http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/28/america/letter.php?WT.mc_id=rssamericaExcerpt:
Gore also has a sharp wit and a very tender, compassionate side - traits that were both largely hidden from the public when he was in his political mode.
Associates say they are more in evidence these days.
With the Nobel Prize, he commands worldwide attention rivaling that of former presidents. Yet there is a difference politically: They can comment or criticize but are virtually out of the running for president; he is not.
This, as the presidential historian Michael Beschloss notes, puts Gore "in a position without parallel" in American political history.
He is 59 years old. His father, a former senator and his mentor, died at age 90, his mother at 92. Those genes suggest that whether from the White House or outside, Al Gore will be an important voice in the American body politic for another generation.
Looking at the current crop of presidential contenders is telling. The Republicans disagree with him respectfully. There is little of the derisive "ozone man" ridicule or the perpetration of myths about his hyperbole that were much in evidence in past campaigns.
Some Democrats, like Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who favors a carbon tax, invoke an association with Gore to gain credibility. Hillary Clinton was positively gushy when he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, in New Hampshire last week, boasted how Gore would play "a very senior capacity" in his administration.
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And if they are smart, they WILL listen to him. And well, he did say he was only 59 and has not ruled out returning to politics in the future. My feeling is that he is totally committed through his work now and his organizations to raising awareness of the urgency of this climate crisis so that the people push hard enough on all levels and in all parties (which they are not doing now) to cause that political tipping point... should that happen as it must and changes come, he could very well have a much easier time of it if he choose to go that route again. Those who think he is washed up if he doesn't now are imo wrong. Whether he changes his mind now due to circumstances, or whether he decides to do so in the future or never, he will still be a great part of the American dialogue, but more importantly the global dialogue.