Former United States vice-president Al Gore said that he has no plan to join the US presidential race even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize for urging global action to fight climate change.
Gore, narrowly beaten by US President George Bush in the 2000 race, said that it was a ”great honour” to win the prestigious award, announced in Oslo on Friday. Gore will share the $1,5-million prize with the United Nations climate panel.
”I don’t have plans to be a candidate again so I don’t really see it in that context at all,” Gore said when asked in an interview with Norway’s NRK public television aired on Wednesday about how the award would affect his political future.
NRK said it was Gore’s first interview since the prize revived speculation that he might make a late bid for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election.
An organisation called www.draftgore.com said that 200 000 people had signed a petition to urge Gore to run, with a jump of 70 000 signatures in four days after the prize.
”I’m involved in a different kind of campaign, it’s a global campaign,” Gore said. ”It’s a campaign to change the way people think about the climate crisis.”
Gore has repeatedly said that he has no plans to run, without completely ruling it out, in a crowded Democratic field against Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.
It would be hard, but not impossible, for Gore to enter the race. The first contest on the road to the election in November 2008, the Iowa caucuses, are less than 100 days away. – Reuters