ProgressOhio

Can it be?

As a veteran from a military family and hard working, passionate Democrat, I cannot support Clinton or Edwards for our party's nomination. They failed their supreme test of leadership when they cited with Rove and the Neo-Controlled Reepub party and voted to authorize Boosh- Rummy & Co.'s pre-conceived plan to invade oil rich Iraq.

I have big political love for both Edwards and Clinton, and so, not being the kind of Dem who likes to eliminate options and debate, and being the kind of flawed human who believes generally that is important to extend to all the benefit of the doubt, I feel that their actions, though popular, were devastating, and can not be made into a pitch for asking for the ultimate leadership responsibility by saying in 2007 "I made a mistake" or "knowing what we knew then...". To use someone's words, that is hogwash.

I do not believe for a second that either Edwards or Clinton if elected would be loose with the trigger or as corrupt or incompetent as the current regime, quite the contrary. But they must bear responsibility for their actions and as US Senators they could have, they absolutely should have, rose above the fallacy of short term political gain, tuned out the expert advisors, and exercised their great minds and hearts and stood up to this insane march to madness that was the Rove-Rummy Iraq quest to destruction. Responsibility means ramifications. 100, 000 are dead and America is in trouble in the world, trouble that America’s leaders have caused. Leaders need to feel the ramifications of their failed leadership as great suffering abounds.

When taking time to sort it out, my desires for 08, and in working to envision a Dem who could be successful in a primary and general campaign and a worthy presiding President and Commander-in-Chief, only when reading one of the pieces now printed daily everywhere on Global Warming, I realized the choice was unexpectedly obvious.

Iraq position: check. Military experience and knowledge: check. Intelligent, accomplished, capable, a leader, confident, trustworthy, highly qualified: Check. A self made leader and thee leader on thee topic facing our national and global citizens. An outspoken man vehemently opposed to the Iraq idiocy from the beginning.

Let's face it, we're all thinking it, he couldn't get the (political) job done in 2000, he had his chance. But that "negative" to me in 2008 story is a positive, that is, if the worst thing you can say about Al Gore is that he has not always been the best politician, well then, after riding through the corruption and disaster that all the elected officials, the "successful” politicians: have put us through, then sign me up! America is ready for a leader and if he isn't the smoothest or most aggressive, or dare I say, slick politician in the world, then, I think that's exactly who the majority of American's will gladly entrust with their vote.

Put Al Gore next to Edwards, Hillary or O'Bama and he shines, the gravitas factor cannot be anything less than obvious. His stature of a humble but effective world leader and first rate public servant and citizen I believe gives him an edge that the others become also-rans. When Hillary breaks out the aggressive campaign tactics whooping stick, the backlash would be her own undoing. And as bright as the one term senators are, and they are Democratic beacons, Edwards and O'Bama just are not on the same level of, in a word, respect, as Al Gore and his achievements and record command. He is my hope for '08. We need to quickly get on fire with an effort to rouse this candidate into a mode where he'll not listen to the critics and listen to his heart, and if it is positive, then we've got a winner who can beat any R on the ticket, and most importantly help our collective futures as much as any man or woman could help from the White House. We need Al Gore 2008. Our children need him even more.