There was a time when Al Gore did everything in his power to insult his hosts, something considerably different from his appeasement performance this week in Jiddah. Both speeches, eight years apart, however share one common theme: Al's total lack of self-restraint.

NOTE: At the time I actually was quite supportive of Gore's remarks in support of Malaysia's sacked and jailed former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim. However, anyone could have predicted - and should have advised the then Vice President of the United States - that lecturing your Malaysian host in public would at best, be counter-productive.