Last year, during the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore, DR predicted (correctly!) that Gore would endorse no Democratic candidate, till it was settled who would be the nominee.  I had thought the same thing at the time (so I am not sure it was a very hard shot to call), but was unsure about whether the endorsement would matter much.  Maybe I was wrong, regarding my latter doubtfulness; but we shall see.

I think Gore is on record as saying he does not plan on taking part (or, does not want to take part, which is not the same thing) in a future Democratic administration.  And I think DR is on record as saying that Gore will refuse to take a post in a future Democratic administration, believing that Gore has definitively moved beyond politics.  But now -- who knows?  Does the venerable precept, "Never say never," get to be applied in this case?

Well, I think Gore's being picked for the VP slot -- and accepting -- would still be very surprising.  But it should be observed that the VP job has been evolving a lot lately, in important ways.  It may be true of whoever Obama and McCain choose finally -- and certainly we should expect it in the case of someone like Al Gore -- that the campaigns will no longer be able simply to trundle out these Number 2s, but the VP candidates will need to have a fairly well defined agenda in the administration, already from now.

Actually, it is hard to see that McCain has that much imagination.  There was vague talk that if he chooses Mitt Romney as his VP, Romney would operate as a sort of Economy Czar, since McCain seems to understand economic matters about as well as I do -- frightening thought!  But of course McCain detests Romney, so that does not seem likely.

Nor will he be comfortable with a figure at his side like Dick Cheney, Supreme Minister without Portfolio (but with Money and Friends, i.e. Control over and through the President's Rich Friends), hence the Presidential Favorite.  McCain, being acutely sensitive to "being tied up" -- and he was apparently that way long before ever he landed in the Hanoi Hilton -- , probably perceives that Cheney discovered W.'s sense of stubborn loyalty, apparently a sign of strength, to be really a weakness, preventing W. from admitting error and dumping his Favorite.

As for Obama, his managerial style is interesting.  Way too cool for my taste -- that YouTube-caught address to his campaign staff in Chicago was very chilly; one wonders how many names of those workers he actually knows -- but apparently competent enough.

One may also wonder how brilliant the appointment of Patti Solis Doyle, as the VP's chief-of-staff, will turn out to be.  If it is so simply read by Hillary's embittered supporters back in Hillaryland as an intended insult, well, was it very smart, then?

Still, it seems that whoever gets picked for the VP slot, Obama will want that person to step forward with the intention of doing a real, specific job.  So sure, Al Gore might go along with that.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.