Al Gore as a green go-fer in an Obama administration?

We've had all kinds of fun all year writing about Al Gore's nonexistent drive for the Democratic presidential nomination and his extinct desire to inhabit the White House and hang new chad on the windows.

He's been a real good sport and hasn't complained once.

But with today's stunning news out of Chicago, we wonder about that extinct part. Barack Obama's transition people have confirmed that after his workout tomorrow, the president-elect will meet with Gore in Chicago. And someone named Joe Biden will attend too.

Is this one last attempt by Gore to convince Obama to step aside and simply cede the White House to the former vice president, who still thinks he really should have won back in 2000?

Gore's said he's done with elective office. But if he could simply talk Obama out of the job, technically there'd be no election. Just a granting. And Gore could become the first....

...white Tennessean to occupy the White House since the last one?

Recently, Gore's been down in Georgia with his ex-boss ex-President Clinton helping to reunite the Republican Party and reelect GOP incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Gore's already got the Nobel and Oscar prizes and virtually every other possible prize except a couple from Cracker Jack boxes. He's been making a ton of money with his enviro speeches and slideshows, for which he has an unusual set of contractual requirements. Plus, he already knows the White House layout. So is this one last Gore bid to be commander in chief on the cheap?

Probably not.

All right, certainly not. It might strike some as chuckle-worthy that Gore is traveling to the frigid Windy City to talk about global warming.

But Obama's people say the meeting topic will be how to save the environment while creating tons of new green jobs with the gazillion dollars we're soon going to be spending to head off the recession that arrived last week.

Not announced, but almost certainly on the agenda, is drawing Gore into some kind of administration job, even if it's just a perfunctory position.

Pretty please, because the Democratic left is really starting to grumble over all this sensible centrist stuff emanating from the new team. And Gore could be pointed to. Which, of course, he knows.

Last week Gore's spokeswoman (like Oprah here today) said he has absolutely no interest in an administration job.

But unlike chief speechwriter Jon Favreau, she can be thrown under the bus.

The diligent Bonny Kapp over at Fox News uncovered an Obama quote from a Pennsylvania primary town-hall meeting last April.

The voter asked Obama if he'd consider Gore for a Cabinet-level job fighting climate change.

Here's what the current president-elect said: “Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem.”

So now we'll see.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credits: Associated Press

Comments

[zogby1]

Your comments on President Elect Obama's meeting with Al Gore tomorrow were crude, rude and a total waste of space. Since your newspaper is now bankrupt I would think you would be interested in writing something to attract advertisers, but I can see you don't care about what you wite as long as it takes up space. So good riddance to you and the LA Times.

[caroler]

What is with this blog? Re-uniting the Republican party? Re-electing Saxby Chambliss? You've totally lost me. It's true I mostly read the progressive news because I like being informed, so I could have missed something in the MSM. And what's with the photo of Gore looking like a raving lunatic? And you wonder why newspapers are declaring bankruptcy. Try reporting on the issues!

[OSweet]

If Gore had any integrity, or cojones, he'd buy GM or Chrysler.

But no, he's not dumb: He knows it's good to be the globe-trotting, prize-winning, mansion-dwelling, private-jet-riding saint.

[Tom]

This article is awesome. If the LA Times was more like this I would subscribe, and I live on the East Coast!

[Cryos]

Posting pretty much the same post as on another site. I hope americans wake up from their slumber and realize the true agenda of climate change legislation before it is too late.

I feel sorry for all the tools suckered into the green scam. It is not about reducing CO2 it is about transferring wealth to China, India and developing countries. Listen to the talks, the focus and their proposals.

The scientific models are very poor and they are not panning out. The hottest recent year is still 1998 and it looks like 2008 will be the coldest year of the decade yet all they can say is “you need to look at longer term trends.” If I used modeling like the IPCC in a college science project I would receive an F.

Hopefully we stay in a solar minimum so that temperatures cool and people see the scam for what it really is before it is too late. “Climate change” legislation will decimate the US and Europe’s economies to give to China and India. I especially love how democrats so angry with China are the biggest suckers.

[Cryos]

As an added note I loved the sarcasm. I admit it is my bias since I think Gore is a pompous windbag but this article gave me a good laugh. I wonder how many carbon credits Gore needs to buy to cover his private jet and indoor swimming pool.

[Karbon Kenny]

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[Gun Pwner]

Loved this article.

Screw that hypocrite Al Gore.