My man Al is giving a speech tomorrow. You can be sure the usual suspects will dismiss it without watching it; be prepared for Krauthammer to offer yet another diagnosis. Al will always be a favorite of mine. He got robbed and he handled it with class - arguably, he shouldn't have, but for a man robbed of a great prize he did it with dignity. He bowed out of the race this year for the greater good -- and he was sadly correct in that decision. Most of the "myths" of the 2000 election are just that. Al came from way behind in early polling against Bush, with impeachment and a lot of bad press pulling him down. He won the popular vote against an unbelievably hostile media. His supporters - us - should still sleep badly at night knowing how badly we supported him (the campaign practically had to go dark in early summer because of lack of donations).
Al's about the most human of politicians I've ever seen. Imperfect as both man and politician, but if he were the perfect politician we wouldn't have a glimpse of the imperfections of Al the man.
I was honored to meet Al (shake hand, say hello) at a recent fundraiser for Hoeffel. He's the best president we never had, and shame on those of us who screwed him over in 2000.
Gore. Cspan. 12:30 tomorrow.
