At Least Gore Offers A Plan

Al Gore got it right when he said, "I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously."

Gore's summary: "Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly.

"The climate crisis, in particular, is getting a lot worse - much more quickly than predicted."

Gore isn't running for anything, and he says he's not interested in returning to politics, which is probably good. Not that it's going out on a limb to describe the myriad problems facing the country. Nearly eight in 10 people think the country is on the wrong track, according to the latest AP-Ipsos poll.

But politicians shy away from saying the country's problems are so complex and interrelated that they demand a big solution, that people will have to change their ways and that time's up for the oil industry.

Gore said all three in his energy speech in Washington July 17, when he challenged Americans to produce 100 percent of our electricity needs from renewable energy and carbon-free sources within 10 years.

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change," he said.

It's hard to disagree. President Bush has said we must end our addiction to oil. But when Al Gore says things like that, he inspires some and infuriates others. Some love the fact that he's willing to propose major change while others think that the former senator, vice president and presidential candidate should sit down and shut up.

After Gore's speech, the two men who are actively seeking the presidency took time out from telling us what's wrong with each other to endorse Gore's idea to pursue wind, solar and biofuels as sources of electricity.

John McCain said if Gore says it's doable, he believes it is. Barack Obama praised Gore's proposal as a strategy that will create millions of new jobs and help the environment.

Then it was back to the daily slugfest. What's striking is how little discussion we are having about fixes for the problems we face. It's a presidential election year in which you'd think the contest was to find the candidate with the cleverest ad or the one whose aim is better at lobbing verbal grenades.

We're hearing little from either campaign about where these men would lead the country.

Interestingly, one of the knocks against Gore and his energy speech was that he was consciously emulating JFK's challenge to put a man on the moon. But if 80 percent of people think the country needs a new direction, what's so bad about that?