An interesting report on Al Gore in today's news:

[saltpoint]

= = = = =
Gore is said to have signed on Roy Neel, one of the leading advisers to his presidential campaign in 2000 against Dubya. Neel was also a campaign director for Howard Dean's presidential campaign four years later.

Gore's passion is the environment, and the report indicated that Neel would assist in that endeavor, but it raised speculation that Gore is assembling a team for a presidential run in 2008.

= = = = =

Say he runs, say he wins the nomination.

Choose his running mate.

Senator Evan Bayh, Indiana
Senator Joseph Biden, Delaware
Senator Barbara Boxer, California
Senator Bill Bradley (New Jersey)
General Wesley Clark (Arkansas)
Former Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard Clarke
Senator Max Cleland (Georgia)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York
Governor Mario Cuomo (New York)
Dem. Party Chair Howard Dean (Vermont)
Congressman Lloyd Doggett (Texas)
Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois
Senator John Edwards (North Carolina)
Senator Russ Feingold, Wisconsin
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Georgia
Congressman Richard Gephardt (Missouri)
Senator Mike Gravel (Alaska)
U.S. Marine Paul Hackett (Ohio)
Congressman Lee Hamilton (Indiana)
Senator Gary Hart (Colorado)
Secretary Alexis Herman (Sec. of Labor/Clinton Admin.)
Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Ohio
Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Senator Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut
Senator Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun (Illinois)
Senator Barrack Obama, Illinois
Senator Jack Reed, Rhode Island
Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico
Governor Brian Schweitzer, Montana
Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas
Governor Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Reverend Al Sharpton (New York)
Atty Gen. Eliot Spitzer, New York
Governor Tom Vilsack, Iowa
Governor Mark Warner, Virginia

-- and others not listed.

I think Gore is a formidable potential candidate and it does no harm to consider tickets he might head. His announcement today was by no means definitive, but Republicans should be put on alert that they may face the once and future president.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

For hardcore political junkies, there is also this good article by Ezra Klein in last week's THE AMERICAN PROSPECT: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=11299

[hippiechick]

1. GORE/ FEINGOLD 2008 !!!

Accept no substitute !!! :applause:

[The Wielding Truth]

19. Yeppers! Just what the future ordered.

[ladjf]

21. That is the ticket!

[rzemanfl]

2. Feingold. Gore deserves to run with a Jewish guy who is not

a closet jerk like the last guy he ran with.

[henslee]

14. Yeah but can Feingold find a good bialey with a shmear at 3. in the morn.

[rzemanfl]

18. I think his family had a grocery store, so he probably knows. n/t

[saltpoint]

20. Gore went with Lieberman in 2000, but I don't think that's where he's

headed next time, presuming he runs in 08.

To me, it seems that Feingold and Boxer, for example, stand beautifully on their merits, no matter their ethnic profile. Their public service profile is what would attract Gore, I predict.

[XemaSab]

3. Boxer or Clark

But there are names on that list I don't know much about, and other names not on the list that I'm blanking on!

[saltpoint]

13. I don't see any problem with either Boxer or Clark, but I worry that

Senator Boxer would scare the bejesus out of conservative Southern Democrats. They're a touchy bunch when it comes to brilliant, assertive, accomplished women. Senator Boxer is all that and a lot more.

But if I get to run the universe, Barbara Boxer plays as big a role as possible.

[Radical Activist]

4. Edwards or Feingold.

They both bring swing state populism to the ticket, which will help reinforce Gore's poulism.

[BlueIris]

17. 'Kay, I'm a die-hard Kerry supporter, but...

even I have to admit that the idea that the winning ticket in '08 could be a southern populist/prairie poulist or a southern populist/other populist is a solid one. Gore/Edwards, Gore/Feingold (please, God, no) fit that bill. I'm still giving it all to JK, but it won't be any fun if he doesn't have any competition.

[Rose Siding]

5. Hotline has another factoid today-

It's explained (somewhat) but it's more interesting with the Neely info-

snip>
According to PoliticalMoneyLine.com, ex-VP Al Gore spent $40K on polling this quarter, sending that amount to Penn, Schoen Berland on 3/22. (The firm currently polls for Sen. Hillary Clinton.)

