Al Gore on the debates

The thing I like about Al Gore is his willingness, if not eagerness, to look at himself with a satirist's eye. I attended a conference in Salt Lake City two years ago, just after he had emerged from his self-imposed "walk in the wilderness", and he spoke for about an hour without notes about everything from his newly-shaved beard to his reputation for being wooden. Hilarious and quite a catharsis for someone who had never seen this human side.

The former Vice President makes some very relevant arguments. The one that resonated with me went like this:

from NYT

> The biggest single difference between the debates this year and
> four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises.
> He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time
> Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he
> said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs
> from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of
> new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above
> all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The
> force must be strong enough so that the mission can be
> accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined."
>
> Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's
> enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh.

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