"I mentioned the feeling many have that something basic has gone
wrong. Whatever it is, I think it has a lot to do with the way we seek
the truth and try in good faith to use facts as the basis for debates
about our future -- allowing for the unavoidable tendency we all have
to get swept up in our enthusiasms.

That last point is worth highlighting. Robust debate in a democracy
will almost always involve occasional rhetorical excesses and leaps of
faith, and we're all used to that. I've even been guilty of it myself
on occasion. But there is a big difference between that and a
systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic
ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic
honesty.

Unfortunately, I think it is no longer possible to avoid the
conclusion that what the country is dealing with in the Bush
Presidency is the latter. That is really the nub of the problem --
the common source for most of the false impressions that have been
frustrating the normal and healthy workings of our democracy."

-- Al Gore, in a speech for MoveOn.org