Message in hand, Gore returns in triumph to Congress

Oscar-winner back on Capitol Hill with well-honed warning on climate change

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Thursday March 22, 2007
The Guardian

It was a bittersweet homecoming. The last time Al Gore was in Congress was in January 2001, to see George Bush confirmed as president after a vitriolic election campaign and count. One of the reasons he lost was his lack of passion, having listened to advice from campaign managers to focus on the economy and avoid the one issue that animates him: the environment.

He returned yesterday in triumph, the man who could have stopped Mr Bush now transformed into an Oscar winner and one of the world's leading campaigners on the dangers of global warming. He is bulkier, greyer and wrinkled. But he is also less buttoned-up, more emotional. He spoke fluently and knowledgeably, mostly without notes, showing the kind of president he might have been and, possibly, might yet be.