The disbursement was recorded after the Gore/Lieberman GELAC transferred $40K to Gore's '00 presidential committee. So is Gore polling? For '08? For his new global warming movie?

No...

A Gore adviser says the disbursement is related to an '00 campaign committment.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/04/08_money_edward.html

[saltpoint]

9. Hi, Rose Siding. I saw that. Very interesting that all this is taking

place in one swoop, mostly.

It could be a campaign debt. But it might be an installment for on-going polling.

I think it's for 08.

[femmocrat]

6. Clark or Warner

Thank you for giving us a little spark of hope!

[saltpoint]

22. I think Al Gore has to take the bow. I read the news piece today

and was keenly interested.

The Dems have my vote unless they nominate Tom DeLay and Arnold Schwartzenegger.

I like our entire line-up, and while we may all have favorite candidates, there's a big number of DUers who are voting blue in 06 as hard as they can, and likely in 08, too.

Gore's announcement today got my attention because I think he has a strong shot at the presidency.

Again.

[CANDO]

7. Gore/Richardson, Obama, or Spitzer.

I love a Gore Presidential run. He needs to go at it like a warrior seeking redemption. To right a historic wrong.

[saltpoint]

23. A very good description. Love it. Also I like that pro-Union signal

in your signature field.

[greenbriar]

8. Gore/Kerry we deserve it.. Poetic justice

they both won before

[saltpoint]

11. Both won already -- true. Plus, if anybody tried to Swiftboat these two,

Al and John would probably go over to their place and beat the crap out of them.

[Buck Laser]

10. I like the Gore-Richardson idea.

Gore is still the smartest guy in the political arena. And Richardson has some incredibly impressive credentials. It can't hurt that he's hispanic, either.

[saltpoint]

12. I think Richardson gives the Democrats an interesting trifecta:

He's from the Southwest, a red region we need to flip blue, at least in some states;

He's more able than anybody we have to speak to any Spanish-speaking audience, and in their native tongue to boot; and

He has the energy creds necessary to be compatible with Gore, who would need an environmental slant to any national energy policy.

Formidable.

[hyphenate]

15. I still think

IMHO, that if Gore decides to run, I would like to see him run with Kerry. Both have had their elections stolen from them, and the combined talent of the two of them would be fantastic against the lying bastards on the right. Of course, I believe that all of those daring and courageous congress people who have held their own against the reichwing should be awarded for their valor, and would like to see as many as possible in cabinet positions, ambassadorships, solicitor general, and other high level positions. For their work for the past several years, they deserve to replace the assholes who have kept us in dire straits for far too long. We would be a very powerful nation again indeed if these people could lead us away from the lying, corrupt regime of shit that dominates now.

[saltpoint]

16. That sounds very committed and deeply-felt, and I also like the

results of your proposal.

Yes. Let's replace the monsters in there right now with dedicated public servants. And the Democrats truly do have real public servants, too.

The 06 midterms first, then a plunge into 08. If it turned out that our ticket was Gore-Kerry, you would NOT have to ask me twice to show up at my polling place!

[saltpoint]

24. 'Am told by a DUer that I should have included Christopher Dodd,

(D-CT) on the list.

Consider Senator Dodd added.

[saltpoint]

25. Maybe we should remove Lieberman from the list.

On another post on DU this evening I just read that he has come out in favor of strikes on Iran.

It's almost as if the White House fed him the lines and he repeats them by rote.

[XemaSab]

27. I thought you were being double ironic by including Lieberman

[saltpoint]

28. LOL. I was torn when I put him on there in the first place, you bet.

But since he was a legitimate contender for the office, it would have exposed my bias to leave him off.

So I typed his sorry butt on the list. Against my better judgment.

Then this nuclear statement tonight from Holy Joe... it really set me off, so I posted that maybe he should be removed from the list after all.

Come to think of it, maybe he should be removed from office and stuffed into one of those automobile-crashing gizmos they had in GOLDFINGER.

[AX10]

26. Gore/Hackett!

[lwesty]

29. Gore/ Clark

[mbee]

30. GORE-EDWARDS ALL THE WAY!

[Appalachian_American]

31. Gore/Clark, Edwards, Feingold

Dean and Cuomo would be my secondary tier because they don't seem to be in the race.

Then Biden, Boxer or Cleland.