Occasionally I shall comment on the political goings-on in that global superpower located on the North American continent. And when I'm done calling for Stephen Harper's resignation, I'll have a few choice words about the USA as well.It's never too early to start worrying about who the next leader of the free world will be. Assuming there's still a free world to lead by January 20th 2009, my money is on former Vice President Al Gore.
I'm not a big fan of Hillary Clinton. She's a bit too eager to compromise her ideals to get a few more votes. Paying lip service to the far right ain't gonna win you the presidency, senator Clinton; the far right will not vote for you anyway, and you will only have succeeded in alienating your base. True, the same critique could be levelled at Al Gore and his presidential run of 2000. But the new and improved 2006 version of Al Gore is badass.
Clinton has been the presumptive Democratic nominee for quite a while now. It's hard to keep track of all the people who are either considering or have already outright said they're running. John Kerry has apparently been running since about November 5 2004, as has John Edwards. And a bunch of other guys are running as well. None of them stand a chance against the Clinton juggernaut.
Except Al Gore. He could pull of a Nixonesque comeback.
Then Vice President Richard Nixon, narrowly defeated by John F Kennedy in 1960 and then spending years in the political wilderness only to return and win the presidency in 1968 in the midst of an unpopular war. 40 years later, history may repeat itself. Although, Al, a word of advice: If you hear anything about a break-in at the Watergate, don't get involved.
Al Gore's new documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, is generating a lot of buzz. I submit that we need a guy in the White House who cares about environmental issues. The current tenant clearly does not. Gore not only cares about the environment, he made a friggin' movie about it! Now that's commitment.
While Gore claims not to be interested in running, he has yet to unequivocally take himself out of the running.
How's this for a ticket: Al Gore and Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold. Heck, I'd move to the US and apply for citizenship just to be able to vote for that ticket.
Keen-eyed readers will probably realize that I'm not American, and may wonder why I would care at all. To which I say, why shouldn't I care? This is the leader of the free world we're talking about, after all. We would be living in a remarkably different world today if Gore had won in 2000 instead of that other guy, wouldn't you say?
Not to mention, American politics is infinitely more interesting than Finnish politics.
Keen-eyed readers will probably also notice I haven't mentioned any potential Republican candidates in this entry. Too which I say, don't make me laugh. George Allen? Bill Frist? No. Just no.
And John McCain? Doing the same triangulating BS as Clinton.
Finally, as we all well know, Al is also the inventor of the Internets (yes, both of them), and for that he shall have my eternal allegiance.
Unless he decides to invade Finland, in which case I will be slightly upset.
