Will he or won't he?

If you want a quick guide to whether Al Gore will end up running for president or not read this piece by Ben Smith, one of the savviest US political reporters.

The thing with Gore, as one politics watcher from his home state of Tennessee told me, is that he’d like to be president but he doesn’t want to run for it—think Michael Portillo in the Tory leadership contest in 2001. So Gore is putting all his least popular positions up front, as Portillo did, to make it clear that he only wants it on his terms. 

One scenario for Gore jumping in which does the rounds in Washington is that Obama makes a rookie error, Edwards doesn’t catch on and then at the last minute some scandal engulfs the Clinton campaign which reawakens all the old doubts about the couple. At which point, Gore—for the good of the party—steps in and accepts the nomination. This would be a sweet irony for the Gore loyalists who believe that Bill’s indiscretions won Hillary her Senate seat but lost Gore the White House.