As many of you may know the 79th Academy Awards was broadcast on ABC last night, Sunday, February 25, 2007. For updates on yesterday evenings events and winners you can click here.
Years before the red carpet was rolled out, former vice president of the United States, Al Gore began his campaign in the fight against global warming. As Gore told David Letterman, he began this campaign in 1976 in front of congress and did not receive strong support for his cause. But this did not stop Gore from continuing his efforts towards change in the way we as humans treat global warming. He even went so far as to create the film, “An Inconvenient Truth," on the effects of global warming. The film won both best documentary feature and best original song. The first question I propose is: With Gore's movie taking home two Academy Awards, How do you think, if at all, this has effected Congress' view on the issue of global warming?
In addition to his film winning awards, he was also given the opportunity to declare the first time in the history of the Oscars they have gone green with Leonardo DiCaprio. Before he took the stage there were rumors that Gore may use this moment to announce his decision to run for President in 2008. At the Oscars, Gore dispelled any rumors floating around of his intentions to run when, in front of a crowd that was on the edge of their seats clapping loudly, he played a joke on all of the viewers instead.
According to Moviefone.com's article, Al Gore takes center stage at Oscars, Gore ushered the following statements:
"Even though I honestly had not planned on doing this, I guess with a billion people watching, it's as good a time as any," a seemingly deadly serious Gore intoned as he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket to read: "So, my fellow Americans, I'm going to take this opportunity right here and now to formally announce ..." Gore was then drowned out by the swell of music from the orchestra pit, and he and DiCaprio walked off stage arm-in-arm to raucous laughter."
Much to the crowd's dismay, Gore used his time with Leonardo DiCaprio to receive praise from both Dicaprio and the audience and to announce that he had no intentions to run for president in 2008. This leads me to my final question: Based on the heartfelt thoughts of DiCaprio and the overbearing applause Gore received from the audience, Do you think Gore will remain committed to not running for President in 2008?
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11 comments:
Despite the amount of support Al gore has received as of late, I do not think he appears to be running for president. It seems that he is enjoying the limelight and somewhere along the line has tried to pick up a sense of humor as pointed out in the original post. However, despite his popularity at this time, it seems unlikely that he would try to run against the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama for the democratic nomination.
As far as the academy awards affecting congress…I do not think that the movie will put great pressure in congress to enact legislation for global warming. The film has done one thing in congress which is, it has created a bigger gap between the right and left. Conservatives and right wing pundits claim that the global warming trend is just that; a trend, not a global disturbance, but rather a weather pattern. The point is, that if anything perhaps there is a greater divide now because global warming has become a hot topic, and much of that can probably be because of the film. It certainly has also created a lot interest with people and the media. But the reason why I think the film will not affect congress is because a similar expose documentary that came out several years ago called Fahrenheit 9/11 also generated a lot of controversy and garnered acclaim and criticism. However, congress certainly did not bring back troops or scale back the war in Iraq at all since the film, why would this film change things now?
I agree and do not think the film will have an effect on congress. I think the film was intended to have an affect on the American people. It’s like we talked about in class, the more Americans that support the issue, the more likely members of congress will come around and give global warming more action. They don’t want to appear to no give the public what they want.
I think the movie has given AL Gore more public support and has made him seem to be a more powerful and likeable individual who really cares. This would give him an advantage if he was going to run for president, but I also do not think he is going to run or he wouldn’t have joked about it the way he did on the awards.
I think Gore’s involvement with the documentary can potentially be seen as an indicator that Gore has lost faith/interest in the political process/system in place. No doubt, if public support seemed to overwhelmingly grow and it looked like Gore could successfully be elected President, what would stop an individual from passing up that opportunity? If I had a past like Gore’s, I would be especially reluctant to compete in another presidential race.
It is obvious however, that he now realizes the power of media when it comes to bringing about public awareness and potential change. He seems to be enjoying being in the public eye and came across quite well in the documentary and at the award show. If he were to run again, and win – it would be interesting if he would use the media much like he did in the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ to gain public support much like previous presidents have tried to do.
-R.Shiff
In my opinion, unless Congressional representatives have personally viewed "An Inconvenient Truth", I don't think the movie will have directly effected their view on the issue of global warming. However, it obviously never hurts to get the word out there, and this movie absolutely helped get the word out on how this earth is changing due to global warming. When constituents watch this movie, they may be driven to contact their representatives in order to ensure they are doing something in Congress in order to protect the environment for future generations. When people contact their representatives and there is a subjective concern about this situation, that is when Congress may do something. Although this doesn't sound exactly promising, it is more promising than previous years when the public was vaguely informed of how bad the o-zone layer had gotten, etc..and therefore didn't care.
