Former Vice President Al Gore celebrated election night in San Francisco at Current TV, the progressive media company he cofounded in 2005.
Gore joined "The War Room" host Jennifer Granholm, "The Young Turks" host Cenk Uygur and "Viewpoint" host Eliot Spitzer for commentary as the results rolled in on Tuesday night. And though the group applauded a stunning victory for both President Obama and the Democratic Party, Gore wasted no time noting what he found to be the election's greatest shortcoming.
"What I regard as by far the biggest issue we're facing, climate change, global warming, was not even discussed in this campaign," said Gore. "One of the main reasons why not, is that the large carbon polluters and their ideological allies have provided funding in both parties."
"For the first time since 1988, not a single member of the news media panels in any of the presidential debates asked a single question about it," he continued. "And here we have had this amazing drought in 65 percent of the country, we had Hurricane Sandy, we've had all these climate-related disasters, and it's not even mentioned."
Backstage, Gore noted President Obama's swift and efficient approach to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated parts of the Northeast just days before the election.
"The President stepped up to the challenge," he told The Huffington Post. "I think this gave him the opportunity to act excellently in the days leading up to the election."
However, Gore noted on the air, neither candidate addressed the alleged cause of the fatal hurricane in the campaign.
"This is a big victory for Democrats tonight. It's a big victory for President Obama," he told the cameras. "But it is a victory achieved without really engaging in a meaningful proposal about how we will go into the future on the biggest issues that we face."
Watch Al Gore on Current TV in the clip above, and check out a few of the things the world might lose to climate change in our slideshow below:
