Frank Rich: Gore 'right man in right place at right time'

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday May 27, 2006

Al Gore is the "right man in the right place at the right time" thanks to "a perfect storm of events," writes Frank Rich in his latest column slated for Sunday's New York Times, RAW STORY has found.

Although Gore "may not be able to pull off the Nixon-style comeback of some bloggers' fantasies," Rich believes that the former Vice President is capable of "patriotically goading the national debate onto higher ground."

Rich compares and contrasts the recent coverage of Gore - citing the mainstream media and blogs such as Huffington Post and Daily Kos - with that of the Democratic "party's presumptive (if unannounced) presidential front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton."

"Last week both New York magazine and The New Yorker ran lead articles quoting party insiders who described a Clinton candidacy in 2008 as a pox tantamount to avian flu," Rich writes. "The New York Times jumped in with a front-page remembrance of headlines past: a dissection of the Clinton marriage."

"If Hillary Clinton is the Antichrist, might not it be time for a resurrected messiah to inherit (and save) the earth?" asks Frank. "Enter Gore, celebrated by New York magazine on its cover as 'The Un-Hillary.'"

Rich calls "Gore's non-denial denials" whenever asked if he has "plans" to run for president again "Clintonesque."

"If 'An Inconvenient Truth' isn't actually a test drive for a presidential run, it's the biggest tease since Colin Powell encouraged speculation about his political aspirations during his 1995 book tour," writes Rich.

The former drama critic for the Times also takes a critical look at Gore's critically lauded documentary on global warming in his column.

"Though many of the rave reviews don't mention it, there are also considerable chunks of 'An Inconvenient Truth' that are more about hawking Gore's image than his cause," Rich writes. "They also bring back unflattering memories of him as a politician."

"The movie contains no other voices that might upstage him, not even those of scientists supporting his argument," writes Rich. "It is instead larded with sycophantic audiences, as meticulously multicultural as any Benetton ad, who dote on every word and laugh at every joke, like the studio audience at "Live With Regis and Kelly."

TIMES SELECT SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ FULL RICH COLUMN AT THIS LINK