Reports Out Gore Has Won Nobel Peace Prize-Should He Run?

AlterNet has an article out raising the idea that since Gore apparently has won the Nobel Peace Prize, he should now consider running for President. What is interesting about the story is that writer references the derision that Gore suffered when he first criticized the Iraq War in 2003 and the way the Washington press corps wanted Bush, not Gore, to be president in 2000.

The reason why that is interesting is that it is one of the few articles on this subject that point out how shabbily Gore was treated by the so-called "media elites" in both the 2000 election and the early stages of the Iraq War. Most articles make a passing reference to the problems that Gore had with the media and then act as if those problems have gone away. We are not so sure about that.

Most writers urging Gore to run in 2008 assume that the Washington media establishment now realizes (1) how much of a disaster Bush has been and (2) how much better off America would have been in Gore had been elected in 2000. What such writers overlook, though, is that while Bush has negatively impacted America, he has positively impacted the after-tax income of owners of newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. He did that with his breathtakingly reckless tax cuts. Combine that fact with the fact that as a group Washington media insiders are arrogant, out of touch elitists and we are not so sure that Gore wouldn't face the same problems with the media in 2000 that he had in 2008.

Of course, this is one reason why we wish he would run in 2008. He is probably the only person who could tell the Washington media to go to hell and still have a chance at winning the presidency. Getting back into the pit of politics, though, after you have been out for eight years is a lot easier for those who won't have to crawl through the slime. If Gore doesn't make that choice, all of us who voted for him in 2000 should understand why.