The strategic significance of Gore's battle with Bush yesterday

Al Gore is finally understanding how to confront someone rhetorically without making himself out to be the nerd that no one likes, a complete reversal from his losing fortune in 2000.  Yesterday, when Bush brushed off the credibility of the former Vice President's new movie "An Inconvenient Truth", Gore responded by turning it around on him -- making this global warming debate a war between Bush's lazy energy policy and a mindful alternative.

In response to a reporter's question about whether he will see Al Gore's new movie, Bush arrogantly replied, "Doubt it."

Now that is something an athletic older sibling would say to a clumsy younger sibling after being asked to play basketball.  It was Bush's way of telling Gore that the former vice president was old news, not his caliber and not worth his time.

Instead of sitting down with his hands over his knees like in 2000, Al Gore shot back by offering to give the President a private screening of the movie himself:

But Bush should watch it, Gore shot back. In fact, the formerDemocratic vice president offered to come to the White House any time,any day to show Bush either his documentary or a slide show on globalwarming that he's shown more than 1,000 times around the world.

"The entire global scientific community has a consensus on thequestion that human beings are responsible for global warming and hehas today again expressed personal doubt that that is true," Gore saidin an Associated Press interview from France where he attended the Cannes Film Festival.

To be fair, President Bush has acknowledged that humans have impacted the climate to a certain extent.  His statement during a foreign policy trip in July of last year was one example:

"Irecognise the surface of the earth is warmer and that an increase ingreenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem," hesaid during a visit to Denmark en route to Gleneagles.

Regardless of what Bush truly believes, a report on "60 Minutes" two months ago revealed that the Administration had been censoring government global warming data before it could reach the public.

Now back to Gore.  The one-time Democratic presidential candidate picked a great time to turn the tables on Bush.  This week the Competitive Enterprise Institute is unleashing attack ads against the global warming theory in an effort to destroy Al Gore's credibility.  That was why Gore acted smartly yesterday.  By quickly shifting the focus onto Bush, at the same time as gas prices continue to rise and smog worries loom during the summer in our nation's urban areas, this makes the debate less of a battle between Gore and his political motivations and more about Al Gore supplying a legitimate alternative to Bush's stay-the-course energy policy.  Just about any political strategist would agree that Bush's popularity left the building months ago.  He has not offered any new ideas.  Al Gore's movie is a new idea in itself.

Gore's rhetorical challenge to Bush is forcing Americans to take a side: Bush or Gore.  Judging from the way things are today from an energy standpoint, I'm sure you can bet which way the pendulum of positive opinion will swing.