Gore would be smart to stay out of the POTUS race

[madmunchie]

until the fall at the very earliest. By that time the candidates will have probably ravaged each other thereby knocking at least one or more of them out. People will be pretty sick of some of the candidates and someone new and fresh will be needed to reinvigorate the POTUS race. Enter Gore. Not - new in the sense that no one knows him, but new in the sense that he won't be one of the candidates that we will be hearing about daily for the next year.

THEY won't have as much time to try to bury and slime him either AND Gore will be able to see with much better clarity, WHO exactly he will be up against and what way the race is going and what condition that Iraq is in and what condition that this country is in.

By sitting back and observing, he will stay heads above the preliminary fray and be able to make much wiser decisions as far as campaigning goes by just waiting....and maybe, just maybe Clark will join him.

Dream on!!!!

[DainBramaged]

1. Gore/Obama 2008

8 years of Al and 8 years for Barack to polish his skills.

[madmunchie]

3. Gore/Clark......then Clark/Obama

[walldude]

2. It was suggested last night that he avoid running at all

and that the Dem who gets voted in make him head of the EPA. I thought that was a great idea. I like him better as a civilian anyway.

[madmunchie]

4. Gore has the most to offer this country and he was elected once already

so why shouldn't he be able to actually serve in the office that he was screwed out of?

[walldude]

5. Because he is a much happier, much easier going

much nicer guy when he is not beholden to anyone. The price tag of the Presidency is easily $100 million. You think Gore can raise that kind of money without the help from corporations?

[madmunchie]

16. How about the I N T E R N E T?????

[malaise]

6. Run Gore run

Time for Gore supporters to dig up those debates and post his words re Bush's. The Right wing know Gore was correct re the cost of the war, etc.

Yuo can call me AL. Nancy says she always thought Al would be a great President of the US - the field would be enhanced - this is great.

[AndyTiedye]

9. If Gore Doesn't Run, a Repiglican Will Get Elected. Gore is All We've Got

There simply are NO other Democratic candidates who can win in 2008.
Gore is the only one.
Even then it will be a close race (between Gore and Diebold).
We need a landslide to win, and only Gore can do that.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

7. I think the big hoopla about the electric bill will remind him

of the nastiness out there once he steps in to the fray. The republic swiftboaters know darn well that this is bullshit, but they also know that they have now put him in a situation where he has to explain the technicalities of "the footprint", and the more he explains, the more they will try to discredit him.

Unfortunately, this might just be the thing that convinces Gore not to run. :(

[SharonRB]

8. You're absolutely right

and I think September is the earliest we'd see him.

I would love to see Gore/Clark or Gore/Obama.

[Subdivisions]

10. After seeing his statement after the Oscars, I now believe, as

painful as it is, that Mr. Gore truly has "no plans to run for political office." Yet.

The premise the OP presents is quite logical and would allow for no current plans to run. The plans will come much later after Mr. Gore has allowed enough time for the other candidates to kill each other, the public the time to learn to hate them thoroughly, and him the time to develop a strategy based on observation and tempered by patience.

[madmunchie]

13. Thanks!

I do believe that this is entirely possible and would be a winning strategy for him.....He should make the announcement on the steps of the Supreme Court building.

[dpbrown]

11. Gore/Feingold 2008

The best hope we've got.

[annabanana]

14. Lord, that would be beautiful. . . . . .n/t

[smalll]

12. He's why this Fall Scenario is not reality-based -

You and just about everyone else who suggests this tend to say something like this in your argument for a Gore fall entry:

"...fall at the very earliest. By that time the candidates will have probably ravaged each other thereby knocking at least one or more of them out. People will be pretty sick of some of the candidates and someone new and fresh will be needed to reinvigorate the POTUS race."

First, as long as I can remember at least, the Presidential nomination race, both for Democrats and Repubs, has NEVER WORKED LIKE THIS. There has never in living memory been a situation in which one party's nominees seem so bloodied and inadequate that the populace demands a new choice, or at least embraces a new choice in all his newness and wonderfulness. (And Al Gore is wonderful, don't get me wrong.)

Secondly, ARE the Democratic candidates this time, 2008, somehow so much more awful than in say, 2004, 2000, 1992, 1988, etc. etc.? Are they somehow so record-breakingly inadaquate that your heretofore unseen scenario can play out this time? No, they're not. Clinton, Obama, Edwards; Richardson, Kucinich, even Biden. They're a pretty standard-issue field, with standard-issue strengths and weaknesses.

So why do you Fall guys always need to imagine that your unique scenario will come into play this time? Because even you guys recongnize the downsides (I would say almost fatal downsides) to normal late entry, especially this year, with all the primaries getting pushed so early. You know, as I do, that the nominees WILL BE EVIDENT BY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR. For the nomination, the bulk of the race IS in 2007. And every week Gore is not in it is another week that more big donors commit to candidates actually running, that more campaign professionals sign on with one campaign or another, that more grass-roots volunteers sign up, that more politicos give endorsements and pull whatever strings they may have, etc. etc.

I hope Gore runs. I can't honestly say today whether he will or not. But let me make this perfectly clear: if Gore runs, he will announce SOON. I'll go out on a limb and say sometime in the month of March. And I feel far more comforatble in making a solid prediction that, if Gore doesn't enter pretty soon, by the time we get into the summer even, reporters will stop asking Gore the eternal question. He will have made it clear by then - anyone not in it by then is just not in it, and is not gonna win it.

[madmunchie]

15. I don't care when he announces

I was merely trying to figure out the ideal time for him to announce. I believe that, since the candidates are becoming so active so early and they seems to be a real possiblity for great campaigning intensity EARLIER than ever before; there will be casualties dropping out AND the public will not actively seek a NEW face in the race but, when the new face (Gore), he will clarify what is really at stake here and he will be unaffected by all of the mudslinging up till then. The candidates, per se, may not be different, but the CRISIS that this country is in is different, PLUS people are realizing that the qualification of "someone you'd like to have a beer with" might actually turn out to be a detrement, since we saw how Bush has handled things....the thing I still don't understand.....Bush was "the guy you'd like to have a beer with"...Bush is an alcoholic and isn't supposed to have a beer with anybody!

The donors will be there for Gore, don't you worry...that would be the least of his problems.