Dear Al Gore,

I have a friend without a blog. Here's what he told me. Now I'm telling you:

I'm thinking about writing an open letter to Gore in my blog, urging him not only to run, but also providing him with a campaign strategy. I worked it all out in my head just yesterday: his grand narrative, which the media would eat up like dogs, would be that he's a Cassandra-like visionary, with the internet, with the environment, withIraq. And now, with the future of America. I am deeply underwhelmed by all the candidates in the field, all of whom refuse to take on real issues with any substance. Only a Gore candidate could change the political dialogue: Gore loves the intellectual part of figuring out solutions to tough problems, and I'm sure he's already got ideas on all the major challenges facing our nation in the years to come. And Gore would rather talk substance than shit. He would force the other candidates to reckon with his visionary approach and come up with their own concrete plans. But in order to do that, Gore must have answers: real policy proposals, foreign and domestic. He must have an exit strategy for Iraq, a plan to deal with Iran, a health care plan, ideas for paying down the deficit and strengthening the economy in the face of the E.U. and Chinese threat, a full-scale Climate Change policy, and ways to prepare for retiring and dying baby-boomers (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) His campaign watch-word will be: VisionQuest! Also in my blog, I would unveil my master stroke, my genius maneuver for how Gore could defeat Hillary. It's very simple: Gore must joinforces with Obama. Make him his running mate -- even before the nomination! That's the brilliance of it. A month or so into Gore's candidacy, he should start campaigning with Obama, generating a huge buzz of excitement. They should deny everything, until their campaign staffs integrate, agree on a way forward, and figure out all the legal issues. The press would be frothing at the mouth, and Dems would be out of their minds. Can you imagine a Gore-Obama ticket?! Finally, after a couple weeks of speculation and media hysteria -- say 4 weeksbefore the Iowa Caucus -- they should annonce their joint candidacy. Hillary would be toast. I would write all that in my blog to Gore. If I had a blog.

I'd write that in MY blog, if I had thought to write it at all.
Love,
Your ever-loving, always faithful, deepest, truest fan,
SLC-P