Gimme Some Truth

Time Magazine, December 10. 2007. Barack Obama: The Contender

Q: A few months ago, we ran a cover story called “The Case for National Service.”
Barack Obama: One of the things I think I can bring to the presidency is to make government and public service cool again. There’s such a hunger among young people for some outlet for their idealism. That’s why you see these movements around Darfur or climate change. You don’t see it expressed in terms of people wanting to serve in the Justice Department or the foreign service. Why should they, when the core missions of those agencies have been gutted?
Q; Would you say Al Gore is really the catalyst for concern about climate change?
Barack Obama: He has been working on this for decades. The country and the world caught up to him.