Six years after barely losing the most contested presidential race in recent United States history, Al Gore has ridden a popular new film on global climate change to the centre of American politics.
Former vice-president Gore denied again Sunday that he intended to contest the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 — which could pit him against his former boss’s wife, Senator Hillary Clinton.
But his insistence in an ABC television interview that he was only interested in promoting his environmental film An Inconvenient Truth was hardly absolute, leaving the door open to be drafted for the nomination.
”I have no plans to be a candidate for president again. I don’t expect to ever be a candidate for president again,” Gore told ABC.
”I can’t imagine any circumstances in which I would become a candidate again. I’ve found other ways to serve. I’m enjoying them.”
Gore (58) has shown up in scores of venues in recent weeks promoting his documentary, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and opened in US theatres on Friday.
On cue, political pundits have speculated that he might be willing to take on Clinton, for months the solid front-runner in polls to get the Democratic nomination for president two years from now.
Vice president in the 1993-2001 Bill Clinton administration, Gore captured the popular vote nationwide against George Bush in 2000.
But he lost the election after a US Supreme Court decision prevented a recount in Florida, where Bush had a razor-thin margin to win the state’s electoral votes, which determined the national outcome.
Promoting his film in recent weeks, Gore has jokingly introduced himself saying, ”I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States.”
Such comments, and his willingness to digress from the topic of global warming to assail the Bush government on Iraq, the US economy and other issues have fueled speculation that he could be pushed to run again.
”The unexpected rebirth of Al Gore says more about the desperation of the Democrats than it does about him,” wrote New York Times columnist Frank Rich.
”Mrs Clinton does look like a weak candidate — not so much because of her marriage, her gender or her liberalism, but because of her eagerness to fudge her stands on anything and everything to appeal to any and all potential voters,” Rich said.
Gore insists he only wants to spread a warning about ”the single biggest challenge that humankind has ever faced”.
”I ran for president twice, and I was in politics for a quarter century, and I honestly believe that the highest and best use of my skills and experience is to try to change the minds of people in the US and elsewhere in the world about this planetary emergency,” he said on ABC.
But some political analysts said Gore’s statements fell short of a categorical rejection of the nomination — a sure sign that he would consider it.
”The word I heard on [ABC] television this morning was we have a candidate,” said Republican former Delaware governor Pete Dupont on Fox News. ”I thought what we heard was the opening salvo” in the fight for the Democratic nomination.
Others say Gore is simply serving to pressure Hillary Clinton — who, currently seeking re-election as New York’s senator, has not declared an interest in the presidency — to show where she stands clearly on issues.
Democratic pollster Doug Schoen pointed out on Fox News that Gore continues to poll well behind Clinton, garnering only a 26% favorability rating. Gore also comes in behind Clinton and 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, with less than 10%, when ranked for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
On the other hand, in an unscientific poll last month of readers by the popular and influential weblog Daily Kos, which reflects views from the more left-leaning wing of the Democrats, Gore came in front at 68%, while Clinton was less than one percent. – AFP
