Wednesday evening Al Gore held a book event in Marin for an audience of 2,000 as part of his five-city book tour. He spoke for over 45 minutes and sat on stage signing books. Spirits were high, people were on their feet and our Al Gore was on fire.
He was eloquent beyond reproach; insightful in his perspective and dead on in his mandates - the new Al Gore and his Assault on Reason, issue a call to action for the citizens of the United States to recapture their country, their ideas and the American dream.
He mourns the loss of dialogue and skillfully ponders how we could have gotten to this point: a place in which there is no conversation, least of which is intelligent conversation; a place that has forgotten truth and accepts misinformation; a place in which this country has lost its way.
The Al Gore that came out of the 2000 election debacle suffered the travesty of the media that portrayed him as "nerdy" and boring. His words were too big. His thoughts were too deep. He was not a guy to have a beer with.
If they only knew what was to come...
Fast forward to 2007 and Al Gore, the "Uber Geek" has arrived. He is a man on a mission, dresses in black, slicks back his hair and speaks with fire in his belly.
Al Gore knows how to work with the media. He is out there speaking, lecturing, producing television, making movies and writing books.
Al Gore makes it "cool" to care about the environment. He has become our voice. He has filled the conversation with passion and knowledge. He has unleashed the world of information to the people and been nominated for the Nobel Prize for this work.
Al Gore is the cool guy now. He is really smart. He speaks the truth. He still uses big words and has even bigger ideas. He talks about the information eco-system! He references the Age of Enlightenment and he has a dream and a vision for this country.
Now, you want to have that beer with him. And if we are lucky, he will still want to have that beer with us ....