Who’s Their Daddy?
July 19th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
To say that former VP Al Gore stole the show from Speaker Nancy Pelosi at this morning’s Netroots Nation convocation would be a lonely understatement in a weekend of hyperbole. Pelosi, despite her bona fides as the first female Speaker of the House and a lot of talk about progressive alliance-making, has failed to deliver on the promise of the Democratic class of 2006. We’re still at war. Karl Rove remains a free man. Etc. None of this may be precisely Pelosi’s fault, and Lord knows she did her best to deflect the blame, but both the tone and content of this morning’s questioning and the pink-clad protesters shouting for Pelosi to “use your power” to bring the troops home made clear that Madame Speaker still engenders significant disappointment, if not outright distrust, among the blogging classes.
Not so Al Gore, who received a rock star’s welcome, and looked the part in a blue blazer over a tie-less black shirt. There would arguably be no Netroots Nation without Gore (as Pelosi pandered), and the assembled lapped that kudo up, though Gore deflected the praise with an obligatory crack about thinking it unwise to claim any credit.
Gore preferred to spend his time in the limelight promoting his call for a 100%-renewable American electrity portfolio in 10 years, and plugging the non-partisan wecansolveit.org as an avenue for change.
Gore’s pitch was inspiring and universal, no way around it, and that made for a sometimes awkward juxtaposition with the Pelosi agenda. For every non-partisan appeal of Gore’s, there was Pelosi to insist that no change is possible without a Democrat in the White House and healthy Democratic margins in Congress. But when a questioner asked Pelosi whether her Congress would accept Gore’s 100%-in-10-years challenge, her long-way-around answer couldn’t quite conceal the fact that she never did say yes.
And that was as good a marker as any of the difference between these two “leaders,” as several questioners addressed them. It was a difference hammered home most interestingly when someone asked Gore the inevitable question about whether he would consider a post in an Obama administration to help further the climate-change agenda.
Without quite ruling that possibility out, Gore made it clear that he feels he’s more useful as a driver of public opinion, influencing the debate by getting the word out, and helping to build a climate of support within which politicians can feel both safe and compelled to create policy.
One can hardly blame him. Gore no longer has to tighten the nuts and bolts of actual lawmaking that so hinder Pelosi. Where she has to take the heat for the complex machinations of Congress, attempting in good grace to face down the disgruntlement of faceless bloggers with out-sized egos and a growing electoral influence to match, Gore can swoop in, engage the room’s inchoate idealism, and go home.
It’s a good gig. And it was a good idea to structure this morning’s Q&A that way, using Gore’s popularity as Pelosi’s escape hatch. And the roomful of bloggers — who do so love to equate commentary with the heavy lifting of actual governance — loved every minute of it.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:36 pm
And the roomful of bloggers — who do so love to equate commentary with the heavy lifting of actual governance —
I’m wondering if the irony of that statement escaped you, or if you were going for a post-post-post meta sort of vibe?