GORE REDUX

Democrats unhappy with the possibility of a Hillary candidacy are looking for a hero. Will they turn to the failed 2000 candidate, Al Gore?

They said Al Gore was groomed for the presidency, but maybe everyone believes it except Gore himself. His 2000 campaign was a disaster. He didn’t know what he was, what he stood for or where he wanted to go. He allowed anyone and everyone to tell him which clothes to wear, what to say, and what to do. Remember the articles which said he wasn’t an “alpha male?" Gore allowed himself to be picked apart like Prometheus on the rock. You had to ask yourself whether Al Gore really wanted to be president.

On the other hand, Bush knew the value of the prize. Bush and his people wanted the presidency. When the issue was in doubt, Bush et.al. went and got family consigliore Jim Baker and they went to the Republican-picked and packed Supreme Court.

When crunch time came in Florida and Gore had to fight like a starving junkyard dog, he didn't. Instead, Gore dithered and diddled away the time and tried to pick and choose which districts required the vote recount rather than demand a recount for the entire state. Then he played the gentleman, and quietly withdrew “for the good of the country."

Gore’s adherents now look to him as the party’s savior; the anti-Hillary, if not the elected one, then the electable one. He was the guy who was right all along. Gore played the tease with a mock announcement of his candidacy at the Academy Awards. When given the chance for a Sherman-esque declaration, he declined to do so.

Maybe Gore feels that he can bide his time and thereby put himself into the winner's circle. Does Gore think that he can wait and pick up an Academy Award here, a Noble Prize nomination there (if not a prize itself), and then waltz in and save the party from Hillary? It would mean priceless free media coverage, better then any declared candidate possibly could garner, and all without the muss and fuss of raising money, putting an organization together, and actually running a campaign. As Chris Lehane said recently, it’s a lot better than spending time in Holiday Inns in Iowa.

They used to call him “Prince Albert.” Maybe Gore doesn’t want to run for election. Maybe he wants a coronation!