With Al Gore’s movie about to come out, we all could predict how folks in the know would say it’s just more scare tactics trying to destroy the economy. Rich Lowry of the National Review makes his distorted claims, at the same time admitting global warming is real, and C02 almost certainly contributes to it, but then he also has a book on how we need to be Paying the Price for the Clinton Years. I’m afraid current and future generations will be paying the price for Bush’s intentional missteps in Iraq, ballooning the deficit, debilitating the environment, but doubt Lowry or the National Review would own up to that. Lowry’s criticism of Clinton is mostly personal and asserted that Clinton spent so much of his time as President on issues that were small, fuzzy, or ridiculous. I suppose Lowry forgot about how Clinton got lambasted for trying to take on too much in solving the health care crisis (still not solved today).

I liked what Paul Krugman asked in a recent column about Gore “Are we ready for political leaders who don’t pander, who are willing to talk about complicated issues and call for responsible policies?” I think it is a stretch to say YES, but if demonstrated in real terms where regular folks can see the personal impacts (such as high gas prices), then MAYBE. If NO, then we have only ourselves to blame for 1) not paying attention and 2) trusting our elected representatives to be more than just shills for the special interests that continue to get them elected.