Getting Hot

To his credit, Gore has repeatedly said he's not running, leaving the door only slightly ajar. It's the media that seem determined to draft him. As I'm typing, CNN is promoting a Larry King interview tonight with the headline "Will He Run for President?" If Gore got in, of course, he'd be just another mortal and would start getting kicked around again. Same goes for the other Tennessee Titan, Fred Thompson.

Things couldn't be better for Gore at the moment. He can say what he wants, pursue his passion on global warming, make money on corporate boards and remain just enough of an enigma on the presidential front that it stirs up interest in his book, circa Colin Powell in 1995. But he's written a book with strong denunciations of the Bush administration, so obviously he's going to be asked political questions, and obviously that boosts his value in the media marketplace.

As Jake Tapper notes, Gore's "The Assault on Reason" includes "the charge that the president -- particularly because of the war in Iraq -- 'has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack because of his arrogance and willfulness . . . If Bush and Cheney actually believed in the linkage (between Iraq and al Qaeda) that they asserted -- in spite of all the evidence to the contrary presented to them contemporaneously--that would by itself in light of the available evidence, make them genuinely unfit to lead our nation. On the other hand, if they knew the truth and lied, massively and repeatedly, isn't that worse? Are they too gullible or too dishonest?'(TM)"

No wonder people think he's still dreaming of the Oval Office.

At the Politico, Ben Smith offers some pros for the nonexistent Gore run, but also some cons:

"Despite a media perception that he's remade himself into a post-partisan prophet, national polls suggest that he remains nearly as divisive a figure as Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. Only 49 percent of Americans view him favorably, and 43 percent view him unfavorably, according to the USA Today/Gallup survey. Gore's popularity, which peaked after his global warming documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' took home an Oscar, has drifted back down.

"As for the current season of cover stories and cheerleading, Gore knows better than most that his fans in the media aren't exactly the most constant of friends."

You can say that again.

What is it with our fascination with these non-candidates? Ryan Lizza had a great line on my CNN show Sunday: "Not running is the new running." Why stand up on a debate stage with 10 other folks if you can be a stealth candidate? Here's Peggy Noonan on Fred Thompson:

"He is running a great campaign. It's just not a declared campaign. It's a guerrilla campaign whose informality is meant to obscure his intent. It has been going on for months and is aimed at the major pleasure zones of the Republican brain. In a series of pointed columns, commentaries and podcasts, Mr. Thompson has been talking about things conservatives actually talk about. Shouldn't homeowners have the right to own a gun? Isn't it bad that colleges don't teach military history? How about that Sarkozy--good news, isn't it? Did you see Tenet on Russert? His book sounds shallow, tell-all-y.

"These comments and opinions are being read and forwarded in Internet Nation. They are revealing and interesting, but they're not heavy, not homework. They have an air of 'This is the sound of a candidate thinking.' That's an unusual sound . . .

"Mr. Thompson will have to answer this question: What is he running to do? Why should the Republicans get another eight years, or four years, after all the missteps they've made? Isn't conservatism, or Republicanism, or whatever you call it, just tired? Isn't it over? Isn't America just waiting for whatever will take its place?"