What's More Powerful Than Being President?
July 9, 2007
This past weekend Al Gore hosted LiveEarth, a 24-hour, eight-continent, 100-act mega concert that will reach 2 billion people. The procedes will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non profit group that Al Gore set up to "educate the public and petition lawmakers and corporations for eco-friendly changes."
There have been plenty of good-cause concerts before, starting way back in the 1970s when George Harrison and his pals through the concert for Bangladesh, but what's interesting about this one is how closely it's connected with Al Gore and his global warming campaign. If LiveEarth raises half as much money as LiveAid did in 2005, it will put Gore on top of a foundation that has an extra $122 million in the bank. Chances are the mega-concert will do better. It's quite possible it will make a quarter of a billion dollars. That puts Gore in a very intersting place - effectively in charge of a very substantial amount of money that can be directed at a single cause. He must be wondering if he could have more impact - and more power and prestige - by sticking with this cause, for which he's already so well known and greatly admired - than he would by going back into presidential politics.
This is sort of the position Tony Blaire finds himself in. After an up-and-down career as England's prime minister, he has become a high-profile negotiator for Arab Israeili peace. Being a politician has many drawbacks, not the least of which is the nasty things people say about you - wrong or right. But when you are heading up a noble cause - hardly anyone will criticize you. You get to do good (or your version of good), have perhaps a greater impact on social change than you would as president and make an unrestricted income at the same time. Sign me up.
posted by M. Masterson @ 3:35 PM,
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