They are all hypocrites....WE are all hypocrites.....We all do the same thing: Do as I say not as I do..... I believe in not whacking out the forests and swamps in Florida....only after my home site was cleared and home erected I believe we should conserve gas and use alternatives fuels...But i insist on having a kick ass car with balls and will only use hi-test. I want to preserve the land and stop these massive land fills.....but i really like putting my garbage by the street in the morning and not worrying about where its going. I REALLY do not want sewage in our waters, oceans, or in our aquifers....but every morning I " drop off a few buddies in the pool", flush it and forget it. still waiting for meaningful legislation and more importantly, meaningful action.
He is a politician. A politician never asks people to "voluntarily" do something. A politician pushes for an agenda, which when most people agree will be acted upon. But before that agenda is accepted, it's perfectly ok for the politician to NOT practice that agenda. This is not hypocracy. This is pragmatism. Not debating the merits of the policies, instead demanding that the people advocating the policies to "practice" them is disingenuous. By the way, an energy efficient 10,000 sq ft house needs less power than your typical 2,000 ft apartment. So the size of the house doesn't mean anything.
Well, you deserve credit for even attempting to defend Gore. Gore has basically taken a world-wide tour scaring the hell out of people while consuming perhaps 1000's of times more energy than the average person. 10,000 Square foot home? How much energy was consumed to build it? How much energy is consumed to heat/cool it? He's a joke.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is for a Presidential candidate to not carry his "home" state? I honestly can't think of it happening in modern history. Carter won Georgia in 1980 when he was annihilated nationally. Mondale carried Minnesota. Nixon in 1960 won California where he LOST two years later for Governor. Goldwater won Arizona, Dukakis in Mass., ect. These are guys who barely won any other states. Most voters will blindly select a "favorite son" despite partisan or ideological differences. For Gore to lose Tennessee was a real negative.
The knock on Gore in TN was that he didn't bring home any pork as a senator. And no pork either for 8 years as VP. So basically he lost TN because he was too much of a good boy (other people's good boy). Byrd would certainly win W. Virginia if he ran for President. Based on that, do you respect Byrd more than Gore? I don't.
The article states "Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed." Still want to hold to your absurd observation that a politician "never asks people to voluntarily change their ways?" Are you trying to tell us that Gore is waiting to pass a law that says we are required to use clotheslines? Yeah, right.
Do you live in NYC? Here in TN, we have very big houses. 10,000 sq ft is nothing. Also if you know how to insulate your house, it can take less to heat/cool it than a typical apartment.