I’ve been enjoying the speculation about [tag]Al Gore[\/tag]’s future as much as anyone, but there are clear and unambiguous signs that he really isn’t going to [tag]run[\/tag] for [tag]president[\/tag] again. Ever.<\/p>\n
Time magazine, for example, reports this week that Gore has been “quietly telephoning some of his biggest fund raisers and telling them to feel free to sign on with other potential candidates.” Gore is reportedly asking these donors to get the word out, instructing, “Tell everybody I’m not [tag]running[\/tag]<\/a>.”<\/p>\n As if that weren’t quite clear enough, Gore spoke with the NYT’s Adam Nagourney and made it quite plain<\/a> that he’s no longer considering a [tag]presidential[\/tag] [tag]campaign[\/tag].<\/p>\n “I wanted it, and it was not to be,” said Al Gore, the former vice president and two-time presidential candidate. “I am not pursuing it. I have been there, and I have done that.”<\/p>\n Mr. Gore was on the telephone from New York, taking a break from promoting his book and documentary about [tag]global warming[\/tag], to dismiss — with a combination of weariness and wariness, but with something approaching finality — speculation that his rising profile should be interpreted as the first stirrings of another bid for the White House.<\/p>\n “Why should I run for office?” Mr. Gore asked, the impatience evident in his voice. “I have no interest in running for office. I have run for office. I have run four national campaigns. I have found other ways to serve my country, and I am enjoying them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gore added that he used to want the job, but “that was not to be.”<\/p>\n In one important sense, it’s probably best for Gore to clear up speculation about his ambitions once and for all. The presidential campaign is important, and I think Gore has a lot to offer as a candidate, but if talk about his possible political plans overshadows the point of his current public position — advocating steps to reduce global warming — that would be tragic.<\/p>\n Gore has a powerful and critically important message to share, and he’s facing all<\/a> manner<\/a> of<\/a> right-wing attacks because of it. Candidate or not, Gore and his policy agenda still need support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been enjoying the speculation about [tag]Al Gore[\/tag]’s future as much as anyone, but there are clear and unambiguous signs that he really isn’t going to [tag]run[\/tag] for [tag]president[\/tag] again. Ever. Time magazine, for example, reports this week that Gore has been “quietly telephoning some of his biggest fund raisers and telling them to feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}