I have to admit that part of me is rooting for Hillary to win the nomination and lose the election, which would rid the Democrats of the McAuliffe/Clinton machine for good and put Gore in a solid position for 2012.

But another four years of Republican administration would damage the country beyond repair - if it's not already.

2008 will go down in history as the biggest missed opportunity this country ever had. With no clear successor in either party, and an angry electorate willing to make major changes and a strong break from the past, the Democrats could have put their best foot forward, someone truly progressive and visionary. They could have corrected the evil inflicted on the party and this nation by the Supreme Court in December 2000.

Those that say that Gore has an obligation to run have a point, but the larger point is that it's the Democratic Party's obligation to ask him to. He has earned the right to a consensus and an uncontested nomination within his party, and the fact that they don't recognize that isn't his fault.

But of course the Democrats aren't even taking advantage of their present position of power. The congressional dems are running scared and cautious, not wanting to rock the boat for the 2008 nominee, not getting that rocking the boat is exactly what people want them to do. No congress in history was more obnoxious than the Republican congress under Clinton, and they got rewarded for it. The American people are ready for a president who's as radically, unapologetically left as Bush is on the right. And Gore isn't even particularly radical - he's just smart and reasonable and (now) unafraid to say what he really thinks.

It's been said we get the politicians we deserve. Perhaps we don't deserve Gore.

Angry electorate?

Where?

300 million people and yet any "protests" held are far smaller than ever before.

It seems that the electorate is apathetic and uncaring, because the government just keeps expanding and expanding regardless of what is said or done.

It's not the 60s anymore, San -- you're not going to see the protests on the streets. Besides, the people most likely to protest are college students, and they're not the ones getting screwed right now (actually they are, and royally, they just don't realize it yet -- wait until those loans come due!) There's also no draft, which is another reason the campuses are relatively quiet. No, the people who are angry are too busy working three jobs just to make ends not-quite meet to take to the streets or write blog entries. But they made their dissatisfaction known in the last election, and they'd like to next election, too--if there's a candidate who they feel represents them.

Your comment about the expanding government is interesting. It was Clinton who said 12 years ago that "the era of big government is over" -- and since then every candidate for every office from both parties has echoed that sentiment in their campaign rhetoric just to help bloat the government once elected. The truth is, we are a big country with a big government, and it's about time we grew up and stopped pretending otherwise. What causes the bloat and inefficiency isn't the size or the expectation that the government has certain responsibilities it must fulfill, it's the way lawmakers try to get the government to fulfill them while pretending they aren't -- lots of quick-fix, band-aid patch-ups instead of real solutions, newly created bureaucracies intended to replace old "inefficient" ones that just add redundancy and red tape, crisis-oriented management. I wish politicians would just say, yes, we have a big government, we need a big government, and let's take it seriously and make our big government work.

This is the best comment that I've seen anywhere!

Al Gore WON, folks. The American people chose him as their president.

Actually, Hillary would probably be an OK president, but she's going to lose it for us again, and she knows it, and her ego overshadows what's good for our nation and for the world. I can't be for her because of that. You're right. The time of the Clintons is over, although I do miss Bill.

Gore is too good for us. We are doomed. I wish I could do something to stop this train. My son will have to live in the wreck.

This started out as a happy, happy day, but as it goes along, it gets sadder. History will see Gore as a great man, but will it be written from this poor, deteriorating country?

If he does decide to run, I will work for him in every possible way. I will devote the next year to that mission. If not, I’ll do my best for whomever, but my heart will still belong to President Gore.

Good question.

No, we don't.

But we need him.

It just occured to what Gore must be thinking right now as he reads all of this, and I think it goes something like this:

Fuck you.

You had your chance.

I'm bigger than the United States now. I'm working for humanity, for the planet, for the future. This stupid has-been superpower started going to hell in a handbasket the moment you pulled the presidency out from under me.

I don't need you now. I'm rich, I'm a rock star, I have the respect of everyone worth talking to on the planet. I'm going to enjoy my beer and not worry about what you or anybody else thinks.

I went through hell for you. I put up with so much of your shit. You constantly made fun of me. You blamed me for things that weren't my fault. You held me to impossible standards. Nevertheless, I STILL won the popular vote, and we all know damn well I would have won Florida too if it weren't for those damn ballots.

Not that I didn't deserve some blame. The worst thing about being a high-profile politician is that it does turn you into a kind of monster. I became a person I didn't like. I did and said things I'm not proud of, and I wince too when I look at old tapes of myself.

