It was absolutely mind blowing to watch and witness Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore at the Academy Awards. Oh how everyone swooned over them and their pseudo persona of what many view as intelligentsia du jour.

Interestingly, however, it is hard to fathom that any one voting block could pull off this unadulterated charade on one of the most highly watched shows on national television. But they did.So why is it the Democrats just can’t stop “doing” Al Gore? I have my opinions, but I will let Salena Zito explain this phenomenon to you first.

Gore is a cause-driven politician, as opposed to a talking-point-driven, biographical one. He has all of the experience needed by the establishment, but he also has all of the edgy issues — such as understanding technology, the Internet and the environment — that the “net roots” (Internet community) and the outsiders love.

While Clinton, Edwards and Obama push the party left, Gore could conceivably satisfy the middle. “As a member of the Democratic Leadership Council he has some centrist credentials without forsaking his leftist credentials,” says Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democratic Network in Washington.

Of course my opinion is that Al Gore for all it’s worth is just another useful fool. When I weight what the Democrats are offering in Hillary Clinton or worse still, Barack Obama – as much as I loathe Al Gore he is a much better alternative – considering the hawkish ways of Clinton is a turn off, she is cold and hard, she has baggage more than a mile long. Obama has absolutely no experience compared to Gore or Clinton. Obama is a really horrible alternative should he win the nomination due to the fact he has a background that still views him as a Muslim in the Arab world, he was against the war on terror-still is-and is demanding now for a complete pull-out from Iraq by summers end. That man is completely dangerous to this nations well being.

Now back to Gore – there are two questions that should be answered:

  1. Is being president going to be better for Gore than what he is doing now?
  2. Part of the calculation is this: He is currently having an impact on issues, but as a candidate for president will he still have that impact?

“Announcement day would be Gore’s peak,” says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “People have forgotten what they didn’t like about Gore. They’ll remember quickly if he’s on television every day.”

“Al Gore has become an iconic figure now in American politics,” says Rosenberg. “He has been able to pull off something that no one has ever done before — have tremendous impact on public discourse from the benches of the private sector.”

Brazile insists she was never really excited about Gore coming back into the race in 2004: “It would have been seen as a grudge match, not a rematch.”

But now as Bush goes down, Gore goes up. It’s an inverse relationship.

“I am not going to endorse anybody as long I think that there is an opportunity that Al Gore gets back in,” says Brazile. (emphasis mine)

I believe this is how many in the Democratic block are viewing this situation – exactly what they are hoping for in their dreams. Al Gore to the rescue – maybe that is not such a bad alternative when compared to Clinton and Obama – but any Democrat in the White House is a recipe for disaster that I truly do pray does not happen.

Salena Zito is a Trib editorial page columnist. Ms. Zito has graciously granted me copyright permission to reprint her work here on The HILL Chronicles.

Crossposted from The HILL Chronicles

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