Gore Brings Aboard A Familiar Face

by Steve

You know, for a guy who claims he isn’t running for president in 2008, Al Gore is certainly putting together a team of people that resemble the origins of an “under-the-radar” campaign operation. Taegan Goddard noted today that Gore is ramping up a campaign operation to pursue action on his main cause, global warming. According to Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Gore has brought aboard one-time senior Campaign 2000 staffer and advisor Roy Neel to work beyond Gore’s book and movie tour on the broader issue and agenda of global warming. And perhaps not coincidentally, Gore has settled up with his Campaign 2000 pollster as well.

Yes, Hillary is raising boatloads of money to scare off potential challengers in 2008, yet it is clear that despite putting together the Clinton campaign team from the White House days and raising more money than she would ever need for reelection against hapless GOP opponents this fall, Clinton won’t be able to scare off those who already plan to run against her from the right and left of the party. Russ Feingold gives every appearance of being someone who is planning to run to Hillary’s left, and Mark Warner is already establishing himself to run at Hillary as an electable centrist. John Edwards is at work in Iowa already, and John Kerry is sitting on mounds of cash still leftover from 2004. But the one guy who could decide to sit on the sidelines a long time into 2007 before jumping in, and who could raise a lot of money quickly while undercutting Hillary overnight would be Gore. And this would come after a successful book and movie tour that would raise Gore’s visibility and the issue of global warming back to center stage, while reminding independent voters that Gore was right all along on both this issue and the war itself.

Besides, a Gore/Warner ticket could be interesting for the party and could play well in many parts of the country.