Gore Rebuffs Press, Admits Failure, Still Adored

Paul Krugman once accused me of Gore Derangement Syndrome. In response, I suggested that he and others suffered from Gore Blindness Syndrome. Here’s another example of that at work, where a reporter manages to write an adulatory piece about our former Vice President despite said paragon having completely rebuffed him when he asked him a question. As he indicates, Gore has made a habit recently of refusing to allow any interviews. Given that he’s the undoubted leader of a worldwide political movement, one would have thought that the press might be as annoyed about this as they were when another potential Vice President didn’t appear to be giving interviews.

Anyway, perhaps the most interesting thing about the event Mr Gore was attending was his admission of failure:

Mr. Gore said that he feared that his advocacy work, spearheaded by his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” has not done its job. “I feel, in a sense, I’ve failed badly,” he said. “Because even though there’s a greater sense of awareness, there is not anything anywhere close to an appropriate sense of urgency. This is an existential threat.”

It appears Mr Gore will not be content until we are all, every last one us, as completely dedicated to global warming mitigation as he is. Yet how is he to instill his required sense of urgency without resorting to shriller and shriller alarmism? His acolytes will almost certainly take up senior positions within the new Administration, but the nation is still likely to balk at the price tag of his solutions. The environmental movement was spending about $100 million on global warming before An Inconvenient Truth came along. With his vast resources – about $300 million, he suggested – and a probable increase in parallel efforts, plus foreign campaigns, it’s quite possible that the climate alarmists are spending half a billion dollars worldwide on the issue annually. Is it possible we’ll see that increase? And if that doesn’t work, what then? One thing’s for sure, Gore isn’t going away, except from reporters.