Final Protective Fire

Monday, September 23, 2002

 

Al Gore wheezed his way to a podium and delivered this speech. While some are slamming it for its attacks on President Bush, I find the speech disgusting not for those attacks but for its weaseling. Read it yourself, if you have the stomach for it, it was tough for me to get through it. But when I did, I found that once again Al Gore has demonstrated two things. The first is that he can deliver the most shallow speeches of any politician per word - his reputation for being an intellectual is one of the biggest PR coups in history. The second is that Al Gore is a coward. In his speech, he makes sure that each time he even begins to clearly articulate a policy position, he hedges his way out of it. As an example, read this:

But Congress should also urge the President to make every effort to obtain a fresh demand from the Security Council for prompt, unconditional compliance by Iraq within a definite period of time. If the Council will not provide such language, then other choices remain open, but in any event the President should be urged to take the time to assemble the broadest possible international support for his course of action. Anticipating that the President will still move toward unilateral action, the Congress should establish now what the administration’s thinking is regarding the aftermath of a US attack for the purpose of regime change.

After calling for the Bush administration to try to get a UN resolution, Gore then implies the acceptance of unilateral action. Al Gore straddles so many fences in this speech that I'm sure he's got a mess of splinters in tender regions.
Thanks to Susanna Corbett (her fine comments are here) for the link.
UPDATE: Donald Sensing flays the flesh from Al Gore bones.
Charles Johnson has links to bloggers who have found earlier speeches by Al Gore that seem to conflict with his recent comments.
UPDATE: In that speech, Al Gore claims that he felt "betrayed" that George H. Bush ended the first Gulf War too soon. But that wasn't his position at the time, January of 1991, Al Gore stated: "We are not seeking the surrender of Iraq. That has been made clear. No one in a position of responsibility is talking about the conquest of Iraq." And: "Let me be clear then about what we want. The removal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait is enough to warrant a suspension of combat operations."
Being Al Gore means never remembering what you've said before.

Michael Kelly does another great flaying of Al Gore. My favorite part:
"Gore's speech was one no minimally decent politician could have delivered. It was entirely dishonest, cheap, low. It was utterly hollow. It was bereft of policy, of solutions, of constructive ideas, very nearly of facts--bereft of anything other than taunts and jibes and embarrassingly obvious lies. It was breathtakingly hypocritical, a naked political assault delivered in smarmy tones of moral condescension from a man pretending to be superior to mere politics. It was wretched. It was vile. It was contemptible. But I understate. "

Henry Hanks has more - showing Al Gore to again be a contemptible liar with his nonsense of feeling "betrayed" by the end of the first Gulf War short of regime change. Al Gore is the perfect role model Democrat, no lie is too brazen.

Robin 11:03 PM