Al Gore Draft Movement Afoot

The voters were right in 2000: the man with the most votes, Al Gore, would have made a fine president. Busy with his campaign to do something about Global Warming, Al Gore says he's not running in 2008 but there are those who are thinking of getting a movement going to draft the former vice president. Here's an AP story from Yahoo News:

Veterans of Al Gore's past are quietly assembling a campaign to draft the former vice president into the 2008 presidential race — despite his repeated statements that he's not running.

His top policy adviser from his 2000 presidential campaign and other key supporters met Thursday in Boston to mull a potential Gore campaign. The participants and Gore's Nashville office both said Gore, who is in London, is not involved.

(snip)

"He certainly has the right political climate. How many political candidates are being nominated for Nobel prizes and winning Oscars?" said Dylan Malone, co-founder of AlGore.org and organizer of a political action committee trying to draft Gore.

His work on global warming earned him a Nobel nomination and two Oscar nods for his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." He has re-branded himself on late-night television and has brought together a stable of grass-roots supporters.

In 2002, Gore asked Malone to stop a draft effort he had begun; Malone did. Malone started up again and, so far, Gore hasn't waved him off.

The Democrats have three strong front runners in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and there are several Democrats who are running who can quickly step up if any of the top three falter. But an Al Gore candidacy would be a major force if Gore decides to run again. Gore is probably the only candidate who can afford to enter the race in late summer or fall; for him, it makes sense to hold back and see what happens in the campaign.