Gore Says Nobel Prize Won't Spur Presidential Bid

Oh, no . . .

Associated Press
October 17, 2007 8:05 a.m.

OSLO, Norway -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said winning the Nobel Peace Prize hadn't pushed him to enter the 2008 presidential race.

"I don't have plans to be a candidate again, so I don't really see it in that context at all," Mr. Gore told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK in an interview broadcast Wednesday. "I'm involved in a different kind of campaign. It's a global campaign. It's a campaign to change the way people think about the climate crisis." NRK said it interviewed Gore in Nashville, Tenn.

At a news conference last Friday in Palo Alto, Calif., Mr. Gore sidestepped the issue of a presidential run, saying then that he wanted to "get back to business" on "a planetary emergency."

Mr. Gore, who shared the Nobel Prize with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told NRK that it was a "great honor" to win the peace prize. "For me personally it means the chance to be more effective in trying to deliver this message about the climate crisis and the urgency of solving the climate crisis," he said.

On Tuesday, a Gallup Poll found that there was no surge in support for Mr. Gore to run for office. Asked if they would like to see Mr. Gore run for president in 2008, people said no by a margin of 54% to 41%, according to the Gallup Poll, about the same as in March, when people opposed his running by 57% to 38%.

Even among Democrats there was no visible surge of interest in Mr. Gore. In the new survey, 48% of them said they would like him to run and 43% said they would not. In March, Democrats were in favor of his entering the race by 54% to 41%.