February 9, 2009

Al Gore nabs elusive award triple crown: Oscar, Nobel, Grammy

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Former vice president Al Gore keeps racking up the hardware in his campaign to fight global warming. First An Inconvenient Truth, his documentary on climate change, nabbed an Academy Award for best documentary. (Although the Oscar actually went to director Davis Guggenheim, Gore gave an acceptance speech.) Then he was awarded, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. And last night, to cap it all off, Gore's print version of An Inconvenient Truthwon the Grammy for best spoken-word album, thanks to its release as an audio book.

Pres. Barack Obama, who has yet to collect an Oscar or a Nobel (but who boasts a better record in Florida politics than Gore), has brought home two Grammys in the spoken-word category himself for readings of his books Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. In fact, the award is becoming a near-gimme for liberal politicians: between Gore, Obama, Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken, and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, a Democratic pol has been in on the spoken-word Grammy in each of the last six years.

Photo of Al Gore receiving the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize by Kjetil Bjørnsrud via Wikimedia Commons

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