Al Gore has definitely got a lot of positive publicity from his documentary, however, I agree with one of the previous blogs: the fact that he kid around about being a presidential candiate on the Academy Awards proves that he will not be running for president. I think that Al Gore had his turn, and it wasn't the right time, so now he can focus his power and energy into helping our environment with his newfound popularity (having a huge star like Leonardo backing you up doesn't exactly hurt either).
There has been so much media coverage and speculation about Al Gore possibly running for president. With Al Gore winning at the Academy Awards it has just made an even bigger spectical about his running for presidency. Now, I think the 2008 elections are becoming less like a political race and more like the Academy Awards. Think about it, most of us watch the Oscars, some to see the celebrities and what they are wearing and some watch for the actual awards. Now we are watching the political race to see whose there and what they are doing and whose going to be next to jump in. Most people are so caught up in whose going to announce that they are running, that they don't take time to notice who are already running and for what reasons. So, I think Al Gore might be pressured from all the media coverage he is getting into running. If he was smart, he wouldn't run because thier just isn't enough room for all these high profiled candidates. It's still so early and so many people could keep jumping in. But my advice to Al Gore is to stay out of this high profile election.
I strongly agree with Allyson with her comment that the elections are becoming more like the academy awards. Personally I cannot believe how long he has been campaigning about global warming, which is really interesting. It's hard to believe that after all the campaigning and speaking and book writing he's done that it will have an effect on Congress.
I think the movie had a strong impact on the American public--I saw it and thought that it was really well done and definitely opened my eyes to the issue.
As far as him running--I think it's great he's developed a sense of humour, and I think that if he was to run this time around he'd have a really strong chance of success. Unfortunately, I doubt that after the past failed attempts he's going to run. And again, this election is so intense and starting so early and expensive--I doubt he's willing to jump into the fire.
I must say that after this blog and after winning two Academy Awards, I definitely want to see "An Inconvenient Truth." I think that since the movie did win two Academy Awards that it will certainly make global warming a more pressing issue among Americans, but not necessarily big enough for Congress to deal with yet. I do believe that since it is getting greater publicity now, especially with the Oscars going green and everything, that eventually people will be able to persuade their representatives to do something about global warming. Hopefully all the publicity will urge Congress to take the matter more seriously. Al Gore has certainly gotten a lot of publicity on this issue and it is certainly helping his cause.
I agree with some of the other posts that I don't think Al Gore will be running this year. I thought the whole bit on the Oscars was funny but I think it would be a bad idea if Al Gore decides to say he will run for President after doing that. I think that Al Gore is just enjoying all his publicity he has been receiving. I mean he has lost previously so who knows how ready he is to get into campaigning again especially up against people like Hillary and Barack. But then again, the way campaigns are running nowadays, anything's possible.
Kristin Perry
I really like Al Gore and hope he does decide to run. He would make a great candidate because he has a lot of experience. I do not however think he will decide to run, but that is just my personal opinion.
What I thought was interesting was a story on the news last night about his electricity bill being outrageous...Something like his estate uses more power in one day then the average house hold does in a year?
Gore will without a doubt stay committed to his idea of not running for president. As of right now his publicity is at an all time high, but that recognition is for his work with the documentary he made, not his work in politics. People in Hollywood like the kind of humor he used at the Oscar's, which is why he probably did so, but running for president in 08 would be another unsuccessful campaign.
Running against favorites Clinton and Obama, Gore again would be the odds on underdog to win the election. His supporters would be wasting their money to help support his campaign and he would not be able to convince the American people he is serious about his presidential run considering he made such a joke about the presidency while promoting his film. So it would be in Gore's best interest to keep his publicity and reputation as a documenter to not run for president in 08.
Kellan O'Neill
Al Gore will definitely stick to not running for president, and if he did decide to run, I would certainly hope he wouldn't announce it during the academy awards. I also do not think that his film will have any effect on congress, but I do think he did a great job getting the word out about his film and getting people to become more involved and interested in the matters of global warming. I had no heard about the film until recently, and I am sure many people did not know about it until the academy awards took place.
Posted by Kate Ryan:
While it is excellent that Gore was celebrated and recognized for his involvement in an environmental issue, I'm not sure Congress will be as affected by it as the entertainment industry was...which is kind of an ironic statement. Yet it does show, once again, how powerful media is, and what good can come of it. It seems to me that Gore is going off in a different direction and will not run for the 2008 elections, though I would happy to see him up there. He's proven that his personal projects and desire to continue to help the American people and the world we live in continues even after his official government position as Vice President has ended, and I feel that we need more presidential campaigners with that kind of passion driving them instead of the amount of money in their fundraising accounts driving them.
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