No - Al Gore doesn’t own a Shoney’s Restaurant. He doesn’t sport a beard nor has he put on any extra pounds. Instead he’s been touring the country campaigning for fellow Democrats.
“I am Al Gore, I used to be the next president of the United States, and if it was up to Michigan, I would be the president,” he told the more than 800 people who packed into the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre for a Democratic rally on Monday.
After a jolting final lap of the 2000 presidential election that saw President Bush emerge victorious after recounts, Gore has kept a low profile, teaching and writing until the fall campaign.
This fall, Gore has concentrated on campaigning for candidates nationwide. He says Attorney General Jennifer Granholm - who faces Republican Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus, among others, on Nov. 5 - is the nation’s best gubernatorial candidate.
“Michigan is fortunate to have a candidate like Jennifer Granholm,” he said. “The next governor is going to have to make some really tough decisions.”
The next governor of Michigan will face a budget crunch in a slumping economy, but Gore said Granholm is the one to take on the challenge.
Gore said he came to MSU to kill two birds with one stone, touting Granholm’s campaign while telling students “it’s important to register to vote.”
Gore also said Granholm promotes unity, which is what he said the state needs most.
“One of the challenges you face in Michigan is bringing everybody together,” he said.
With a Tennessean drawl, Gore pepped up the rally by making jokes about his loss in the 2000 election and a false news report that he and his wife, Tipper, had opened a Shoney’s franchise. He also quipped about losing the perks he enjoyed as vice president.
“Now that they allow other cars on the road with me, it takes so much longer,” he joked.
Gore told the audience he was pleased with the level of enthusiasm that filled the theater, but he warned them not to underestimate the power of the ballot.
“The real issue here is whether or not you can take this enthusiasm today and keep it until the polls close,” he said. “I know a little bit about how important it is to get people to get out and vote. The voting machines in Florida are still clogged with Al Gore ballots.”
Gore said before hitting the campaign trail, he kept busy as a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University and Fisk University.
“Visiting professor is VP for short - it’s a way to hang on,” he said, provoking a chuckle from the audience.
MSU Democrats President Nate Engle said the event will prove to be a huge success. “It gave the Democrats a one-two punch,” he said. “It was a great burst of momentum heading into the final week of the election.”
But Posthumus, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, doubted the impact the rally would have on student voters.
“I think it’s probably not going to have as much impact as when we brought President Bush into Michigan,” he said, referring to the president’s Oct. 21 visit to Detroit and adding that one final visit from the president before Election Day is “still up in the air.”
There were about five protesters who yelled “extreme” a minute into Granholm’s speech; event organizers approached them, and they left before being escorted out.
“I have a message for Dick Posthumus: It’s liberating, it’s extremely exciting, it’s Granholm,” state Rep. Virg Bernero said at the rally. The Lansing Democrat is running for the state Senate against state Rep. Paul DeWeese, R-Williamston.
State Sen. John Cherry, D-Clio, Granholm’s running mate, said the election will define Michigan politics for the next 20 years. “Not every political generation can say they had this opportunity to literally reach out and shape this future,” he said. “Today we have that opportunity.”
Granholm agreed both Michigan’s near and distant future will be decided Nov. 5.
“There is an amazing chance to really change the history - or the her-story,” she said.
