Former Vice President Al Gore addressed the Georgetown community in a pro-Kerry campaign speech Monday, focusing on what he referred to as President Bush’s failures.
He opened by referring to himself as “a recovering politician,” an echo of his typical allusions to the 2000 Florida election. Gore was introduced by Eli Pariser, Executive Director of the MoveOn political action committee.
Gore criticized Bush’s response to 9/11 warnings and his decision to intervene in Iraq. “We were told by the president that war was his last choice. But it is now clear from the newly available evidence that it was always his first preference,” he said.
Gore also said that the President’s support base does not represent most Americans.
The former vice president concluded with a plea to vote: “There is now only one center of power left in our Constitution and in our country capable of at long last holding George W. Bush accountable, and it is you, the voters.”
“Gore’s words were definitely a function of his belief that new leadership is necessary and pretty much that Kerry’s the man to do it,” Gerard Alolod (SFS ‘05), Chair of Lecture Fund, said. “Every sentence was emotionally charged, but the audience seemed to respond really well to it.”
