Al Gore, Superstar

Variety queries: "Who knew that winning an Oscar was a pathway to the Nobel Peace Prize?"

Truth is, Al Gore has done for for mankind with An Inconvenient Truth than his snarky detractors could ever dream of accomplishing. Indeed, whenever I read bloggers like David Poland dismiss Gore's Oscar-winning documentary as "a boring slideshow by a boring speaker," I have to wonder: Do these boneheads ever wonder how silly they will look 20 or 30 years from now? Don't they ever worry that, when future generations read them, they'll appear as foolish as Alabama racists talking about "nigras" in 1962? Do they freakin' care?

Truth is, folks have made sport of Gore for a long time. And while he has survived, and thrived, since the presidency was swiped from him in 2000, the country hasn't exactly prospered. Cheap-seat jeerers such as Poland might do well to read Bob Herbert's scathing response to those who made fun of Gore's alleged "stiffness" during the 2000 campaign: "Mr. Gore... was mocked unmercifully by the national media. And the mockery had nothing to do with the former vice president’s positions on important policy issues. He was mocked because of his personality. In the race for the highest office in the land, we showed the collective maturity of 3-year-olds.

"Mr. Gore was taken to task for his taste in clothing and for such grievous offenses as sighing or, allegedly, rolling his eyes. It was a given that at a barbecue everyone would rush to be with his opponent.

"We’ve paid a heavy price. The president who got such high marks as a barbecue companion doesn’t seem to know up from down. He’s hurled the nation into a ruinous war that has cost countless lives and spawned a whole new generation of terrorists. He continues to sit idly by as a historic American city, New Orleans, remains wounded and on its knees. He’s blithely steered the nation into a bottomless pit of debt.

"I could go on..."