Gore Dodges the Draft

This seems to be taking its time percolating through the mainstream media, but Al Gore today officially requested that the various Draft Gore movements end their efforts to get him on the ballot and bring him into the presidential race. The Draft Gore Political Action Committee has shut down, and other organizations have privately advised their members to stop their efforts. Although their home page doesn't reflect it yet, here's part of a letter that went out to organizers from AlGore.org:

We have received a communication from a member of Al Gore's staff discouraging our efforts to put Al Gore's name on any primary ballots. This includes California, New York, Massachusetts, and the write-in effort in New Hampshire, as well as any other states that are working to get him on the ballot. Accordingly, effective immediately, we are recommending that all groups cease their signature collection and related fund-raising activities.

. . .
We'll be putting out more communications in the days ahead, but for now we felt it was urgent to get this information out to people so they wouldn't put any more time or money into the effort. I hope we can turn our grief and disappointment into something more positive and productive in the future.

I never had a sense that Gore was going to return to elective politics--not this year, anyway. I think he'd make a good president, but he's already shown us that he makes a lousy candidate. Still, if we needed a final confirmation, this appears to be it. There'll be no deus ex machina, at least this time around. You go into an election with the candidates you have, not the candidates you might want or wish to have at a later time.