Opinion: Al Gore doesn’t say ‘No’ once again

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Al Gore fans, hang in there.

Once again, the former vice president has not ruled out jumping into the 2008 presidential race. He has said this so many times--here and here and here and here, among others--that some Democrats, dissatisfied with the current field, have visions of a deadlocked convention next summer turning in renewed hope to the loser of the 2000 race one more time.

The hope springs from several factors. Given numerous chances, Gore never says never. He refuses to rule a run out again in a new interview with 02138 magazine about Harvard alums. ‘It doesn’t feel right at this point,’ Gore said. But that sounds more equivocal than what he told Larry King earlier this year, that he had fallen out of love with politics.

Gore admitted he would have more influence over his environmental concerns as president, but said he was satisfied for now with raising environmental awareness and forcing the next president to confront it. And, let’s face it, he is pulling in $100,000 for each 75-minute environmental slide show he gives.

Also in the interview Gore declined to endorse any of the other current Democratic candidates. Why wouldn’t he do that if he’s really not running?

Gore said several Democratic candidates had phoned and visited him seeking advice. He would not name them, but he did single out for praise Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd for his proposal to enact a carbon tax on polluters.

Then Bill Clinton’s vice president was asked if he felt any obligation to endorse Clinton’s wife, Hillary?

‘Uh, no,’ said Gore. ‘I have friendships with her and with other candidates and they’re all on equal footing at this point as far as I’m concerned.’ Uh-huh.

In another interview (gee, lots of interviews for a non-candidate, eh?), this one in Vanity Fair, Gore helps dissect the media coverage of his ill-fated 2000 campaign. The article by Evgenia Peretz is titled ‘Going after Gore’ and is an interesting examination of the news cycles and news recycling that occurs in the mainstream media during a high-pressure presidential campaign. Peretz finds numerous distortions and misquotations that may have contributed to a caricature of Gore (Remember how he invented the Internet and was the model for Oliver Barrett in ‘Love Story’?).

Has Gore, the Oscar-winning, lecture-giving, global-concert-organizing, apocalypse-warning climate expert, reinvented his own self sufficiently to run for president again? His wife Tipper notes that he has done nothing to suggest a run for the presidency. But she doesn’t rule it out either.

In fact, according to Peretz, she adds that ‘if he turned to her one night and said he had to run, she’d get on board, and they’d discuss how to approach it this time around, given what they’ve learned.’

Hmmmm.

--Andrew Malcolm