* 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:
"As the inventor of the Internet, I know that a person can run any
website he or she may desire so long as there is no controlling
legal authority preventing it."
* The Clintonistas understand that Gore is not going to run and so
can pretend to be very, really, extremely happy about that fact
that he won a Nobel Peace Prize before Bill did - although it is
reasonable to suspect Bill Clinton misunderstands the spelling of
that particular award.
* Nevertheless, do not think for one second that the Clinton
campaign hasn't hired someone to sit at the Secretary of State's
office in New Hampshire to make certain no papers are submitted on
Gore's behalf prior to the November 2 filing deadline which would
make him eligible for the first-in-the-nation primary there in
early January.
* According to some reports, Gore is making up to $175,000 per
speech which means he makes more in three speeches than he would
make in a whole year as President.