Al Gore Interview/02138mag/Harvard 100

I prefer to post Mr. Gore's own words. His answers in bold, my emphasis.

http://www.02138mag.com/magazine/article/1485.html

#1 - Al Gore
Man on a Mission
by Bom Kim
September / October 2007, Page 84

02138’s Bom Kim traveled to Los Angeles to ask the former vice president and environmental missionary about the earth’s lostbalance, the current inhabitants of the White House, his respect for Michael Moore, and how it feels to be Harvard’s most influential alum. Oh, and one other thing: Is he running for president or what?

Vice President Gore, we’re arguing that you are, at this moment, more influential than President Bush. Are we nuts?

Well, thank you for feeling that way, but yes.


We’ll have to agree to disagree then. But how influential do you think you’ve been since leaving the White House?

I’ve simply tried to have a positive impact. I actually feel that I have failed to reach my principal objective of moving the U.S. and the world past a tipping point on the climate crisis. It’s important to not confuse progress with success.


Are you having more fun these days?

(Laughs) It’s a tricky question, because the issue that I’m most focused on isn’t one associated with having a lot of fun. But there is joy in expending one’s fullest efforts in a cause that feels worthy and feels like it’s what you’re supposed to be doing. So in that sense, yes.

You were often referred to as the most powerful vice president.

That was before Dick Cheney.


Point taken. Cheney has made the argument that the vice presidency is not part of the executive branch. Is he right?

(Laughs) Of course the vice presidency is part of the executive branch! But I fear that I’m losing my objectivity where President Bush and Cheney are concerned. Not much surprises me anymore. I have a lot of friends who share the following problem with me: Our sense of outrage is so saturated that when a new outrage occurs, we have to download some existing outrage into an external hard drive in order to make room for a new outrage.


A recent poll shows that if you entered the presidential race, you would handily win the New Hampshire primary. Isn’t that tempting?

Sure. But I am old enough and have been a candidate enough times to have a very high level of resistance to temptations of that sort. I trust my instincts, and it doesn’t feel like it’s the right thing for me.


But if you believe global warming is such a crisis, wouldn’t you be more effective within the White House than outside it?

I’m under no illusion that there’s any position in the world as influential as that of president. But it doesn’t feel like the right thing for me to be a candidate at this point. I have had the experience of seeing how necessary it is to have adequate support among the people as a whole for the dramatic policy changes that are needed. It may well be that the best use of whatever skills and talents and experiences that I have gained is to concentrate on creating that sea change in mass opinion about this issue, so that whoever is elected will face a groundswell from the people themselves.


Will you endorse a candidate in the primary?

Odds are that I will.

Who?

I haven’t made that decision yet.


Do you feel some obligation to endorse the wife of your former boss?

Uh … no. I have friendships with her and with the other candidates, and they’re all on equal footing at this point as far as I’m concerned.


Are you advising any candidates?

No.


Talking to any?

Several of them have called from time to time.


Which ones?

I’m not going to violate the privacy of those conversations, but several of them have called regularly. Some have made private visits to Nashville, and I appreciate that.


Among the current crop of candidates, who has the strongest position on global warming?

I don’t think anyone has given it the emphasis that it should have. But Chris Dodd deserves credit for proposing a CO2 tax—I’m convinced that we should eliminate the payroll tax and replace it dollar for dollar with a CO2 tax.

end of excerpt.

Good interview.



Great picture!

Before we finish, Vice President Gore, I have to ask one more time: You’re completely ruling out a run for president?

I have not completely ruled out the possibility of reentering politics as a candidate at some point in the future. I doubt that will ever happen. But just as it doesn’t feel right to be a candidate at this point, it doesn’t feel right to make a so-called Sherman statement.

Peace.

I have faith in him doing what feels right to him, and I think he is doing that now, as evidenced by his own words here.

And I am disappointed that he believes he has not seen the progress he thought he would see at this point regarding the climate crisis. But then, I do think the media has also been an obstacle regarding that as well as certain distractions. I really am also at the point where I think a major climate catastrophe will have to happen before more people in this country start taking it as seriously as it needs to be taken.

However, on a tangent, his advice about marriage is right on... Communication is the key. For me, 23 years and counting and my husband would say the same thing he did about why our marriage is still so good... believe it or not, I make him laugh and we have fun. And we talk, and laugh, and laugh some more, even through our adversity, and that has carried us through all of these years. It truly is what keeps a marriage strong and not to emulate Bush but, it is hard work.

On all else he discussed, I sure hope to see more of a groundswell for change once the ads from the Alliance for Climate Protection come out this month. We not only have to demand it from politicians on all levels, but there are fantastic and innovative inventions out here that can save us energy that we are not even being told about...innovations that corporations could bring to us, and innovations that can also bring economic progress, jobs, and hope. That is what I believe he is looking to see and helping to bring about... that demand for real change not only in the policy, but in how we actually live our lives that precedes those changes coming through a moral awakening.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/09/gore----harvard.html


Gore, Harvard's 'most influential' alum, isn't ready to pick from Dem hopefuls
02138 magazine is out today with its second annual list of "The Harvard 100" -- a subjective ranking of the 100 most influential Harvard alumni.

Last year the alum atop the list was Microsoft's Bill Gates -- who attended Harvard, but never actually graduated with the class of 1977. Still, he got the nod in large part because he's decided to give away many of his billions of dollars. "Private philanthropy on a global scale," 02138 wrote of Gates' charitable work.

Last year's No. 2, President Bush (MBA in 1975) is No. 2 again this year.

The new No. 1: former vice president Al Gore, because his efforts to raise awareness on global warming and climate change have given him a "second act of planetary importance."

In an interview with the magazine, Gore talks again about whether he'll run for president any time soon ("it doesn't feel like the right thing for me to be a candidate at this point") and about whether he will be involved in the presidential race in other ways:

end of excerpt.

Larry Summers and others at Harvard are leading an effort to draft a new Kyoto treaty. If Summers asked you to participate, would you join them?

I have such enormous respect for Larry that I would, of course, be responsive to him. We had an extensive dialogue about the global environment when he joined the Clinton-Gore administration, and I found him to be very responsive. We’ve remained friends and allies all these years. He has, of course, an extraordinary intellect. I’m sure that I’ll have an opportunity to be in dialogue with them because Larry is a good friend.
~~~~~
And I hope that Larry Summers does ask him to not only participate in any new "Kyoto" treaty's draft, but to preside at the negotiations. I cannot see any new treaty regarding this crisis not having Mr. Gore's imput in a big way.

And because my outrage hard drive is fried, Mr. Gore. Great line. :applause: