* Al Gore will not run for President in 2008.
* He will be coy about not running because, as Newt Gingrich has
taught us over the past 10 months, being a potential candidate
gets you Tim Russert asking you about health care on Meet the
Press.
* Being an actual candidate gets you a local AP reporter asking you,
at a stop in a diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, what really did
happen at that fundraiser with those Buddhist Monks.
* I know that sounds backwards, but that's the way it is.
* If I were advising Mr. Gore here's what I would tell him.
1. When people ask you about running simply smile that supercilious
smile you have been perfecting for the past 30 years, shrug, and
walk away.
2. Meanwhile, instruct your staff, aides, advisors, friends, former
employees and anyone else you have an e-mail address for to tell
everyone they have an e-mail address for all the good reasons why
would shouldn't run, without ever actually saying you wouldn't run.
2a. For instance, Paul Begala was quoted in the NY Times yesterday
as saying:
"[Gore] knows there's a Democratic field that Democrats are happy
with, and that they don't need a white knight riding in."
That, back in the Watergate days, was known as a non-denial denial.
3. When it comes to "Draft Al" websites, say, with the precision
and clarity which has made us adore you over the years:
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