Will Al Gore Run for President?

Ann Althouse and lots of others have been asking that question since it was announced that the former Vice President is co-recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. I doubt it.

Walt Disney was once approached about running for mayor of Los Angeles. Disney responded to the group, which included science fiction author Ray Bradbury, "Why would I want to be mayor of Los Angeles when I'm already king of the world?"

Al Gore would rather be right, at least right as he sees it, than be President. At times, he seemed to see the 2000 campaign not as a quest for the presidency, but for a statement from voters that he really was right. Right in claiming to be the smartest guy around. Right on the issues. Right morally. That's part of what lay behind all those impatient sighs and grunts during his debates with Dubya.

There are some political figures who are better off not being President. They don't have the requisite "bend" or the love of the political game needed to be successful, even in the pursuit of laudable ends.

Woodrow Wilson, for example, was far too unyielding to achieve his goals as President. This isn't to say that his goals were wrong. It's just that the pedantic President gets nowhere fast.

Outside the daily demands of politics though, almost-Presidents and would-be-Presidents can use their prominence to push causes. They gain hearings from the public and because they aren't susceptible to being voted down by Congress, rebuffed at the polls, or blunted by interest groups, they can undertake long-term campaigns for their causes and have some chance of success. And they don't have to dirty their hands being politicians.

That's been Jimmy Carter's experience and I think Gore, in a way, is replicating it.

Why would Al Gore want to be President, when he's already the king of global warming rectitude?