Bush v. Gore redux

Yes, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. A little unexpected, and possibly controversial, but he will still not run for President -- nor should he, IMHO. And every time he wins an award (Oscar - check! Emmy - check!) it becomes even more painfully obvious that the wrong man is in the White House. I am not the only one who thinks this way, of course, but here's the best description of the situation that I have seen recently -- in today's NYT, Bob Herbert writes,

... for all of the obvious vulnerabilities [GWB] exhibited in 2000, it was not him but Mr. Gore who was mocked unmercifully by the national media. And the mockery had nothing to do with the former vice president’s positions on important policy issues. He was mocked because of his personality.

In the race for the highest office in the land, we showed the collective maturity of 3-year-olds.

Mr. Gore was taken to task for his taste in clothing and for such grievous offenses as sighing or, allegedly, rolling his eyes. It was a given that at a barbecue everyone would rush to be with his opponent.

We’ve paid a heavy price. The president who got such high marks as a barbecue companion doesn’t seem to know up from down. He’s hurled the nation into a ruinous war that has cost countless lives and spawned a whole new generation of terrorists. He continues to sit idly by as a historic American city, New Orleans, remains wounded and on its knees. He’s blithely steered the nation into a bottomless pit of debt.

I always said the country voted for the guy they would most like to have a beer with. (That is, if he drank alcohol. And please, no pretzels!) Given my choice of Dem candidates, I'd choose Obama, but I'm afraid that he doesn't have a chance -- both from a "maybe America's not quite ready" standpoint, and a "watch out for the Hillary juggernaut" angle.

Of course, when I went to the "Select your candidate" site at MPR, it told me my best candidate was Dennis Kucinich. hmmm....