Posted 10:04 AM by Robert

Gore in '04

Some Democratic insiders have recently been pummelling Al Gore - as with the recent poll showing that most such insiders would prefer that Mr. Gore not run for the Presidency again.

Those insiders may want to rethink their actions and statements. At this point, it looks like such insider griping will most likely just result in a Candidate Gore who is more wounded than would otherwise be the case. According to the Associated Press:

When Democrats are given a list of possible candidates for the party's nomination, Gore routinely comes out well ahead of the others. A CNN-Time poll released in mid-November that asked Democrats' preference for the party's nomination in 2004 put the party's 2000 nominee at 36 percent, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) at 20 percent and all others in single digits. Clinton has said she is not running, and when the question is asked with her name removed from the list, Gore's support swells to 53 percent, with Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites) and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle at 10 percent each and others in single digits. Lieberman has said he won't run if Gore does. Those close to Daschle say he hasn't ruled out a run.

To be fair to the griping Democrat insiders, one can understand their discontent when they read on in this article and see:

In a CNN-Time poll rematch of the 2000 election, President Bush had the support of 57 percent, while Gore had 40 percent. The public overall was about evenly split on whether they would like to Gore run again, with 45 percent saying yes. Six in 10 Democrats said yes, and 35 percent said no.