OR-GOV: Al Gore endorses Bill Bradbury
Jesse Cornett
In what may become known as a key turning point for the Bill Bradbury's gubernatorial campaign, Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore announced his endorsement of Bradbury at this morning's sold out fundraiser at the Left Bank. While it was no secret Gore was supportive of Bradbury's campaign, this morning's unequivocal endorsement was icing on the cake and thrilling to those of us in the energized audience. From Gore:
I’m
proud to endorse Bill Bradbury as the next Governor of this state. Let
me just say you won’t hear a negative word of any kind about John
Kitzhaber, a distinguished former Governor who served honorably in the
past in this state.
I am here to speak for Bill Bradbury and tell you what I know about
this man. And to tell you what I know about this man has meant to me
personally as a friend of extremely strong character, commitment and
leadership.
There is more on the endorsement on Bradbury's Kos Diary.
Update: Here is video:
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connect with blueoregon
5:50 p.m.
Nov 19, '09
Seriously, Jesse? Someone who is not and has never been from Oregon endorses a candidate 7 months before the primary based on enduring friendships and emnity for the other candidate--and it's a game changer, a turning point?
I like Al Gore, I like Bill Bradbury--but I find his endorsement essentially meaningless. As I said at Kos, this is kind of like Cher endorsing Chaz over Sonny...if Sonny were still alive, and they were running for office in, say, Maryland. Big-name endorsements just don't do much for you these days, I think we've found...and I also have to name-drop Kos in agreement on his perspective that by far the most valuable endorsements in Democratic politics are city mayors in-state, and governors for national candidates. They have the power to move votes not by their announcement, but by their position. Al Gore has no specific capacity to move primary voters in Oregon, IMO.
Nov 19, '09
Small effect I think. Probably the global warming single issue constituency may be swayed. Otherwise it's not much.
Nov 19, '09
Remember when Howard Dean endorsed Tom Potter? Yeah, that was awesome...
Nov 19, '09
Al Gore also chose Joe Lieberman to be his Vice President.
Nov 19, '09
Considering Bradbury has been a loyal "CO2 Will Kill Us All!!!" franchisee, Big Al's endorsement is a gimme. Hardly newsworthy or surprising unless Gore threw his weight behind another candidate.
I highly doubt many progressives question Kitzhaber's greenliness and I'd like to think his well established positions on health care are more relevant at the moment than are almost hypothetical doomsday scenarios coupled with Enronesque carbon trading schemes. Maybe it's just me.
Nov 19, '09
I like reading Gore's books and I like some of his ideas. But he was a terrible candidate for President, and having his endorsement might be about as valuable as holding a round trip ticket on the Titanic.
9:28 p.m.
Nov 19, '09
"Al Gore also chose Joe Lieberman to be his Vice President."
Ouch. He endorsed Howard Dean too, perhaps cursing him somehow.
Nov 19, '09
I might have enjoyed watching the progress of this contest, with Bill on my Facebook page as a supporter link, and I don't know how that happened...maybe a moment of weakness or curiousity, but anyway, when I was reminded of of alignments like Bill and AlGore, I realized I needed to clean house, as far as junk on my Facebook page goes. I have purged Bradbury from showing up on my Facebook page, but I am reminded of how the democrat party has aligned itself with retards who will have us giving up our freedoms and growing government big enough to "take of us all". What we need is for people to take care of themselves and shrink the government down to where it is involved very little in our lives, and taking very little of our money. I was a democrat until Gore ran for president, and that is when I decided I could no longer support the party I had grown up with....they did not have the values that I had and that were previously held by the party. This climate change crap is just one example....Gore is getting rich off it, and in the end, it will ruin our country to follow what he prescribing. People need to wake up and realize that these richie riches, the elite, all want to keep on living their high carbon footprint life, and the changes they push for will only make it worse for the working class that has to try even harder to be comfortable. Look at the usage (electricity) for Gore's house. To label him a snake oil salesman would be to give more credit than deserved.
Nov 19, '09
Why would anyone CARE who Gore likes??? He chose a republican for a running mate!
10:45 p.m.
Nov 19, '09
An endorsement is an endorsement. Good for networking, good for making connections with people you might not otherwise get the chance to. In this case, the Bradbury campaign used an endorsement to get in the papers, raise some money and recruit volunteers for the primary. In that sense the endorsement was great. Is Al Gore a bad endorsement? No. Does it have value? Yes. They collected the contact information for 400 people. In a close primary an endorsement and a campaign events worth of voter contact could mean all the difference.
Different Strokes for Different Folks. Is my mom going to be swayed by Al Gore's endorsement? No. Bill would have to get endorsed by Rachel Ray or Macgyver (besides she already likes Bill without any endorsements)
Kudos to Bill and Company!
Nov 20, '09
All Gore unfortunately has become the deserved butt of political jokes and chief idiot of the idiot fringe of our party. The scientific community try to educate the public about climate change has NOT found his self-aggrandizing grandstanding at all helpful because he has polarized the situation and made it hard for there to be a reasonable public debate. To the extent there has been meaningful progress forward, it is despite Gore and not because of Gore. Several people have pointed out his utterly incompetent political leadership, and Bradbury is exactly the kind of politician who has demonstrated questionable cognitive and planning faculties that would seek Gore's nomination.
It's too bad the nut fringe in our party represented by the likes of you Jesse and the rest of the Blue Oregon raving fools have managed to help our party only increasingly produce the kinds of candidates like the two we now have in this race who only look good because the Republicans have decided to represent the even nuttier fringe on the right. These two are both are little more than Harold Hill figures, but this is real life and not a movie: They demonstrate no knowledge or ability to deal with the actual challenges from health care to unemployment to education to poor economic strategies that we really have in Oregon.
