Al Gore Offers the Mother of All Closing Arguments

Thanks to a tip from Nancy G., I caught CSPAN's rebroadcast of Al Gore's speech yesterday at Georgetown University for MoveOn. This was the last of his series of speeches that have slammed the Bush administration from a variety of angles. In this one he lays out -- fact by fact, incident by incident, distortion by distortion, action by action -- the case against Bush's dishonest and self-serving policies and the lies and world view that have made them possible. Scathing as an incredibly effective closing argument by a top-notch prosecutor, it made me remember just how many horrors and lies BushCo has perpetrated since before 9-11. There are so many it can be difficult to recall then all. This speech brings it all back home and concludes that Bush's policies stem from rabidly political, extremist right-wing ideology and a purposeful refusal to face facts and analyze data in the real world. Truly damning. Truly dangerous.

Excerpts:

"It is ideology – and not his religious faith – that is the source of his inflexibility. Most of the problems he has caused for this country stem not from his belief in God, but from his belief in the infallibility of the right-wing Republican ideology that exalts the interests of the wealthy and of large corporations over the interests of the American people. Love of power for its own sake is the original sin of this presidency."

"It is clear that President Bush has absolute faith in a rigid, right-wing ideology. He ignores the warnings of his experts. He forbids any dissent and never tests his assumptions against the best available evidence. He is arrogantly out of touch with reality. He refuses to ever admit mistakes. Which means that as long as he is our President, we are doomed to repeat them. It is beyond incompetence. It is recklessness that risks the safety and security of the American people."

"He has ducked accountability by the press with his obsessive secrecy and refusal to conduct the public’s business openly. There is now only one center of power left in our constitution capable of at long last holding George W. Bush accountable, and it is the voters. There are fifteen days left before our country makes this fateful choice – for us and the whole world. Join me on November 2nd in taking our country back."

Highly recommended: check out the transcript and/or the CSPAN video. Have you set up your volunteering schedule for the next 13 days? We can win, but we MUST GET OUT THE VOTE!

(Photo courtesy of Al Gore Democrats)