And They Want Al Gore to Be President?

Al Gore has done another stupid thing. He is accepting a $100K speaker's fee to speak to a group of techies under the strict condition that no news media is present, and no video or audio recordings or photographs will be allowed!

Gore has demanded--as a condition of giving the keynote speech--that press be barred from the room. As Kim Zetter wrote for Wired.com: "Video recordings, broadcasts and photography are also prohibited."

Gore might have gotten away with it a decade ago. And, to be sure, he has the right to negotiate that requirement with RSA. But nowadays, when tech-savvy audience members, who each coughed up some $3,670 for registration, are outfitted with digital cameras and recording devices (including on mobile phones), any speaker who insists on this requirement is foolish or naive.

You decide which category Gore falls into.

This isn't the first time that Gore has insisted on a $100,000-or-so speaking contract that prohibited press from attending. He did it at a speech at Augustana College (billed as "free and open to the public"). He did it at a speech last year to the American Institute of Architects convention, which the San Antonio Express-News crashed and wrote up anyway.

...Does anyone really think Gore's Don't-Record-Me Ban will work at a conference of 17,000+ gadget-outfitted security geeks? Thought so. So here's my offer: A free News.com (or CNET, depending on what we have in stock) baseball cap or fleece--your choice--to the first person who e-mails me a link to the video of the astonishingly publicity-shy ex-veep at RSA next month.___Cnet

This does not reduce my opinion of Al Gore in the slightest. Nothing could do that, given that Gore negative-pegged my opinion-o-meter years ago, and it has not recovered since.

The astonishing thing is that top-ranked US Democratic Party political analysts and pundits are public wishing for Al Gore to come to the Democratic Party Convention this summer and rescue the DP from itself! As if Gore is capable of rescuing his pet poodle from a neighbor's cat, much less rescuing an entire political party.

The dumbing down of US schools is bearing fruit within the Democratic Party voting population. Already in possession of two hopeless candidates, the DP is trying to resurrect yet a third! Yep. Pegged it at the negative extreme. I paid good money for that meter, too.