Gore endorsement

19 September 2007 |permalink | email article

One interesting 2008 question is the likely probability that popular former vice president Al Gore will endorse one of the Democratic candidates for president.

The courting began when both Barack Obama, who like him also opposed the Iraq war, huddled with Gore in Nashville last December. As The Washington Post reported, John Edwards and Christopher Dodd also have conferred with him recently.

Gore has not met with Joe Biden or Bill Richardson and, not surprisingly Hillary Clinton, the current frontrunner.

The fallout between Gore and the Clinton has been described “as the stuff of legend.”

Then-Vice President Gore decided to distant himself from Bill Clinton in his 2000 campaign, a strategy which did not go down well with the Clintons because of the perception that he was willing to take credit for the administration’s achievements when at the same time criticizing the president’s personal conduct.

Gore, who’s transformed himself from a politician into a global messenger on the dangers of climate change, plans to make an endorsement before the 2008 Democratic nominee is known.

In 2004 Gore learned the dangers of an early endorsement when he backed Howard Dean, with the most support a month before the Iowa caucuses.

But the former Vermont governor crashed and burned after his loss and bizarre concession speech.

My sense today is Obama may have the inside track.

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