Daily Loaf

The president that should've been.

I am talking, of course, about Al Gore. Loving, caring, and utterly boring, the man who won the popular vote in the latest American presidential election has kept a low profile in the ever-cooling atmosphere of post-9/11 America. Just last week though, when he finally opened his mouth in a public address for the first time in a year or so, the message that boomed out was clear and grave.

The former vice-president spoke at an event organised by MoveOn.org, an organisation devoted to putting the public back in the republic. He raises many good points. He can't resist, though, the temptation of listing - and certainly isn't the first to do so - some of the "false impressions" conveyed by the current US administration in justification of the liberation of Iraq. The war is now over, and, to quote South Park: "It's been six weeks since Saddam Hussein was killed by wild boars, and the world is still glad to be rid of him." And Gore himself admits his message isn't that removing a cruel dictator is wrong. To deceive a nation - and indeed, the world - on this and other accounts, is. To attempt to shut down democratic processes, is.

I won't reiterate all the arguments put forward by Gore here. The George Akerlof interview in the German weekly Der Spiegel - the sassier points of which are referred to in the speech - is definitely worth a read; heavy words from a Nobel laureate. Since national sovereignty is no longer in vogue, it would poetic justice if the rest of the world could come up with some ideas on how to prevent the re-election of the man responsible for a new breed of interventionism.