Al Gore had a complete core meltdown today, lashing out at the media, left right, and center in the New York Observer.
Mr. Gore acknowledged his image problem among powerful Democrats, and that the onus will be upon him to recapture the loyalties of those who supported him in 2000. “Maybe I bear the blame for some of it,” he said. “I haven’t been very good about calling all of the insiders over the last two years, and maybe some of them have a beef with me because of that. I know they have been courted assiduously by some of the others who are considering a run for the White House, and it may be that some of them have already signed up with other people. If I do decide to run again, I think there’s a lot of support, but I’d also have to work really hard to get a bunch of them committed back to me.”
Mr. Gore also reckoned that he would have to prove himself all over again to key political and media players. “I’m well aware that the political insiders and political-journalism community have a considerable amount of influence, and even though I’m stronger at the grassroots level, I think that if I did run again, I would have to convince those two groups that I’ve learned enough in the last couple of years to run a better campaign than I did last time. I don’t think that there’s a thing that I could say and no words I could choose that could accomplish that — the way to convince them would be in actually doing it.”
For now, Mr. Gore can only attempt to explain what motivates the ceaseless lampooning he continues to face from America?s columnists and commentators. “That?s postmodernism,” he offered. “It?s the combination of narcissism and nihilism that really defines postmodernism, and that?s another interview for another time, if you’re interested in it.”
This is like watching a train wreck. The lesson, I suppose, is that trained, professional politicians shouldn’t open their mouths in public without handlers telling them what to say. Gore is probably free of handlers right now, so we’re seeing the real, unvarnished Gore for the first time, and it’s damn scary.