Draft Al Gore? A Great Idea Globally and Nationally! 
Two previous presidential draft movements in American history gained traction and arouse discussion among historians and political enthusiasts today. They occurred twenty years apart in 1940 and 1960. The earlier effort resulted in that candidate securing his party's presidential nomination.
Wendell Willkie was an Indianan who became a corporate lawyer for Commonwealth and Southern. While he opposed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the realm of anti-trust law and other domestic issues, he was a solid internationalist who supported Roosevelt's efforts to aid Britain during that tragic period when it was imperiled under brutal Nazi siege at Dunkirk.
Roosevelt had been fearful that a Republican nominee might campaign on an isolationist theme.
Another draft movement was launched prior to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. It generated around the party's two time standard bearer, former Illinois Governor Adlai E. Stevenson, himself a solid internationalist. Stevenson gained fame in Illinois by openly confronting McCormick and his isolationist position during the critical period prior and after the outbreak of World War Two.
Stevenson's fame quickly mushroomed nationally and the articulate Illinoisan became a grassroots favorite among progressives prior to and during the 1960 Democratic Convention, which ultimately saw the nomination go to John F. Kennedy.
Stevenson's popularity resulted from his mature grasp of global affairs during a period of Cold War turbulence when the threat of nuclear war gripped Americans as well as citizens of the world community.
Al Gore bears similarity to the aforementioned Americans in one basic respect - international conscience and global responsibility. Gore has seized the number one issue confronting the world - how to save it from the perils of global warming or nuclear annihilation.
A Gore draft effort bears one important distinction to the efforts on behalf of the two great Americans Willkie and Stevenson.
A Gore draft represents a first. A Gore draft represents finally redressing a tragic grievance and affording a winning candidate an opportunity to serve in the position to which he was originally elected.
Al Gore was elected President in 2000. Isn't it time for him to serve in that position?
Gore Vidal, one of the world's great independent political thinkers, declared recently that since Al Gore, a distant cousin of Vidal's, is the political figure on the scene who has a solid fundamental grasp of the major world issue, that of saving the planet.
Vidal also stressed the fundamental justice of finally permitting a candidate to serve in the position to which he was rightfully elected by the nation's voters in 2000.
We agree with Vidal's thinking.
After I wrote my last column declaring Gore to be my De Facto President, I received a response from Mac Hathaway, who is heading a Draft Gore movement in the perfect venue to launch such an effort.
Hathaway hails from Massachusetts, the freedom loving state that gave us Paul Revere's legendary ride through the streets of Boston along with Lexington and Concord. He invited me as well as others on this site to join the Draft Gore team.
Mac Hathaway and his group can be reached at DraftGoreNE.com. Mac told me that his group is working on a petition to obtain signatures supporting a Gore candidacy.
I wish Mac luck and extend to him a standing offer to visit this site to update activity in his Draft Al Gore organization.
KEYWORDS: Al Gore, Adlai E. Stevenson, Wendell Willkie, 2000 Election, Why Gore Should be Drafted for President
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