From The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/22/wgore22.xml
I don’t know anything about political strategy, but wouldn’t he be at a huge disadvantage if he entered the race this late? I seem to recall hearing that Obama and Hillary have already raised many millions of dollars for their campaigns. How would Gore catch up?
That’s ambiguous? What’s a guy gotta do to convince people he’s not running?
FTR, I know politicians always do that. I remember Hillary denying interest in running for president after the 2004 election. Just wondering what would be considered unambiguous.
Whenever a British newspaper gets a lead on U.S. political news before any of the multitude of American media sources and DC gossip sources that I keep up on, my response is always the same: Yeah. Whatever.
Obviously, I have no inside information about Al Gore’s plans. He;ll do whatever he wants, and I’ll be as surprised as anyone else.
But I suspect he WILL run again. Lack of funds won’t be an issue. He already has nearly 100% name recognition (something guys like Mike Huckabee or Sam Brownback would ahve to spend tens of millions to attain), and he’d have no trouble at all raising a fortune in Hollywood alone.
Hillary doesn’t excite anyone, and at SOME point, Obama will start to look like the neophyte he is. When that happens, many Democrats will start looking for an alternative, and Gore will probably be tempted to position himself as that alternative.
Mind you, his chances in the general election would be good, but NO better than those of Hillary or Obama. No matter who the Democrat is, he/she will win all the states Kerry carried, and just a few more. That certainly MIGHT be enough to win- but Gore is no better a bet to swing, say, Ohio than Hillary or Obama.
What constitutes “looking for an alternative?” I know people who swore up and down in 2003 and '04 that Hillary was going to jump in any minute and “rescue” the Democrats.
I will not seek re-election. If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.
Gore would be a fool not to have Plan B in effect.
Anything can, and does, happen in primary elections.
If any of the current front runners make a major blunder of some kind, that would narrow the field - and if polls start showing that the remaining front-runners wouldn’t win the general election, that would be when Gore officially throws in his hat.
During Gore’s campaign, it wasn’t like people* hated* him, they just didn’t find him all that exciting. However, since he has been doing his little slide show around the world, and his film won an Oscar, and he has been nominated for a Nobel (yeah, I know lots of people are) his popularity has grown. Plus, Gore seems to have become a new man - more relaxed and confident. This was exactly what was missing in his last campaign.
So I wouldn’t consider Al Gore a long shot at the White House by any means - but he is clever enough to sit back and see what happens for the time being.
As far as getting money later in the campaign, I don’t see that as a problem. Democrats will find a way to fund his candidacy if they consider him electable.
You really think so? I have no polls to back this up, but there are a lot of people who simply don’t like Hillary and would never vote for her whereas I haven’t heard people say this about Gore. There’s just a lot of hate out there for Hillary that I don’t see towards Gore. At least for the time being. 
This is true. Hillary has a lot of baggage which would work against her. Too many people think of her as a major bitch. As for Barak Obama, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Dems are only keeping him in the foreground in case they need to run against Condoleeza Rice. He really isn’t qualified, and most people know it.
Gore isn’t without his own drawbacks, however. Some of his recent environmental stances come across as being anti-industry, and that could hurt him in “Rust Belt” states like Michigan.
I swore up and down when she announced her candidacy . I guess when you put rescue in quotation marks it means to pander, vacillate and take a stand for whatever’s popular at the moment. The ‘alternative’ mentioned is a candidate who has something better than a snowball’s chance in hell. I think Gore is looking at the dismal pool and thinking ‘why not?’
I know one Republican over here who HAS voted Democrat in the past, for Clinton, but he voted for Bush both times. He tells me he would consider voting for Gore if he ran this time. Says he does not like any of the current Democrat field. Knowing my friend as I do, I feel certain he would vote for Gore, but vote Republican if anyone other Dem got the nomination. I wonder how many others there are like that out there.