The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore (advance excerpts from Time Magazine)


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Al Gore has finally found his voice against Bush. For seven years, since losing to George W. Bush in a Supreme Court decision after Gore won the popular vote, Gore kept his mouth shut on direct criticism of Bush. That has ended.

Gore directly attacks Bush and Cheney for many very large woes suffered by America today, claiming...

• Bush lied to the American public about Iraq;
• Cheney incorporated plans to invade Iraq into the Energy Task Force, which is why it had to be kept so secretive;
• Bush ignores important US law like FOIA, habeus corpus, and torture;
• Bush upsets the Constitutional balance of power with excessive signing statements;
• Bush distorts Christian doctrine by dividing world into good vs. evil;
• Bush ignores real-world facts in pursuit of his ideological agenda, resulting in isolation of America from the rest of the world, a massive budget deficit, and shredding of civil rights.

The answer is: No. There's a role in political races called "attack dog" -- that's the person who, as publicly as possible, trashes the opponent. The candidate is NEVER the attack dog, because attack dogs are viewed as frothing-at-the-mouth extremists. The political rule of negative campaigning is that the subject of the negative attack does suffer (that's Bush & Cheney here); but the attacker ALSO suffers (that's Gore here); and the real beneficiaries are the other candidates who do not participate in the attack.

In other words, this book indicates that Gore is NOT running, but is actively helping the Democratic nominee (whomever that will be). The effectiveness of this strategy is premised on the Republican nominee being closely associated with the Bush-Cheney administration. Naturally, the Republican candidates see the problems with that, and are all distancing themselves from Bush, with varying degrees of success. It remains unclear how effective attacking Bush will be, depending on the Republican nominee.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, May 2007

Click here for 12 full quotes from Al Gore in the book The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore . OR click on an issue category below for a subset.

Corporations    Bush supporters oppose regulations but like big contracts.

Foreign Policy    Bush's division into good vs. evil is Christian heresy.    New security agenda based on addressing global problems.

Government Reform    Money dominates campaigns because of cost of TV ads.    Bush pursues policies in advance of the facts.    Bush chronically abuses "signing statements".    Full & robust public financing of all federal elections.

Homeland Security    Our government condones torture for first time in history.    Mass eavesdropping threatens integrity of Bill of Rights.

Technology    TV converts well-informed citizenry to well-amused audience.    Defend Internet freedom as ferociously as freedom of press.

War & Peace    Bush engaged in mass deception of the US public about Iraq.

Click for quotations from other sources by:
• Al Gore