Above is footage of Al Gore belatedly throwing his weight behind Barack Obama’s campaign. Talk about your profiles in political courage! Then again, maybe the erstwhile veep was worried that he would do to Obama what he did to Howard Dean in 2004. I know you’re not going to watch the whole thing unless you have a surfeit of time on your hands and/or you’re being fitted for a strait-jacket this afternoon, so I’ll give you the one part of the speech I found interesting. Near the end, Gore repeatedly referred to Obama as a “young leader.” This struck me as oddly condescending and strangely passive aggressive. Given that Obama’s biggest hurdle will be convincing the American public that he’s got the gravitas and experience to handle the presidency, verbally emphasizing his youth seems like the kind of thing his enemies should be doing. From the Obama campaign’s perspective, his vigor (or “vigah” as we call it here in Kennedy country) is something that must come across in non-verbal ways. When Bryant Gumbel does a 15 minute report on Obama’s basketball game, most viewers will instantly understand that he’s not exactly the Chris Dodd/Sam Nunn type. What was Gore thinking? “Young leader” doesn’t sound like something a potential president would call himself or something he’d want his purported supporters calling him. It sounds like the kind of praise you’d lavish on a child, e.g. “Jimmy really distinguished himself as a young leader when his Cub Scout troop went camping and encountered that stray kitten.” During his endorsement, Gore made several references to his own electoral misfortunes. Could he possibly still think he’s the rightful ruler of our nation?
