I’m certainly not prepared to make an endorsement at this point, but let’s just say that I like Al Gore a great deal and especially the things he’s been doing over the past several years. Various people are talking him up as a potential 2008 presidential candidate (see my colleague Ezra Klein’s American Prospect article in this regard) which seems sensible to me.
Now, along comes Mark Leibovich in The New York Times with a piece on Gore arguing that if he runs, he’ll be “deeply stigmatized” in the eyes of many Democrats because of his loss in 2000. The curious thing is that he can’t seem to find anyone who actually feels that way. Elaine Kamarck says she’s “always been puzzled by all the hostility to Gore, especially after he was essentially robbed of the election” but nobody quoted in the article expresses any hostility to Gore, only puzzlement at the hostility that allegedly exists and belief that said possibility might be defused.
Now, to be clear, I don’t want to be doing one of these blogger slams on someone in the MSM. For all I know, there’s a deep wellspring of anti-Gore sentiment lurking out there someplace. But I haven’t stumbled on it, and I don’t see it in the Times piece. Are there Gore-haters out there? Are you one? Inquiring minds want to know.