I like myself now. Sure I'm overweight. That's my biggest problem right now. Do you know how good it feels to have something like that be your biggest problem? Okay, and my son is dealing with some serious issues. At least now when he talks to me I can be fully present with him in a way I couldn't if I was twisting and turning myself into politically compromised pretzels.

The point is, I'm a real human being now. You're right when you said I was a robot. A president can't be anything else. The reason I was so obviously a robot is because I'm bad at it. You think Clinton wasn't a robot? Or Hillary? They're both great robots - you can barely tell if you don't know them. Reagan was the master robot. Bush's dad was a terrible robot, as were Carter and Nixon. Johnson was the last non-robot president.

I don't want to talk about the current president. You can't make me.

Now I'm getting upset and bitter. Just thinking about what a waste it all was. It really didn't have to be this way. America was poised for greatness in 2000. The cold war was past and paid off, we were at the forefront of the technological revolution that changed the world (and of course I didn't invent it, but I was one of the first politicians, and by far the most prominent elected official, to take it seriously, realize its implications and make sure that the government played its part in its development), and it looked like the culture had finally matured to the point where we could face our issues with poverty, race, health care, and education head on.

And, of course, do something about global warming when there was still time to make a difference.

Fuck you. I can't say it enough. Maybe I couldn't have saved the poles from melting, but I could have bought us some time, made plans, been pro-active. Maybe there would be fewer bloggers quibbling with me about my science, telling me how I got it all wrong. Tell it to the fucking polar bears.

Now I'm angry. That doesn't become me. You don't understand - you think I should be flattered by all this president talk. It just depresses and infuriates me. It's like that girl who broke your heart calling you after seven years after she read about you in the paper and realized that you aren't a loser after all, and acting like she's doing you a favor by indicating that she's available for you to ask out (of course, she's still seeing a few other guys, and is still over a year away from deciding who she wants to marry, but at least I'm under consideration.) Fuck you. Guess what -- YOU aren't in MY league. Go to hell. Mark my words - no matter which robot you elect next year, by 2012 people will no longer use "America" and "superpower" in the same sentence. You'll be in the same league as Russia and Brazil and Canada and India. Chinese will be a requirement for business majors. People will still be arguing over how best to rebuild New Orleans and Ground Zero, if they haven't given up on both by then. There'll be at least one more Katrina-like disaster befalling another major American city. And maybe something even worse in store.

There are things I know about 9/11 I have to go to my deathbed without ever revealing. But I can tell you this: we're no less vulnerable now than we were on 9/10. And that, too, might very well have been different had I gotten to do the job most of you wanted me to do.

So, while you're struggling to get out of crippling debt, or going to the emergency room next time your kid gets sick, or preparing to kiss your home goodbye if you live in a low-lying area of a coastal town, I'll be having dinner with the smartest minds on the planet, or delivering a lecture for which I'll be well-paid, or having sex with TIpper.

Take your Draft Gore petitions and recycle them.

With all due respect Gore should have won in 2000 with a double digit margin. Gore was a crappy candidate who could not inspire enough people to win against the idiot we now have in the Oval office. i could care less about the vote in Florida because the election should never have been that close.

Gore might have the backing of the 15 to 20% of Americans who make up the hard left today but that will not, I repeat, will not be enough to win the general election.

The Democrats need to be running with a centrist platform now or they are going to get blasted by the very effective right wing spin machine and once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

If Al Gore wants to jump in this race (mes) he will without our help. But for now how about supporting the candidate on their record of voting, what they have accomplished, one who works across the aisle with the other party and will be able to get things done and avoid those that cause Gridlock, like we had for the last 15 years. Not be for them just because they talk tough, we have a tough talker in control now and look where it got us. Look past everything, they cannot help their color, sex, or who their parents were or what they were named. Barack means blessed of God in Swalili.

Why get someone in office like we had for 6 years because of one issue, pro life. How many lives did he save and how many did he cause to die with this war? So look beyond the petty things and look at the WHOLE person. Read the books written about them, by the people who knew them. Listen to their tone and ideas, we need gentler, kinder folks running to undo the unkind saber rattling politics of the last 6+ years. I have 6 great grandchildren and I want another JFK like person, like Obama, he is new, has 20 years in public life, more than Hillary unles being a wife counts. He is 6 years older than JFK was. We need to give hime a chance, I see him as being a GREAT leader. I am 74 years old.