Stay, Al, Stay!

So an irresponsible online poster (that would be CNN), unleashed the rumor that, upon winning the Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore would announce his intention to run for President, despite his repeated dousings of cold water on the idea previously.

While Mr. Gore is capable of making up his own mind, I hope he doesn't run.

I mean, right now, Al Gore has all the benefits of being a former President of the US without having to have actually gone through the pain and agony of actually BEING the President of the US. He's been able to focus on issues that matter to him and carries with him the gravitas of his office. He's been able to make jokes without becoming a viagra punchline. His daughters have steady jobs as opposed to well-thumbed files at the National Enquirer. He has a sense of gravitas from a media that gave him grief when he was veep. Why would he want to give up all that, for the chance to literally clean up after the Elephant at the circus?

The moment Gore declares, the Right Wing Pundits go into full howl, and the mere fact that past few years have been a cavalcade of graft, incompetence, and corruption, they will dig as deeply as they need to. Remember - Al was once present at a fundraiser where there may have been funds raised! Boo! Oh, and he's boring, remember? Right now he catches the occasional potshot, but gets to revel in the fact that he has been right on his issues all along. An inconvenient truth, indeed.

And indeed I think a big part of the appeal of an Al Gore Candidacy is that he is unavailable. "You had your chance", the left can sniff. "You don't deserve him" (Like we deserve what we ended up with). It is also a bolt hole for voters - allowing them to say "I would have voted for Al, but as a second choice I will settle for Hil/Barry/John-Boy/Mitt". It is a failsafe device, since all your supporters don't have to worry about actually dealing with the fact that you might win, and what happens then.

No, enjoy the moment, Al. You can put on a few pounds or grow a beard and the national media does not flip out. You can have a life and actually have an effect on the world around you. It is very strange that our former Democratic Presidents have a more active public life than our former Republicans, and you've got that already. Savor the moment, and best of luck tonight.

More later,