Al Gore. Actually, don’t call it a comeback – he’s been here all along. But the former Vice President is making headlines as he prepares to roll out a massive $300 million dollar ad campaign urging the nation to act on the climate change issue.
Gore discussed the campaign with CBS News’ Lesley Stahl over the weekend (click here for the story), and, not surprisingly, much of his commentary raised my conservative hackles. I’m sure the sponsors of this blog may think differently, but all of Gore’s usual shtick is on display: sanctimonious pronouncements (“Who are we as human beings? Are we destined to destroy this place that we call home, planet earth? I can’t believe that that’s our destiny.”), ridicule of adversaries (“They’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona.”), and apocalyptic rhetoric (“This is about survival.”).
I have to admit, though, that I’m a little intrigued by the idea, for several reasons. It’s extremely well-funded, the ads are being produced by the same firm that is responsible for the wildly popular GEICO insurance ads, and they’re going to feature some truly fascinating combinations of politicians and celebrities – one ad will feature Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich. Another will have Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson. If there are stranger bedfellows, I’ve yet to hear of them, so the ads may be valuable for entertainment value alone.
The real question, though, is what sorts of solutions will Gore advocate in this campaign? Will he stick to his same old Kyoto-style command-and-control mechanisms he’s championed in the past? Or will he branch out and accept some market-oriented solutions, and the expansion of nuclear power? His history suggests the former, but I’m willing to keep an open mind until I see the ads. Come on, Al: surprise me.
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Climate Change, Hollywood, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
[...] A few weeks ago, I talked about Al Gore’s new “We Campaign” and its multi-million dollar ad campaign featuring such strange pairings as Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson, and Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi. [...]