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Award success may lead to the White House

Davis Guggenheim and former US vice president Al Gore, left, pose with the winning Oscar statue for Best Documentary Feature, An Inconvenient Truth. PHOTO: AFP

Flush with an Oscar for his environmental jeremiad An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore faces growing speculation whether he might ride the winds of political climate change to a new bid for the presidency.

The Democrat insists he has no plans to run for the White House in 2008, eight years after being edged out by George W. Bush in a bruising recount battle that still smarts today.

But the former vice president's bandwagon may be gaining steam, fueled by an Academy Award on Sunday for best documentary and a global warming issue whose time appears to have come. Gore, 58, did little to curb expectations as he appeared on stage at Sunday's ceremonies with heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio to hail the use of "environmentally intelligent practices" in producing the awards show.

Prodded by DiCaprio whether he had any other major announcement to make, Gore started to mock a "my fellow Americans" declaration of his intentions — only to be drowned out by the orchestra and hustled off stage.

Some political commentators see Gore as a solid compromise candidate for Democrats if frontrunners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards battle to a stalemate in next year's nomination tussles.

The London-based Economist magazine dubbed Gore an "ideal" choice for Democrats, with his early opposition to the Iraq war, his environmental credentials and a grudge to settle with Bush.

"What better way of wiping out the Bush era than replacing him with the man who should have been president," the weekly said in its latest issue.

Jimmy Carter, former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said he has been trying to persuade Gore to throw his hat in the ring.

Such interest in Gore seemed unlikely after the 2000 presidential race that earned him the reputation as dull, pedantic and one of the worst campaigners ever to tread the US political trail. But the stunning box-office success of An Inconvenient Truth has made the Tennessean the geeky hero of the green set, adored by Hollywood stars and tweedy conservationists who call him "the Goracle."

"Al Gore, Rock Star," the Washington Post rhapsodized Sunday on its front page, under a picture of Gore with rap star Queen Latifah. It dubbed him perhaps "the coolest ex-vice president ever."

Gore was lathered in praise at the Oscars ceremonies, including a ringing tribute from songwriter Melissa Etheridge when she took a second Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth with her song I Need to Wake Up.

"I have to thank Al Gore for inspiring us, inspiring me, showing that caring about the Earth is not Republican or Democrat, it's not red or blue," she said. "We are all green."

Gore's star turn at the Oscars came two weeks after he triggered massive cheers from the glitterati of the music world as one of the presenters at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles.

He's been hanging with rappers Diddy and Ludacris and got a big hug from screen siren Cameron Diaz last week when they announced plans for a worldwide "Live Earth" concert in July to fight global warming.

Whether politically motivated or not, Gore has been building a base among youthful voters as co-founder of Current TV, a forum for young adults to sound off on social issues carried by Yahoo and various cable TV companies.

Sunday's Academy Award was likely to heighten the buzz among political pundits of a possible presidential run for the crusading environmental globetrotter. And the crescendo could get louder later this year with Gore mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gore, who was Bill Clinton's vice president from 1993 to 2001, has been working to damp down speculation of a try for the top spot in the wide-open November 2008 election.

But the Economist quoted former Clinton political guru James Carville as acknowledging that growing pressure for a White House bid is something most politicians would find hard to resist.

"For them running for president is rather like having sex for normal people," the magazine wrote. "It is not something you do just once if you have any say in the matter."
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