in front of my eyes this whole time. And it is helping me connect the dots (some of which I didn't even know existed) and pushing me to look at the world from a different perspective. He did it with AIT and he does again in TOAR. Don't forget that two of the subtle messages in AIT are: 1) our government, corporations and the media have lied to the American public and 2) our government, corporations and the media can be undermined when individuals start making a difference in their own lives and that of the community. Gore told people to become proactive and the people have responded by becoming more aware and incorporating changes within the culture. Our whole vocabulary has changed in the past year because of AIT and the American people have become more critical at what they are being told. Some of them are even beginning to pay attention to who is talking and who pays the talking heads.

Gore has helped redefine what a moral issue is. He's taken it away from the Republicans and refocused the idea of morals with something that really does matter. The RW moral issues have been defused. The RW is having a tougher time rallying the public with their faux test cases and their insane predictions of the downfall of the American society after the American public has been reminded of what's really at stake.

His calm voice of reason in the sea of madness we're subjected 24/7 to is like air to the drowning.
But I didn't get how brilliant his moves were until it was pointed out. Humbling, I must say.
:applause:

Gore is re-inventing the political campaign.

and that campaigns no longer focus on what's important. He's reminding us that it is our government and we better start acting like it. It is We, the People not we the powerful. This pResident has pushed the idea that citizenship means being complacent. Gore's idea is that citizenship is more akin to the old feminist saying, "the personal is the political" and then doing something about it. Or as he says, "the will to act."

The man simply amazes me. He's brilliant.

:applause: Excellent analysis!

Gore has helped me see things in whole new ways that I've never contemplated before. He connected a lot of dots for me. Oh man. This guy is brilliant.

If he runs, he will win!

and so would America and the rest of the world.

for public office. He will not fall into the "mainstream" trappings of the big political machines and the news media lap dogs that follow it. He is actually revolutionizing a process as we speak, and I feel, too many people aren't seeing it happening right before their eyes.

I have felt for a long time that Gore would jump in, but on his own terms and further into the race. These candidates now are going to fizz out or cancel each other out, the public is going to be fatigued of the whole TRADITIONAL boring race, then Gore will enter and SUCK the air out of the room, all of the attention will go to him and with a magnificently planned campaign and a time in history unlike any other, we will witness the first "Perfect Candidate" and maybe the rebirth of our political system.

It's definitely a populist campaign. While the announced candidates are making the usual stops at the usual locations and giving the usual speech. Gore is able to go wherever he wants, whenever he wants and can talk about whatever he wants to talk about whether it is global climate change or the deconstruction that our democracy is undergoing. No matter where he goes, Gore leaves people wanting more.


I know this is silly but I keep thinking of two movies when I think of Gore: "V for Vendetta" (going to the people and giving them perspective and asking them to think for themselves) and "The Natural" (because I think Gore is the right man at the right time).

I thought I understood until I saw the italics.

The global warming issue went too far too fast. It's a fad on the decline.

He didn't play his cards right. Too bad, but you can't mount a presidential campaign on global warming.

Too much work for him now anyway. Let him rest on his laurels and do a little muckraking from the sidelines - I mean his mansion.

Gore is history.

"He understands the depths of depravity that characterize the administration;"

Have to agree with you on this one. Big time.

But how well did he recognize the depravity of the Clintons?

He is simply brilliant and the best thing that could happen to this country and the world.

Agony, waiting!

for each disk as they are not titled to fall into order. It goes: track 1, 2 etc..

I'm an Edwards supporter but Al Gore is the one candidate who would make me rethink...

Doug D.

Kerry's analysis of 2004 for some time now. I think that is why Kerry always doubles his current efforts by going directly to the internet to discuss his legislative efforts.

When the media attacks are going on it's hard to assess because you are so close and sending your counters and you don't see till later that the press refused to give your side or improperly gave greater airtime to the lies while ignoring the irrefutable facts that you supplied them. And the Dem party SPOKESPEOPLE were appallingly inadequate - so schooled in defending Clinton for so many years they knew little to nothing about any other Democrat enough to speak up for them.

Gore assessed what happened to him afterwards and then watched it happen again to Kerry with a press even MORE in the tank for BushInc post 9-11.

No surprise to me that Gore writes about it in his book.

No surprise to me that Kerry is championing the Net Neutrality issue.

That's why they call him The Goracle.

This point is explained in Chapter 1 of "The Assault on Reason".

Democrats should appear on network and cable TV and use every opportunity to get their point across. When the corporate media distorts the truth, Democrats should insist on getting it corrected.

If we just leave TV to the GOP, we would be handing them a major advantage.

TV still has some journalists who still tell the truth - like Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart.

But of course the internet plays an important and increasing role (at least - for the "informed minority" who have internet access and the time to make the most of it).


Let's all find ways to show our support for Al Gore! :patriot:

Visit Al's site www.algore.com and read his blog http://blog.algore.com

Get ready for Live Earth on 7/7/07: www.liveearth.org

Sign the petitions at www.algore.org and www.draftgore.com

:kick: