Obama: I'd Hire Gore

WALLINGFORD, Pa. — Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming.

At a town-hall meeting, Obama was asked if he would tap the former vice president for his Cabinet to handle global warming.

"I would," Obama said. "Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He's somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I'm already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now."

Since leaving the White House, Gore has gone on to become one of the world's leading voices for combating the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. His work earned him a share of the Nobel last year.

Popular among Democrats, Gore is perhaps the single most coveted endorsement up for grabs in the long-running competition between Obama and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The relationship between Gore and the Clintons became strained after Gore limited Bill Clinton's campaigning on his behalf in the 2000 presidential race which elected George W. Bush.

Obama said he would use Gore to help forge a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions designed to lower pollution.

The Illinois senator cautioned that such a system could mean an increase in electricity bills from power companies that rely on coal-burning, and that some of the money generated from a cap-and-trade system may be used in the beginning to help lower income or fixed income customers with those bills.

He also called on individuals to do their part to lower energy consumption.

"All of us are going to have to change our habits. We are a wasteful culture," he said.

Using compact fluorescent light bulbs, energy efficient appliances, and unplugging power chargers when they're not in use are relatively simple solutions, he said.

"Those kinds of simple steps, if everybody takes them, can drastically reduce our energy consumption."

(This version CORRECTS Corrects thruout to DELETE reference to questioner asking about position higher than Cabinet.)

Comments

[TonyNJ]

Face the facts folks. The Republicans along with a right wing radio host's master plan "Operation Chaos" voted for Obama in the Dem primaries, so in my opinion, Obama's numbers are fudged. The Reps. know Obama will be an easy 'swift boat target ' in the general elections in the Fall. He can't win with speech concerning "typical white folks" "America with its many flaws" of which I shall count him as one, and placing a value on human life, "I don't want by daughters PUNISHED if theY make a mistake, WITH A BABY? Oh daddy, as Jerry Lee Lewis once said. You can vote all you want, but he will not get in. He talks of "change". Hillary talks of Dollar$ , jobs for the unemployed. We need someone who knows how to get things done in Washington with both Dems and Reps working together. WE are at War. We are in an economic crisis! Wake Up America before it's too late. We need a candidate who will hit the ground running. WE NEED HILLARY CLINTON! CLINTON!! CLINTON!!!

[Passenger57]

Uh...I thought "Operation Chaos" was an attempt by folks like Rush Limbaugh to get Republicans to switch to Democrats-and vote for CLINTON, then they switch back,making her win the Dem.nomain­ation so she can lose to McCain-whom Clinton has already stumped for by saying that they BOTH had "a lifetime of experience"(McCain has more AND he's a vet, so he should win, right ,Hillary?)­.Republica­ns know that Obama would WIPE THE FLOOR with McCain in the debates. Obama would be JFK and McCain would be Nixon.
Yeah,Hillary knows how to work with the Republican­s...she voted right along with 'em to give boozy,blea­ry-eyed,"G­od told me to strike at Saddam" Bush the keys to the War Machine,and he went and wrapped it around a tree.It's the drunks that somehow survive those wrecks,and it's the innocent that get killed.THA­T'S why "we are at war"! Stop talking about "hitting the ground running".T­hat ain't gonna happen. You'd have thought presidential transitions took 45 minutes,reading your post. For God's sake,use your OWN talking points, not Hillary's!
Oh-and Obama,having a White mother and a Black father, can get away with saying "typical White woman",just like he could say, "typical Black man".
BHO in '08 , baby!!

[HumeSkeptic]

This is the kind of news that excites the young and the young at heart, not someone calling someone Judas, and talk of midieval betrayals, and tall tales of someone dodging bulltes in Bosnia, or a warmonger wanting to bomb countries for no valid reason.

Let's talk about meeting head on the challenges that face us. Let's get the best minds involved and working for us. Let's dump the politics of fear and war and get on with the work of making our country great again, and the greatest it has ever been.

This year is the year to turn things around.

Go Obama!

[WoodyCPM]

I'm hoping that we do the smart thing for a change and put Barack Obama in The White House.

[missjabez]

Gore might be more likely to serve in an Obama administration than a Clinton administration. Like many folks, Gore has been burned by the Clintons.

[smzzzz]

HUFFPO! This headline is NOT REFLECTIVE of Obama's comments. He was asked a question and answered it in an intelligent way. All you are doing is firing up the idiot Obama haters like 3primecubed and bish66. If that's the point then you should be ashamed.

[HumeSkeptic]

Don't worry about those idiots. They are not taken seriously by anyone with even half a brain. You must be new around here.

[FairyTale]

I do find the HuffPo headlines occasionally sensationalistic, but I guess it attracts readers and we all need to make a living....

[oscarp]

typical Obama's supporter comment!!! can u change your slogan? We don't hate Obama, we simply don't like him which according to the encyclopedia is not the same.

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

And folks wonder why some of us see him as arrogant. He would "hire" Gore? Gore has been a mover and shaker in the Democratic party before this "kid" graduated from law school. Dang.

[Valkyrie]

typical Hillary supporter comment!!!!!! can u change your slogan? We don't hate Hillary, we simply dislike her suppoerters like yourself, which according to the encyclopedia is not the same.

Right now, you're probably thinking, "What a jerk!", Oscarp. But I'm only trying to show you that dismissing a person's comment as a typical "Insert Candidate Here" comment is asinine and very Republican of you. That's what Republicans do. Shoot the messenger and don't debate the message at any cost.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Huzzah.

Obamanistas, please repeat after me, "I promise to support the nominee of my party."

Sheesh.

[Bluesage]

oscarp - I don't hate Obama either. In fact, I'm pretty unhappy with both our choices. Neither was my first choice but since we are picking between these two I will go with the one most capable. I don't want to have a bbq or a drink with either of them but I do want proven ability and competence. I do believe that Obama brings too many unknowns and he is too arrogant and tactless for my taste.

[WLA]

Encyclopedia?

[elbzee]

OMG, if this is true my dream is coming true!

[ornery]

He should hire Gore as VP. If Gore would do it.

Might go a long way to wrap up November right now.

[Nochnoi]

VP Gore does not want to be in office in a role like that....

He would serve much better in an advisory position..­.. I wish people would stop hoping he is going to run for President.­.. He has said a million times that he doesn't want to.... so let us stop the wishful thinking and concentrate on the nominees we have....

[LBM]

Why would Gore accept? He has stated clearly that he is not running for anything and does not want to endorse either candidate at this point. This is just an attempt for Obama to claim he's got Gore on his side when he really doesn't. Both candidates clearly support Gore's efforts on global warming. To say that Obama would do anything differently with Gore on this respect is ridiculous. Obama and Clinton are going to share the ticket. Why can't Obama supporters accept that the party is split between them and they both need to pull together to win? The super delegates have the power to insist on this or they won't get their votes.

[AdLib]

Flat-Earth Repubs are drawn to global warming threads like ants to a picnic.

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

they're masochists at heart.

[Mike O.]

You have plenty of rhetoric, but cannot dispute the facts: Man-Made Global Warming(tm) is a fallacy.

Liberals used for their willful ignorance, yet again.

[HumeSkeptic]

Isn't that funny? They all come running, eager to show their ignorance.

[Nochnoi]

Indeed they are... maybe it is just a natural cycle.... heh....

[JohnKemp]

Global warming?

Hell, I thought with this past winter being the coldest in recent memory, with the ice packs expanding in both hemispheres & with snowpack run-off now creating fears of flooding that you libs had reverted to the phrase, "climate change?"

You know where any "change" that occurs enables you to spout your drivel?

[YellowDogInRedCounty]

JohnKemp you are showing your profound ignorance. To claim that a winter that was more severe in some areas is somehow proof that there is no problem with global warming or global climate change is just a lame excuse to allow you to continue to drive your Hummer without feeling guilty.

[WLA]

Polar ice sheets disappearing, knuckledragger. Arctic passage open for the first time in recorded histroy.

[Passenger57]

JohnKemp,what the heck are you TALKING about? I live in the NE, and I can count the number of times it's been really cold this winter on one hand. And where were you when the Manhattan-sized chunk of freezewater broke off the shelf recently?

[moderationsmuse]

Your cheap shot is very revealing. You aren't so interested in protecting nature as you are in making baseless attacks. Nature conservation is the prime consensus issue -- or would be -- or used to be before the "Left" decided (with the acquiescence of a servile media) to co-op it as their wedge issue. In other words they would just shove 50% of the electorate off the stage.
The climate of the earth is a topic for scientific study and as such scientific theory and data will change as scientific methods become more accurate. In contrast, "global warming" is a pseudo-scientific front for income redistribution and feel-good grand standing. Gore's answer to environmental dangers was to organize a rock concert.
Serious people of both parties want to and historically have long attempted to find ways to protect wilderness places while balancing for economic growth. Non-serious people like yourself, in contrast, indulge in pointless and sanctimonious rants.
We agree, however, upon one point: Gore is YOUR kind of guy.

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

"Nature conservation is the prime consensus issue -- or would be -- or used to be before the "Left" decided (with the acquiescence of a servile media) to co-op it as their wedge issue."

----------­----------­----------

is that the new spin? wow we have truely morphed into nonsense world.

[bish66]

Obama would hire Gore

Just as he would have left Trinity church if Wright had not announced his resignation?
Or just as he would have left the church if he had known about Wright's statements? He knew about it? Damn....

[FrankBlackFrancis]

Y'all need some new material.

[DesertLight]

It is called , take a pick:
A) Perception

B) Discernment
or

C) God help me, you really want me to tell the truth?

[SouthCentralDel]

You are upset. We can tell. It is as peculiar as the lower and middle class Reagan Democrats praising Reagan thru their own consequent misfortune.

[FairyTale]

You really think you are going to convince anyone here with this? Go back to the Fix news blog and ask them if they would please show the full Reverend Wright sermons instead of only the soundbites. Or are they scared of doing that?

[G24]

I was lucky enough to be at this town hall meeting today. Sen. Obama was great.

[trytruth]

Really? Lucky you, seriously. What else did they ask him?

[oneeyedodin]

Never mind the BS. When do we find out about Obama 'indiscretions'?

[Jimmyboyo]

There aren't any.

Proof in point....W­hen attending the bachelor party of a relative in england he left the room when the strippers came in and returned only when the strippers were done and left.

:-)

He isn't bill clinton which is very refreshing

[JohnKemp]

It was time for a 3-Marlboro smoke break.

[oscarp]

was he running for president when he did that? maybe he was afraid of the public eye.

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

He has never really been in a position of power before. We'll see how he does when every attractive young woman in a five mile radius comes on to him by showing him their thong in an elevator, or offering favors after he has been in office for awhile and feels bullet proof like the rest of them eventually do.

[ndifference]

Well, he just lost my vote! jk jk

[FrankBlackFrancis]

I know how you feel. As Democrats stuck with Bill Clinton as being our standard bearer and living through the humilating episodes, some real, some imagined we are prone to assume the worst.. But just because a Democrat appears to be some what ethical and moral and without a great deal of baggage, it might, it just might be true.

[HopeandChange]

Howard Dean has now announced that the SUPER DELEGATES can vote however they want. He called them "free agents". Remember how Dean got his job? Bill Clinton met privately with him and asked him to step out of the presidential race in '04. Then Bubba got him the job as Head of the DNC. Now Dean is going to repay the Clinton's by giving her the nomination.

[FrankBlackFrancis]

That's a stretch.

[DesertLight]

Hope, you might be right about how he got he job and believe me, I might be the last guy to ever defend Dean, but as the chair of the DNC, that is rightfully supposed to be his response. A Super is "supposed' to be treated as any other voter.

[joeinvt]

HetyHopeandChange

Not sure where you have been living, but

1. It is no secret that the Clintons do not like Dean and that he got the DNC job over their objections. Their boys, James Carville and Rahm Emanuel, had done everything they can to diminish his accomplishments, etc.

2. Dean is actually doing no more than stating the rules. Even though you Obama guys would love a rule requiring the supers to vote in accord with the pledged delegates, you are also the first to say the rules rule where Florida and Michigan are concerned.

[EyeWantOneNation]

Hope (not)...th­e Superdelegates have ALWAYS been free to vote for whomever they want....is this a surprise to you ???

The ONLY way Hillary will secure the nomination is to STEAL it...Ameri­ca is not going to let that happen !!!

[DesertLight]

The point you make is a good one. One would normally assume that Supers would have freedom to vote. BUT, with the Clinton's all bets are off.

[V4Vigilance]

What a total load of craptastic, revisionist history.

After the Clintons, DLC, the rest of their DINO cohorts and their pals in the MSM had skewered his '04 presidential bid Dean was ELECTED head of the DNC, much to the chagrin of the Beltway establishment. He was able to do this thanks to the thousands of grassroots activists he brought into the party and by promising to use the DNC to build the party in all 50 states rather than having it simply be a piggy bank for the DCCC and DSCC, like it had been.

I like to refer to Obama as "Howard Dean's Revenge". Obama's campaign strategy mirrors Dean's "50 State Strategy" and is a refinement of Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. And best of all, it's sticking it to all those Beltway blowhards that lost to GWB TWICE.

OBAMA 08

[dragonfly142]

I doubt very much that Al Gore would endorse Obama. HE is well aware of the cesspool of corruption in the Illinois senate where Obama came from. Gore is upright and I'm sure knows how underhanded Obama is when he took both oil money, insurance money,and lobbyist money while ther....Do you think a leopard changes it's spots.....­Obama now does the same, only hidees it within bundling. Gore has much more class and intelligence than to back Obama

[FrankBlackFrancis]

Come on, at least be original in your smears. He took money from people who work for oil companies. Stop listening to the Hillary spin and do soem research.

[humuhumunukunukuapuaa]

What a load of unsubstantiated bullcrap!

[Burkelbile]

Another Hillary shill without conscience posting sheer crap. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Nochnoi]

I was not aware that you were close and personal friends with former VP Gore that you know exactly how he feels about things....­....

[ornery]

I've lived in IL for many years.

There is plenty of corruption in Illinois politics, but Barack is not part of it.

You must remember he was never a Democratic Machine candidate. Quite the contrary. They supported Rep Bobby Rush when Barack made his first run for Congress and Rush won (Chicago, duh).

They put up Hynes for Senate against him in 2004. However, he won the primary against Hynes and a very wealthy trader turned politician. And of course won the Senate seat held by outgoing Repu. Peter Fitzgerald (an honest man).

Gore, btw, has endorsed Obama in effect.

His silence, and refusal to endorse a member of the administration in which he was VP, is in effect an endorsement of Obama.

[oscarp]

ornery, do you really believe what you write, or are you under the effect...t­here's plenty of corruption, but Obama is the exception to the rule LOL LOL LOL, the best joke of 2008 so far!

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

cap and trade, huh? hmmm, don't like that idea too much. I hope they try a different approach.

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

cap - fine, trade - not fine.

[nohobear]

Anyone else notice how nothing brings out the trolls more than global warming blogs?

[GarsLuber]

They've been proven wrong on everything else.

At least with Global Warming, they are in the process of being proven wrong.

Well, they've been proven wrong on that one too. Nevermind.

[Mike O.]

Yes, you are correct. Liberals have been proven wrong on every point. And they are in the process of being proven wrong in the global warming lie.

Perhaps you aren't aware that the famous "hockey stick" graph has been proven incorrect. The wrong statistical methods were used and when the correct methods are used, the "increase" disappears. Gone. Non-existent. Nada. Nothing.

On those grounds, the founder of the weather channel is filing a civil suit against ALGORE(tm) for fraud. He is bringing the suit because ALGORE(tm) has refused to address the findings of a significant group of scientists who disagree and are backed up (reluctantly) by THE UN PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE WHICH WAS FORCED TO ADMIT THAT THE GRAPH IS WRONG.

THERE IS JUSTICE!!!

[Mike O.]

By the way. The only thing that will energize the conservatives more than Hillary is ALGORE. You had already lost the election (no matter who you choose) but it's gonna be a LANDSLIDE!!!

I love this.

Liberals are just soooooo stooooopid!

[KOisGod]

That's because it F's with their domionist ideology, that the earth is their's to plunder, buy, sell, rape and pillage. To think that it took billions of years of evolution to get it to a delicate balancing act, of purging and renewing, of an interconnected web of dependencies, is lost on them.

They see every square inch of this planet as a place to build a shopping mall, factory, for best of all a private country club, flush with multimillion dollar 6000 sq foot super homes, so a retired captain of industry can retire with his trophy wife and wait for cancer to claim them.

[SouthCentralDel]

HuffPo you gotta become more accurate on the headlines(and this is one of many that seem a tad 'disengenious' and unrepresentative, even). Hence the immediate flaming by Hillary supporters and neo-cons. A bunch of ado about essentially, nothing. Any right minded Presidential nominee would say the same thing about Gore aiding in the global warming issue.

[EyeWantOneNation]

Point is; They didn't...O­bama did !!! Why is this a problem for you ???

As an Obama supporter, I'm more than pleased that my candidate recognizes the problem of global warming. Not a problem to be dealt with in 10 or 20 years...bu­t NOW !!! To put Gore in a position of solutions within the government, is a smart thing to do.

Has Hillary spoke of this solution..­..after all...she is touting herself as the candidate of solutions, isn't she !!! I doubt Al Gore really wants to associate himself with the Clinton's much these days !!!

Thanx for the article, HuffPo !!!

[SouthCentralDel]

It's not a prob for me. I embrace it and suggested it(along with a generous flaming in my direction a week ago) as you see by my profile. My prob is the HuffPo and their cryptic sensational headlines that sway the facts a bit. Which leads to flames when there was no need.

What better pulpit than having Gore's hands on the lever of government upon which to wield a mighty sword for the great benefits of combatting global warming? And look what we get as a consequence: huge decrease in trade deficit, energy independence as a nat'l security issue, less strategic need for meddling in Mid-Eastern affairs, etc.