GETTING AN ANARCHIST TO VOTE
Imagine a Ron Paul vs. Al Gore general election
BY DOUG FRENCH

Doug French, associate editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine is an executive vice president of a Nevada bank. He is the 2005 recipient of the Murray N. Rothbard Award from the Center for Libertarian Studies. Other stories by Doug French

The 2008 presidential race is already here to annoy us. Nevada Democrats and Republicans have moved their respective caucuses up, thinking that somehow Nevada voters will play a critical role in electing the next president. Visions of bright lights and camera crews descending on The Coffee Pub to follow Hillary, Rudi or one of the Johns pressing the flesh and nibbling on bagels and cream cheese, dance through their heads. 

But, the man poised to win the Democratic nomination was nowhere near the recently held debates and serial speechifying. He has been too busy testifying on Capital Hill and picking up an Oscar in Hollywood. Melissa Etheridge and Leonardo DiCaprio gush over him. He�s even been nominated for the Nobel Prize. Obama and Clinton may have written books, but this guy made a movie, and the Hollywood Lefties love it. 

Al Gore�s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is mainly a convenient lie to run for President on. If you haven�t seen the movie, there isn�t much there except lots of lingering images of Al staring, and staring, and staring. Where? Out over his farmland in Tennessee, at his computer screen while on the plane, out the car window while in China. 

A climatological record based upon 150 years of observation is statistically worthless for a planet of some 4.5 billion years of age. Weathermen are always wrong because atmospheric dynamics is a subject of such complexity. The Navier-Stokes equation governs these dynamics, which cannot be solved, as a system of non-linear partial differential equations, the solution of which require boundary and initial value constraints that cannot be evaluated.

But, Al Gore thinks he has this all figured out. Let�s remember, Al Gore is a lifelong politician who has never held a real job (except working for the New York Times for five years as a reporter), and the son of a politician. The fact is that humans are responsible for a very small percentage of total carbon-dioxide emissions. Volcanoes, animal flatulence and rotting vegetation all contribute heavily to the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Humans currently account for about 4 percent of total carbon-dioxide emissions, and carbon dioxide makes up about 0.038 percent of the atmosphere. 

Which brings us to a man who is running for president by speaking the truth, Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul. Paul stepped into the lions� den and appeared on comedian Bill Maher�s HBO show a few weeks back. Maher (who claims he is a Libertarian, but is anything but) contended that global warming is too important a problem and the government must intervene. 

Rep. Paul responded to Maher that global warming had been around for a long time and would likely continue, but scientists don�t know everything about it yet. Maher jumped in screeching that the only two people on the other side of the global-warming debate are �professor Irwin Corey and the Shell Answer Man.� 

Paul calmly pointed out that if the government gets involved in preventing global warming, it will �have to do something about the volcanoes,� and asked the comedian, �Would you want us to invade China so they don�t pollute?� Paul also pointed out that he would immediately stop the government�s subsidizing of big oil companies if elected; �our foreign policy benefiting big oil companies contributes to global warming.� 

The unassuming Texas congressman was clearly winning over Maher�s liberal audience, which prompted the host to continually remind them that Paul doesn�t believe there needed to be a Civil War, even after the congressman explained that the Civil War was fought over Lincoln�s quest to build a strong central government, not slavery. 

Currently, the polls have Hillary Rodham Clinton rolling over John Edwards, Barrack Obama with 41 percent to 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively. But as bad as George Bush�s job rating is, and the pasting Republicans took in the mid-term elections, Hillary is only a push against Rudy Giuliani or John McCain. 

This sets the stage for a well-rested Al Gore to seek the nomination and save the day for Democrats. 

On the website pajamasmedia.com, Al even outpolls Hillary 5.4 to 5.3 percent. Of course, Pajamas has Ron Paul running second amongst Republicans. But, the folks at Pajamas believe Paul is but an Internet phenomenon, noting that his best showing in a national poll is 3 percent on Zogby. 

Imagine a Ron Paul vs. Al Gore general election. That match-up might be enough to entice an anarchist to register to vote.