Gore in Chicago last night

So the Draft Gore movement had some people in the 2,000-person crowd in Chicago last night. ReEnergizer blogged about it in a very nicely detailed post. Thanks, ReEnergizer!

As with almost every pro-Gore post on DailyKOS, the comments are also worth reading. And I mean every letter of them.

Robert Shrum's criticism of Gore

Shrum was the senior strategist for Al's 2000 presidential campaign. He's written a book called No Excuses. The specific criticism:

For instance, Shrum considered Al Gore to be well-suited to the presidency, but he criticizes him for tendencies to exaggerate on the stump and to appear uncomfortable in his own skin. Shrum also believes that Gore also "yielded too often to the temptation" to prove he was the smartest person in the room — which is not appealing to voters.

I think he's over that "uncomfortable in his own skin" issue -- just watch how he holds himself in his movie. As for the need to prove he's the smartest person in the room, why wouldn't you want this in a president? Obvious jokes about Bush notwithstanding, I kind of need my president to be a WHOLE LOT smarter than I am. People at the head of companies and countries need to be the smartest people in their respective rooms. How else can a society move forward, unless it is to have its leaders be smart?

And the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy host is...

You guessed it. Al Gore to present green awards. Seems appropriate... Now to get him some good jokes.

Just want to take this opportunity to examine the main "personal" complaint against him in this 2000 campaign -- that he was stiff. Watch his movie and you'll see a very animated, passionate, even comical man. Those who thought he was stiff weren't paying attention as closely as they should have been, I think.

And, by the way, even if he was (a great argument segue, I know!), what's wrong with a stiff president? So we elect Commander in Chief Goofball instead?! IMHO, if "stiff" is the worst thing you can call a man running for president, he's a guy you'll want in the office. At least he takes the job seriously.