I'm absolutely delighted

first of all that I'm back (can't believe I've been away for 3 months) and happy birthday to me

but much more importantly that Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Almost as satisfying was the inevitable knee-jerk howl of fury from the fascists, flat-earthists, creationists, climate change denialists, and supporters of the war in Iraq. It proves that the rest of us are on the right track.

Yes of course, dubious characters have previously been awarded the prize - like the last apartheid president who had to be given a podium share with Nelson Mandela. But that does not detract from the importance and worth of the present award.

Congratulations to the prescient columnists like Christopher Hitchens who predicted this, and also in the aftermath urged him to run for President. Will he? It's an agonising question. No well wisher would want the new impetus to the environmental movement to be damaged by his essential side-tracking into petty politicking which the campaign would entail. And the unthinkable disaster if he lost. At the same time, the temptation to displace the shrill, fake Hilary is irresistible. The only Bush prediction which one can definitely agree with is that she would win the nomination but lose the election. I hope he does run, though first he must overcome the Democrats' unerring instinct to nominate a loser as their candidate.

And if he wins - eight years of wrong would be put to rights. What a resounding epitaph to, and what more fitting way, to nail down the coffin of the catastrophic Bush era.

photo with ack to slate.com