Sarah vs Al: The People Want This One

By: Charles Cooper
Topics: In The News

(AP)

Don King, are you listening? And if the world's most hair-raising promoter won't take this one on, then I officially volunteer to set it up.

Al Gore, who is making the rounds to hawk his latest book, gave the back of his hand to Sarah Palin when Andrea Mitchellasked him about the ex-Alaska governor's dismissal of "junk science" surrounding the Copenhagen climate change summit this week.

"Well, you know, the -- the global warming deniers persist in this air of unreality," Gore said. "After all, the entire north polar icecap, which has been there for most of the last 3 million years, is disappearing before our eyes. Forty percent is already gone. The rest is expected to go completely within the next decade. What do they think is causing this? The scientific community has worked very intensively for 20 years within this international process, and they now say the evidence is unequivocal."

We're heard it all before from Gore. Same goes for Palin, who has since become fond of using Facebook to make her pronouncements. Responding to the former VP, Palin repeated her claim that a trove of stolen emails undermines climate change arguments which she says "are flawed, falsified, or inconclusive."

On and on it goes, where it stops - wait! Give it up to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, who asked the peripatetic Palin whether she would dare get into the ring with Gore and duke it out in a debate over the existance of climate change. Here's the Oxford Union, which has honestly hosted generations of debates, and head into the debate knowing they were on an equal footing.

In fact, the more I think about this, the more I want it to happen. Look, it's been a long and lousy year for most folks (unless you happen to work for Goldman Sachs.) Unemployment soared, the Octomom and Jon Gosselin wouldn't disappear and the Yankees won the World Series. Could it get much worse? (I ask that knowing full well that the Tiger Woods novella is just getting started.)

So as 2010 comes to a close, we deserve a break. A prime time one-on-one showdown - the people deserve this one. Bill it as "The Thrilla From Wasilla" versus "The Tennessee Tornado" - or whatever - and donate the proceeds to charity. But bring it on.

Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.