Soccer Dad

Still giggling over gore

On February 25, 1988 George Will wrote in "Aren't Democrats fun when they fight? And aren't Republicans clever when the duck?"

Al Gore is the other Democrat whose day, if he is to have one, is supposed to be Super Tuesday. But even Democrats who have a crush on him, and who are not economical of encomia, show when they give vent to their emotions how dyspeptic Democrats are feeling.

In an editorial that is impossible to read without giggling, The New Republic, a Democratic magazine, has thrown its weight behind Gore. His ''spontaneous speech is both vivid and allusive.'' With some of his vivid allusiveness he makes ''the sciences of the next century his special concern.'' Timed to tip the Super Tuesday balance, the magazine's Dixie readership is offered an arresting vision: Gore understands not only the threat to the ozone layer but also the fact ''that technologies likefiber optics are the key to . . .''

Actually, the real case for Gore is less lyrical but more concise: he alone among Democratic candidates is not a foreign-policy naif. That's it. No need to drag in fiber optics.

Well despite the push of the New Republic, Al Gore didn't win the presidential nomination in 1988. The reason that TNR pushed for Gore, is because its editor in chief and owner, Martin Peretz, was Gore's teacher and friend.

Nearly 20 years later Peretz is devoted as ever to Al Gore. The problem is that reading his views of Al Gore is still an occasion for giggling. Peretz wrote yesterday

When Al was young I never contemplated him getting the Nobel, which he rightly deserves. But I did contemplate him winning the presidency. I've been supporting him for president ever since he ran for the Democratic nomination in 1988 and the fools gave it to Mike Dukakis.
...
Of course, Al won the election in 2000. But it was stolen from him -- and
us -- by the Supremes, a scandal that will mar and mark our history forever.

I often like what Martin Peretz writes about foreign policy. I don't agree with him much on domestic issues. However his devotion to Al Gore - while touching - sometimes is ridiculous. We can't know if things would have been different if Al Gore had been elected. But isn't it past time to stop claiming that the election was stolen from him?

al gore.