EXTRACT FROM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21759787/

The influence the former vice-president exerts internationally among governments is clear from the roll-call of world leaders he is regularly photographed with.

In the last few weeks, he has held meetings with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, eager to shore up his own environmental credentials at home, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, numbers among his previous conquests.

Mr Gore's influence in US politics is also still considerable. Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are still neck and neck in some polls, and the backing of Mr Gore could prove a valuable fillip to their campaigns. All of the candidates have spoken at some length on global warming, seeing it as an issue on which they can distinguish themselves from Republicans and from each other.

But Mr Gore himself is still somewhat coy on the issue. After winning the Peace Prize last month, Mr Gore appeared to rule himself out of the next presidential race. But when asked by the Financial Times last week, he warned: "I have not made a Sherman statement."

General William Tecumseh Sherman, a civil war general, in 1884 declined the opportunity to run for president by saying: "If drafted, I will not run. If nominated, I will not accept. If elected, I will not serve."

Mr Gore said: "There is no need for me to make that statement." Nor would he divulge whether he intended to endorse another candidate.

He told the FT: "I have not decided whether I will endorse any candidate or not, much less who I would endorse."

But Mr Gore is clearly involving himself in the electioneering. He said: "I have talked to all the major candidates in my party, and a couple in the other party, about the climate crisis. I have given advice and answered their questions and will continue to do so."

Mr Gore himself has some radical political solutions in mind for how he thinks global warming should be approached in the US.

"None of the [candidates] have proposed what I think we should propose.

"I think we ought to eliminate the payroll tax and replace it with a carbon dioxide tax. That would be a smart economic policy and a smart environmental policy. It would put a price on carbon dioxide."

He would also provide tax cuts for the kind of businesses that would receive investment under his new partnership between Generation Investment Management and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

For instance, he would like to see a full investment tax credit for advanced solar thermal power plants, a technology that generates electricity from the sun with the use of giant mirrors and steam turbines. This would enable regions such as California to export electricity around the US, he said.

He would also upgrade electricity distribution systems to a "smart grid", or electranet, that would allow people to generate their own electricity from renewable sources and sell it back to power suppliers.

"Individuals as homeowners or business people could sell unlimited quantities of renewably generated electricity into the ... grid at a price not set by the utility but by a public authority at a public clearing price."

Changing the grid would have an effect similarly explosive to that of the internet on the adoption of computers - an effect that helped to make the early careers of Mr Gore and KPCB.

Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

I feel that we must hang in there for Gore until he does issue the "Sherman" statement. We have no other way to go. Earthmother, please tell the others to keep up the good work of trying to get him on the ballot in the different states. What have we as citizens have to lose? We must keep up the good fight. I truly believe that he is waitng to see how the others will be doing in a couple of weeks. The poll numbers are already beginnning to level out, and Hillary is losing ground.

I agree.

Me, too!

Or could he just be getting ready to jump in, meaning that collecting sigs won't be necessary?

And me.

I also agree...I'm NOT ready to 'hold my nose' yet...And as much as I like Hillary Clinton THAT is what I would be doing if there is NO AL GORE on the ticket...I am WRITING IN GORE on my Oklahoma ballot! :P

Do I think Hillary is 'bad'? Not really...but I FEAR if she is put against the neocon pick BU$H clone on the GOP(Guardians Of Propaganda) side then we will get 4 or more years of WAR! and associated neocon 'crap' like gasoline at $5 a gallon!...THAT IS WHY I AM PRAYING AL GORE WILL CHANGE HIS MIND! :good:

I don't think I have ever agreed with you before Paraclete, but this is a first time...I too am going to write in Al Gore's name when the primary and election comes even if he is not on the ballot.

It's actually a pretty stupid thing for me to do, vote for someone that currently is not running.

It'll be a wasted protest vote....and if enough of us do it it could cost the Democrat nominee (whom it seems won't be Gore) the election, but I am going to.

Nagasakee, we were told to vote for Kerry in 2004 no matter what, and what did THAT get us? Dean isn't Mcauliffe, but I am NOT going to go down in flames voting for somebody THEY will run into the ground with lies and fabrications...8 YEARS IS ENOUGH!...WE HAVE SUFFERED ENOUGH!...WE HAVE SACRIFICED TOO MUCH!...AND I WILL BE D*MNED IF I WANT TO PUT UP WITH 4 MORE YEARS OF WAR!...I AM VOTING GORE...unless Al Gore throws support behind somebody I can ACTUALLY TRUST then I am voting GORE! :laugh:

The ONLY way I will vote for Clinton is if she offers Al Gore..Karl Rove's JOB! But then again I will vote for ANYBODY that asks Al Gore to take Karl Rove's JOB! :D

As you know SENIOR WHITEHOUSE ADVISER is Technically the POWER behind the THRONE! (And I think Al Gore would be a WONDERFUL CHOICE!) If NOT President then.... ;)

Kinda like the FIFTH BEATLE!...And WE ARE having a lovely time! :tongue:

I agree, Patsy, except for the part about trying to get him on
the ballot. It's my understanding that this is the only thing that
the staffer asked us to discontinue, because it 'would create
other problems.' We don't want to 'create problems.'

