Gore Watch: Is this the end?
Oh, no! No more Gore Watch?
No more seizing on every strand of hope -- his daughter's wedding, his appearance on an NBC TV show, his sighting at a global environmental concert in New Jersey of all places -- that the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate would become the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate and save the party from more planted questions, who can get out of Iraq faster and who to tax more next.
Can it be true?
"I don't expect to be a candidate again," he told the New York Times. Maybe they got it wrong and what he really said was, "I do intend to be a candidate again."
But it doesn't look good for the Draft Gore movement here and here and here.
It seems Gore has taken a job in industry promoting a whole new string of coal-fired electrical-generating plants throughout the Ohio Valley. They wanted someone with good Washington connections and some environmental credentials to make the case for acid rain on "Larry King Live" and elsewhere.
Just kidding. The Times reports that Big Al has taken a part-time partnership in a Silicon Valley venture capital firm called Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he'll devote time to investigating the potential of new green industries, especially the growth potential of start-up companies in the alternative energy sector.
Al Gore already has an advisory role with Google in the Bay Area, sits on the board of Apple and is founder of Current TV, the San Francisco-based cable channel you've never heard of because it's devoted to viewer-created material.
Gore says he will donate his salary to promote national energy independence to the APSNWP, the Alliance to Promote Stripmining in National Wildlife Preserves.
Just kidding. He intends to contribute the money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit foundation. Maybe in 2012 we can try to get him to run again.
--Andrew Malcolm
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Thought you were a real reporter--just kidding.
Posted by: Christopher French | November 14, 2007 at 09:32 AM
Don't slander New Jersey schmuck.
Posted by: Paul | November 15, 2007 at 10:22 AM
So sad to see Al Gore hanging it up for a while, even in such a good year for the Democratic vineyards.
I suppose the real question is why he hasn't endorsed his former big man's big gal. Maybe he's still distancing himself -- I have a feeling the two are not really fond of each other.
It is sort of nice to have authoritative voices who are slightly out of the fray, the village elders who may be motivated by book and talk sales, but at least are not twising and turning in the normal political overgrowth. I think we all love Jimmy Carter more as an ex-President. Al and Jimmy and Bill vs. George and Dan and George and Dick: it's a rumble I look forward to watching. Anyone remember Dan? (Or Walter)?
Posted by: Ronald Loui | November 15, 2007 at 11:59 AM