Office of the Independent Blogger

Bill Clinton chose Al Gore to be his Vice President in 1992 and in so doing chose a man who was his mirror image except Gore was in shape, knew the difference between right and wrong, didn’t sleep with every willing woman and was a lesser-presence on a stage as a speaker. They were similar in their youth, their southern heritage and, most importantly, in their mastery of government and policy: Clinton as a great Governor of Arkansas and Gore as one of the more influential and intellectual men in the US Senate. Now Barack Obama is said to be seriously considering Tim Kaine for the Vice Presidency and I would enjoy the choice as he is almost a mirror image of Obama, too. Both are intellectual lawyers who did non-traditional work after graduating from law school. But more important is the fact that each of them is a hollow government official. Brilliant, sure, but they haven’t achieved anything aside from getting elected to higher and higher office. While Gore was a leader on environmental policy and nuclear proliferation and Clinton was heading the Democratic Governors Association and turning the state of Arkansas around Tim Kaine and Barack Obama were giving speeches and playing the harmonica in the name of love and hope and “unity,” whatever that means.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).