Talking Points Memo | Bush’s Legacy on Voting Rights: A Story from Ohio

Al Gore (and the IPCC) have won the Nobel Peace prize.

It’s pretty clear that Gore’s not going to mount a run at this late date. The real question is: Will he endorse?

If he blesses the Hillary campaign, I really would think the race is over. Given their combative past and Hillary’s as-yet flaccid global warming policies, however, I have a very hard time imagining Gore going there.

Edwards staked himself out early as the most serious global warming candidate. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, however, that Obama unveiled an aggressive cap-and-trade emissions policy just this week.

My best guess? Gore holds his tongue.

He’s now got the Nobel imprimatur, which should help him build a truly post-partisan consensus about global warming. Why risk that — and a future post as environment czar in any Democratic administration — by trying to tip the scales against Hillary?

From the Magazine: Run, Al, Run

Click here for the complete gallery of Sebastião Salgado photos, including images not included in the current issue of Rolling Stone.

As a boy growing up on a ranch in Brazil, Sebastião Salgado witnessed firsthand the destruction of the native forest. As thousands of acres were cleared for herds of cattle that demanded more and more pasture for grazing, the landscape was inexorably transformed into a dust-filled plain. “They killed the land,” Salgado says. “Today the Indians of the rain forest continue to be threatened with the same problem: massive plantations that are cutting down the forest and damming up the rivers.” (more…)

How did your senators vote on war with Iraq?

A quick reminder of how Democrats with presidential stars in their eyes cast their lots:

Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Clinton (D-NY), Yea
Daschle (D-SD), Yea
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Edwards (D-NC), Yea
Graham (D-FL), Nay
Kerry (D-MA), Yea

And then there’s Hillary’s hook, line, and sinker speech (YouTube):

Saddam “has given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists — including al Qaeda members…. This is probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. [Smiles.] Any vote that might lead to war should be hard. But I cast it with conviction!”

We learn today that Mitt Romney is burning through more of his own money on his presidential run than flat-taxer Steve Forbes did back in 1996 and 2000.

I think the lesson to draw from this has less to do with Mitt’s millions, and more to do with how inured we’ve since become to the astronomical sums required to run for president. Forbes’s expenditures seemed outrageous at the time — he was always accused of trying to “buy the White House.”

But when Mitt spends $17 million of his own money over nine months to boost his campaign coffers to $62 million, and still has less money than Hillary had after six months… well, it’s hard to accuse Mitt of doing anything more than keeping up with the Clintons.

And it’s all the more amazing that Mike Huckabee, with only one million raised last quarter, is in third place in the latest Iowa polling.