DENVER – Vice President Al Gore compared Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln in a rousing speech that said the new Democratic nominee would not ignore “inconvenient truths” such as global warning.

Gore praised Obama as a great orator with the power to inspire others, and suggested he shared the finest characteristics of another Illinois politician now generally considered to be America’s greatest president.

Lincoln’s experience “consisted of eight years in the state legislature and one term in Congress,” Gore said. When Lincoln ran for president, he was known – much like Obama – as a clear thinker and great orator.” He said both had the ability to incite passion in others, and that like Obama, Lincoln opposed a popular foreign war – the U.S.-Mexico War.

Gore, who lost the 2000 election by the slimmest of margins and won the popular vote, sought to underline the importance of the 2008 election. He noted that in 2000, many said there was little difference between the two main political parties and that it didn’t matter who was elected.

“I doubt anyone here would argue that election didn’t matter,” said Gore to a roar from the crowd. If he had been elected, he said the U.S. would not be bogged down in Iraq and would have chased after Osama Bin Ladin.

“And we wouldn’t be denying the climate crisis, we’d be solving the climate crisis,” he concluded.

Gore was introduced as a Nobel Prize winner and entered to the song “Let the Sun Shine.” He won the prize in 2007 for his efforts to disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for measures needed to counteract the change.

Much of Gore’s speech tackled climate change, and in a moment that may raise some eyebrows, he said opponents of caps on carbon emissions are partly to blame for why Obama hasn’t built a greater lead over GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who is set to accept his party’s nomination next week.

“I believe this election is close because the powers of the status quo are desperately afraid of the kind of change that Barack Obama represents,” Gore said. He later specifically mentioned “big oil and coal’s” opposition to carbon caps and said the Bush administration is controlled by special interests.

Gore also took a shot at McCain on the environment, saying the Arizona senator had set aside his history of open-mindedness on global warming to embrace Bush administration policies against carbon emission caps.

Big oil and coal “have a 50-year-lease on the Republican party and they’re drilling it for all its worth,” he said.