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Al Gore campaigned for Barack Obama in West Palm Beach, Florida. West Palm Beach was a focal point in controversy surrounding vote counting in the 2000 election so what better place to have Al Gore stump for Obama? And he does a great job as usual.

All I could think as I watched Al Gore speak was "We wuz robbed."  Can you imagine what it would be like now having President Gore passing the torch to Obama?  The mind reels.

Eight years ago, some said there was not much difference between the nominees of the two major parties and it didn't really matter who became President.

Our nation was enjoying peace and prosperity. Some assumed we would continue both no matter the outcome. But here we all are in 2008, and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn't matter.

Take it from me, if it had ended differently, we would not be bogged down in Iraq, we would have pursued Bin Laden until we captured him.

We would not be facing a self-inflicted economic crisis, we would be fighting for middle income families.

We would not be showing contempt for the Constitution, we'd be protecting the rights of every American regardless of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

And we would not be denying the climate crisis, we'd be solving it.

Today, we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000, though it may be even more obvious now - because John McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of the Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them, the same policies all over again?

Hey, I believe in recycling, but that's ridiculous.

Transcripts below the fold

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As an addendum to last night's John Bolton post criticizing Al Gore, we present a bit of drama from Bali at the UN conference on climate change. An initial proposal for industrialized nations to supply developing countries with clean technologies was rejected by the United States. This lead to the drama which followed:

This Mr de Boer, in tears after two nights without sleep, later denied, to supportive applause.

Then Mr Witoelar called for another break in which he summoned the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and the Indonesian President Yudhoyono, to read the riot act to delegates and break the deadlock.

Mr Yudhoyono urged the conference not to allow "the planet to crumble because we can't find the right wording."

Mr Ban said he was "disappointed at the lack of progress" and pointed out the conference was already due to have ended five hours earlier. This was at 1.20 pm local time.

The conference reconvened. South Africa made an emotional appeal for the Americans to reconsider their statement – and was supported by delegation after delegation from the developing world while Miss Dobriansky and James Connaughton, President Bush's climate change adviser, talked increasingly animatedly off-microphone.

The killer blow came from the Harvard-educated representative of Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad, who used Mr Connaughton's diplomatic gaffe of earlier in the week to humiliate the Americans.

Mr Connaughton had said: "We will lead. We will continue to lead but leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow." Mr Conrad said, to applause: "If you are not willing to lead, then get out of the way."

Miss Dobriansky finally pressed her button to speak again and said: "We will go forward and join the consensus."

After cheers and diplomatic congratulations, the president of the conference assessed that "we are very, very close", then banged his gavel down on India's proposal to mark that a consensus had been achieved.

Despite all these theatrics, most environmentalists have criticized the summit for failing to agree to firm targets for reducing emissions.

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Quiz: If you were to pick the least qualified person, the one with the worst reputation from the Bush administration to comment on Global Warming, whom would you choose? If you chose recess appointment as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton, you're thinking like a Bushie, or at least their official public relations network, FOX News. When asked about mandatory limits on climate change, Bolton had this to say:

Well, it's not unusual for Vice President Gore to be wrong, either, as he is in this case. Of the G8 industrialized democracies, four -- the United States, Japan, Canada, and Russia --share our view...If you look at the developing countries, Brazil, India, and China all oppose these targets as well. So, the notion that this is the fault of the U.S. is wrong.

If anybody's isolated here, I think it's the Europeans and Al Gore...

Bolton is living in a fantasyland, as are most Bushites. The United States-- the only major industrialized country to reject the Kyoto treaty-- signed instead a compromise deal today which didn't mention any figures but set 2009 as a deadline for a new treaty, after much heel-dragging from the U.S. contingent. Senior U.S. negotiator Paula Dobriansky was booed loudly while a US environmental activist representing Papua New Guinea said to rousing cheers: "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way." In the end, after much grumbling, they did just that.

Vice President Gore appeared on NBC's "30 Rock" Thursday night to help promote the network's Green Week. And he killed it.

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