Right now the jury is out on the last guy who pulled this kind of stunt on a really gullible public. Those of us who voted for him have our hands full doing what we can to keep afloat economically and politically as we try to keep up hope that change is really coming, even as we see less and less evidence this is the case.
Just look at the utter debacle and sell out to the health insurance industry we are seeing unfold before our eyes. It's no coincidence that is a debate both of these candidates have actually been AWOL in as real leaders (Archimede's Project and Kitzhaber took off on their pied piper course right after SB-27 was voted down) from the time the real work started right here in Oregon. And now just as it looks like the Feds are actually getting ready to dump the mess to provide care for all the people they don't cover in their supposed reform on the states, even as they further limit what states can do to actually hold insurance companies accountable as costs and denials clearly will skyrocket. (Guaranteed insurance despite pre-existing conditions is of little value if the premiums are still allowed to increase double the rate of inflation and there is virtually no control on claims denials as it now looks will be the case since we don't have a robust public option in either bill and the lowest common denominator between the two bills is almost certainly what will emerge from conference.)
Like somebody said on another thread, "insanity" is repeating the same mistake expecting a different outcome. Both of the two Democratic candidates are established politicians whose record actually is one of talking empty dreams, but of relatively little demonstrated ability to forge principled, strong, and lasting change for the better. Go to both of their websites:
http://bradbury2010..com http://www.johnkitzhaber.com
You won't find a serious discussion of the issues or even an issues tab. All you'll find are typical disconnected NW desperate feel-good dreaming, half-finished thoughts, and incoherent dreamy plans like a bunch of college kids passing around a joint. But all the web 2.0 multimedia, Facebook, twitter, and YouTube groupthink hipness is there, so that means these two guys have to be qualified progressive leaders, right? Well guess what, go to the Republican party website and it's pretty much the same superficial, blue-haze BS complete with web 2.0 multimedia, Facebook, twitter, and YouTube hipness.
8:36 a.m.
Nov 20, '09
I think Carl has it about right. By itself, Gore's endorsement isn't much in the way of moving Oregon voters. But raising money and earned media is EXTREMELY valuable. In that sense, it's excellent.
Nov 20, '09
But raising money and earned media is EXTREMELY valuable.
EARNED media? When you hitch your wagon to supposed star-power because you don't have what it takes yourself, the money and media you get is the epitome of UNEARNED.
The last thing I as a Democrat want in a governor in a state with a citizen legislature where the lobbyists already run the show, is a governor whose is little more than a back-slapping empty suit held up by the glory-seeking "big names" that endorse him or her, as much for the PR the endorsers can generate for themselves as high status "opinion makers", as anything else.
12:39 p.m.
Nov 20, '09
What Carl and Carla said.
Nov 20, '09
the last thing we need is another democrat governor who will only listen to his seiu public employee union buddies and be as invisible as kulongoski has been annd ignore our unemployment rate.
1:36 p.m.
Nov 20, '09
"But raising money and earned media is EXTREMELY valuable. In that sense, it's excellent."
And what's the evidence Gore's endorsement is of extreme value in those areas?
Nov 20, '09
Posted by: matthew vantress | Nov 20, 2009 1:22:33 PM
the last thing we need is another democrat governor who will only listen to his seiu public employee union buddies and be as invisible as kulongoski has been annd ignore our unemployment rate.
As opposed to a Republican governor that will only listen to his corporate buddies, be invisible because that's what his constituents elected him for, ignore our unemployment rate AND our poor.
OK. I admit that's not totally accurate. A good, Republican governor would notice the unemployment rate and use it to game the public out of civil rights, quality of life, etc.
Nov 20, '09
Posted by: matthew vantress | Nov 20, 2009 1:22:33 PM
the last thing we need is another democratic governor who ... A good, Republican governor would...
But they're the only two parties my masters let me choose from!
Nov 20, '09
the last thing we need is another democrat governor who will only listen to his seiu public employee union buddies
Whoever said this must not be paying attention. SEIU hasn't shown much love for this governor, nor do I remember him showing them any particular favor.
5:18 p.m.
Nov 21, '09
Al Gore has no connection to Oregon; his star power might mean more in the general election, but local endorsements mean the most in the primary. Primary voters are more engaged at the local level than general election voters and won't be relying on TV ads and direct mail as much to make their decisions.
As noted, Gore's endorsement is a signal Bradbury will be dipping into additional out-of-state funding, but since his in-state fund-raising has been less than stellar, this may backfire just like Loren Parks's "help" has hurt certain Republicans. Bradbury better hype his in-state supporters, not just his DNC buds.
Nov 21, '09
Not only that, but " another democrat governor " shows someone who doesn't want the support of anyone outside the "Republic" party. Leaving off the last 2 letters is a dead giveaway!
Nov 23, '09
Posted by: Connor Allen | Nov 20, 2009 5:49:27 PM
the last thing we need is another democrat governor who will only listen to his seiu public employee union buddies
Posted by: LT | Nov 21, 2009 6:48:30 PM
Not only that, but " another democrat governor " shows someone who doesn't want the support of anyone outside the "Republic" party. Leaving off the last 2 letters is a dead giveaway!
"Connor" didn't give it away? Most these trolls are gen X, Reagan boom males that were conceived on a whim, left to Hollywierd and Nanny State to raise, used as golems by right wing radio! The dead giveaway is the parent that spent more time thinking up the name than raising the child.
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