During the 4PM EST installment of “The Situation Room,” Bill Schneider perfectly set up the ideal liberal fantasy (somewhat similar video available here):
It's Academy Awards night. Best documentary feature is up. And the Oscar is favored to go to "An Inconvenient Truth," starring Al Gore… Lawrence Bender and the film's other producers come up to accept the Oscar with Gore. The audience roars its approval. This is liberal Hollywood. Gore speaks.
The video then cut to Martin Kaplan, who is the director of the Norman Lear Center:
There is even some speculation that he would use his Oscar as the occasion to announce that he is running. Imagine that, a billion people worldwide. Take that, Jay Leno, as an announcement venue.
Schneider then asked: “Could an Oscar start the momentum for a draft-Gore movement?”
Kaplan answered:
People think that he has paid his dues. He has had more of an impact on issues that people care about than many people who have been in office. And I think there's a -- a feeling that he is finally lost that student council president condescension, which was fingernails on the blackboard to a lot of supporters.
Of course, this all assumes that Gore is going to be allowed up at the podium to speak which FNC’s Bill McCuddy questioned Saturday. Regardless, just imagine the power of this theater for people all over the world to see.
Hillary and Barack better hope that this is all just Bill Schneider's pipedream, for if this truly occurs, and Gore has a videotape of this huge audience giving him a standing ovation after he announces his candidacy, he's going to be almost impossible for them to beat.
What follows is a partial transcript of this segment. Be advised that it differs slightly from the video, as what CNN posted at its website has a bit more dialogue from Schneider than what was broadcast on “The Situation Room.”
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's Academy Awards night. Best documentary feature is up. And the Oscar is favored to go to "An Inconvenient Truth," starring Al Gore.
LAWRENCE BENDER, PRODUCER, "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH": Al Gore will be at the Academy, sure.
SCHNEIDER (on camera): Yes. He will be in the audience?
BENDER: He will be in the audience.
SCHNEIDER: Lawrence Bender and the film's other producers come up to accept the Oscar with Gore. The audience roars its approval. This is liberal Hollywood. Gore speaks.
MARTIN KAPLAN, DIRECTOR, NORMAN LEAR CENTER: There is even some speculation that he would use his Oscar as the occasion to announce that he is running. Imagine that, a billion people worldwide. Take that, Jay Leno, as an announcement venue.
SCHNEIDER: Really?
BENDER: It's electrifying because, not politically, because is Al Gore going to run or not going to run? That's -- there is nothing going to happen like that. It's electrifying because the man who was responsible for solidifying the forces to -- about -- around global warming is going to -- and -- and now been acknowledged.
SCHNEIDER: Could an Oscar start the momentum for a draft-Gore movement?
KAPLAN: People think that he has paid his dues. He has had more of an impact on issues that people care about than many people who have been in office. And I think there's a -- a feeling that he is finally lost that student council president condescension, which was fingernails on the blackboard to a lot of supporters.
SCHNEIDER: The Democrats are desperate to win. Doubts have begun to surface about...
BENDER: He was right on Iraq. He was right on global warming. He has an issue that is so formidable, and has attacked it, tackled it. So, I would love to see him run, sure, but I don't -- I don't see -- I don't see that in the cards.
SCHNEIDER: But, once that envelope is opened, there will be a new card to play.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: And maybe Mr. Gore will stand up and say, "I have a new song to sing," because, after all, his film has been nominated in the best song category, too.