He has clearly decided that IF DRAFTED, HE WILL RUN, IF NOMINATED, HE WILL ACCEPT, IF ELECTED, HE WILL SERVE!!!

So let's DO IT!!! :coolwink:

He must want to be drafted, nominated and elected!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU AL GORE!!!

We will be continuing on as a draft movement, but WE WILL NOT BE CONTINUING OUR EFFORTS TO PUT GORE ON ANY STATE PRIMARY BALLOTS. We can't do that, given what we've been told and by whom we were told. People need to understand this. There are a number of possible scenarios, everything from he's planning on getting in but not yet to he's not planning on getting in, and all the territory in between. But if we've been specifically discouraged from continuing with the ballot drives, then we will not continue. We need to respect the man and his wishes.

So in the face of not yet hearing a Sherman statement, we can continue as a draft movement, but we can't put him on primary ballots. I have a letter in now to the person who gave us the original communication, asking for confirmation. I'm not optimistic that I'll receive a response, but let's wait and see . . .

I also agree. We MUST hang in there!

hanging chad to Al Gore: Exactamundo! That is just one of the many reasons why we need you to run, baby, run!

I don't like the sound of this:


Gore, Schwarzenegger to plan presidential climate forum

By Javier Barbancho, Reuters

SACRAMENTO (AP) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former vice president Al Gore are planning a bipartisan presidential forum on energy and climate change in New Hampshire in December, the governor's office confirmed Thursday.

The forum, which is still in the planning stages, is being designed so presidential candidates from both parties will attend. Adam Mendelsohn, a spokesman for the governor, said the format was not completely developed, but the former vice president was handling the Democratic candidates, while Schwarzenegger would handle the Republicans.

Schwarzenegger's office confirmed the forum after Sen. John McCain said at a Sacramento news conference Thursday that he had agreed to attend. The GOP presidential candidate said the climate change issue had not been discussed enough in the race, either by Republicans or Democrats.

"I know the issue," McCain said. "I've been involved in it for many, many years. And I'm proud to have played a role in leadership on it."

Gore's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Mendelsohn said the former vice president was actively involved in designing the forum.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/elec...limate-nh_N.htm

I don't either and for more than one reason. :bad:

Earthmother, I'd love to know your opinion on this? This being the climate forum, of course. Do you think this has anything to do with why he wanted his name kept off of all ballots...?

I'm not certain that he's going to get the answers from candidates that he is wanting--then what? Perhaps he'll make the final "Sherman" statement and endorse a candidate after he hears what they say on the climate crisis...And then again, maybe he'll be dissatisified ( he's already stated that he doesn't think ANY of the candidates are doing enough in recent articles) and be forced to enter the race?

Thoughts on any of this? Things are just crazier by the day!

Having gone through a major depression since the stolen election of 2000 and the only light at the end of the tunnel has been the thought that he would run again I am sad and frustrated. We have begged and pleaded, we have been here for him ready, willing and able to it the streets and still he turns a blind eye to us. I am starting to think he wants us to get a new hero. I just never thought he would leave us without our candidate and hero. I always thought he would be the best President this country ever had. So sad.

I don't know. It's certainly a good possibility. I mean, how would it look if he went up to New Hampshire to do this in December and there was a major and high visibility ground operation going on to get people to write him in on the ballot? And, by the time this event takes place, the time for him to have to take his name off the California and New York ballots would have already expired, and he would have been forced to take his name off those as well. One can definitely see where it would cause problems for him within the party, and this could well be why our source said that getting him on any ballot would create other problems. It does make sense.

Beyond that, if we take this development on face value, Gore is doing what he said he was going to do, which is making global warming a major topic for the Democratic candidates.

If they don't make it enough of an issue, will he then say that no one is addressing it well enough and decide to get in himself? It's looking less and less likely.

But you just never know.

One question I have is, why would he completely rule out a run in 2004, but not now?

I think that's the 6 million dollar question right now. Why? Doesn't it just drive you nuts?? It does me. :wacko:

GOOD question FellowDemocrat -
I have ten.
Why has he made no 'Sherman' statement?
Why has he pointed out that he has made no 'Sherman'
statement?
Why did he post 'policy' (platform?) views on Current?
Why has he 'stumped' for Democrats?
Why did his office request 'ballot efforts be stopped', but nothing else?
Why did he use the phrase 'take back our democracy?'
Why has Tipper said 'if he runs, I'll support him?'
Why has his office said the KPCB partnership has nothing to do with him 'running or not.'
Why does he suggest that we still have 'hope' at the end of each of his
'we're in trouble' speeches?
Why does he explain in his book 'The Assault on reason' how a 'well connected citizenry' might 'take back' our democracy?

I edited this post to change #8 to accurately reflect what I said. I never said that stopping the ballot drives had nothing to do with him running or not. What I said was that we were told that the partnership with KPCB would have no effect on him running or not, but the assumption is that the reason for that is that he's not going to run.