Carlson: If Al Gore were president, "[w]e'd ... be living in yurts in the dark"

On the November 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, after stating that he "will bet [his] car" that President Bush, "when he leaves office will come out in the next decade or so as a strong advocate on behalf of ending global warming," host Tucker Carlson asserted that former Vice President Al Gore "would have been a disaster as president." Carlson continued: "We'd have been living in the Dark Ages. I think he's fundamentally hostile to human civilization. And a phony." After Politico senior political columnist Roger Simon asked Carlson, "Would we be fighting a war in Iraq?" Carlson responded, "We would likely be not, not be fighting a war in Iraq. We'd also be living in yurts in the dark, and that would be maybe almost as bad."

Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for "[h]is strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, [which] has strengthened the struggle against climate change," according to the Nobel citation.

From the November 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

CARLSON: Let me just put it this way. Here is my guess, and I know that I'm right. I will bet my car, in fact. Bush will come out, this president when he leaves office, will come out in the next decade or so as a strong advocate on behalf of ending global warming. He will be, he will have an environmentally conscious post presidency --

SIMON: Out of guilt perhaps?

CARLSON: -- like you read about -- no. 'Cause I think those are his true feelings. I mean, the guy has -- you know, he brags about his ranch being -- you know, having a small carbon footprint. I mean, they're very similar. People can't -- it's the same culture.

BOB FRANKEN (online columnist): Well, but they come at it entirely differently. I mean, George W. Bush has come at it as president from the point of view of corporate America, saying that we have to maintain our economy, and we have to figure out some sort of way consistent with that to attack global warming as long as we don't undermine the economy. Al Gore comes at it as, "I've got a slide show here which says that this is priority. We have to do this."

[crosstalk]

CARLSON: Well, I mean, presumably keeping the economy from collapsing is not only good for corporations but also for the people who don't -- so the country doesn't live in poverty.

FRANKEN: But what I'm saying is they're coming at it from entirely different directions.

CARLSON: Yeah. Bush will change. I've been saying this for seven years. Nobody believes me.

SIMON: But Al Gore will suggest that's eight years too late.

CARLSON: Yeah, OK, OK. Well, I think -- I mean, I think Gore would have been a disaster as president. We'd have been living in the Dark Ages. I think he's fundamentally hostile to human civilization. And a phony.

SIMON: Would we be fighting a war in Iraq?

CARLSON: We would likely be not, not be fighting a war in Iraq. We'd also be living yurts in the dark, and that would be maybe almost as bad.

—M.G.