The Gore Factor

Yesterday Joe Klein, writing in Time, officially became the first pundit to go public with the notion of a “Draft Al Gore” solution to the Democratic dilemma. The concept is this: Obama and Clinton, both bloodied, limp to the convention in Denver, neither with the requisite 2,025 delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot. Gore has effectively become the Democratic Party’s elder statesman in the last several years, devoting himself to the issue of global warming, winning an Oscar for his documentary film and a Nobel Peace Prize. At the moment, he actually appears to have a measure of gravitas, perhaps only by virtue of comparison with the party’s other “elder statesman,” the former president himself Bill Clinton. By endorsing neither Clinton or Obama, he has accomplished two things: made himself the ultimate power player in this year’s campaign, and made himself available as the Compromise Candidate, ready and willing to heal the party if necessary.

First let’s put to rest any idea that Al Gore would ever endorse Hillary Clinton for president. That won’t happen. Al and Tipper remember all too well how they were treated at the hands of the Clintons, especially during the 2000 campaign when the Clintons put all of their efforts and fundraising skills into her Senatorial campaign, helping to doom Gore’s candidacy. Remember, a Gore presidency wasn’t part of Hillary’s Master Plan anyway.
So the waiting game begins. The television networks greatest desire may come true after all — a deadlocked convention, unscripted, a second or even third ballot, a Draft Gore movement, pandemonium in the streets of Denver and on the convention floor, and ratings through the roof. Dan Rather, get your abdominal muscles in shape again. It’s Chicago, 1968.

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