Everyone's trying to determine the precise odds of Al Gore becoming a candidate for the White House in '08. They're acting like Gore knows exactly what he's going to do and maybe, if you analyze his every word and also study his manner of dress and his body weight, you can get some clue as to what that plan is.
Why is it so inconceivable that Gore's "plan" is to stay out of it for now, study the situation as it exists in 4-6 months and then decide? I mean, isn't the likely truth that the guy intends to look at the polls and the competition and maybe some personal factors then and see how feasible it is? A lot of things just might change between now and then, and he's got plenty to do and ways to keep his name before the public without becoming an announced candidate.
I'm a big believer in Planning Ahead when it makes sense. It doesn't always. Right this minute, you can decide to have Chinese Food on August 9 but why? You don't know what kind of craving you may be having then…or if you'll find a better restaurant between now and then or if you'll wind up getting invited to a big Chinese dinner on August 8 or a thousand other scenarios which could alter things. I've suffered from not being prepared for certain decisions and not giving them sufficient consideration in advance. But I've also suffered from planning something before I knew all the circumstances of that decision. At the very least, I've wasted a lot of time deciding something…and then everything changed and I had to start deciding all over again.
I have no idea what's on Al Gore's mind. Maybe he is tentatively committed to a certain strategy, but it seems to me that if it were to definitely not run, he'd get that idea off the table more explicitly than he has. Because then, if he decided he did want to run in 2012, he wouldn't be thought of as a guy who lost in 2000 and lost again in '08. I think he's just waiting to see and that all this attempted mind-reading is a case of trying to gin up a news story where there isn't one…at least not yet.