Al Gore is the Winner After All

A comparison of the two men who ran against each other for President of the United States in the year 2000 is very revealing. On the one hand we have George W. Bush who was the ostensible winner of the 2000 election that catapulted him to the awesome responsibility of the Presidency. The outcome of that election has been highly questioned and the victory held suspect. In regards to the current discussion, this reality is of no consequence. There were many indications from his life that suggested that he would be completely ill-suited for the job. He was never really successful at any of his business ventures without the assistance of well-connected and affluent family members and friends. Given that he was elected as Governor of the State of Texas, his unflinching support of corporate interests in his state, his insensitivity to the plight of the less advantaged and his exorbitant support of capital punishment provided a number of insights into his character.

Any suspicions regarding his ability to function effectively as President were unfortunately confirmed once he took office. His first acts as President was to openly and passionately support corporate interests at the expense of the working class and the natural environment. The monumental nature of his incompetence came to light in the face of the two profound catastrophes that struck the nation during his “reign” i.e. the aftermath of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. In both instances he proved incapable of comprehending the real nature of these events. In the first instance, he squandered the nation’s human and economic resources pursuing an illegal and ill-advised war against the erstwhile sovereign state of Iraq: a country that had no connection with the events of September 11. In the second instance, he demonstrated absolutely no comprehension of the state of the emergency that struck New Orleans and the neighboring communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina and acted belatedly and ineffectually to resolve the crisis.

George Bush is a tragic figure, for he attempted to take on a position that he is emotionally and intellectually incapable of handling. His behavior displays an underlying emotional pathology. His ineffectual and disturbingly poor mastery of language betrays his essential intellectual inadequacy for the job.

Compare this man with Al Gore, who probably should have been President. He has demonstrated clearly and without any doubt the magnitude of his intellectual and emotional strengths. He is, in my judgment, profoundly superior to the man who supposedly defeated him. It is my deeply felt hope that the American electorate has learned something from the monumental historic events we find ourselves in the midst of; namely, that emotional and intellectual capabilities should be important and essential measures of a person’s ability to serve in such a capacity.