I didn't bother to comment on the story because, frankly, I couldn't care less whether Gore ran or not. Apparently, there are some who cared a great deal:

From a reporter at the Times Online who covered Gore's 2000 campaign: Al Gore finally demonstrated that he knows who he is. So long then, loser

Gore just didn’t have what it takes to beat a natural. Many on this side of the Atlantic may mock George W. Bush, but he has the personal skills to be a successful US President; the ease with people, the sense of humour, the confidence in who he is.



Gore, with his awkwardness, stiff manner, laborious explanations of complicated policy positions and desperate ideas of what constitutes a joke, seemed to try too hard. Voters could smell his unease.

Travelling with Gore during the campaign, on behalf of The Times, was often an excruciating experience — and not just because by the end he was dragging us across the country for 20 manic hours a day, fuelling himself with gallons of Diet Coke. At public events it was hard to find the genuine passion of voters for his candidacy that Clinton had enjoyed. In private, on the rare occasions he came back on the plane, he would be over-anxious to make self-deprecating jokes.

Remember, this was the man who dressed as a werewolf and a mummy at Hallowe’en parties, to try to belie his image as a dullard.



Or from CBS News: Saturday Night Live, Sunday Night Dead

My wife, on a roll, thinks Gore did "Saturday Night Live" to prove that he had achieved "closure" before he quit. 'I’m over it. See, I’m making fun of myself and the whole thing. I’m easy. I’m cool with it. I’m not Nixon. I’m not bitter or hurt or pouting and I’m just not going to run again.'



Whatever his thinking, whatever the inside story, I don’t think he did himself any favors by juxtaposing comedy and drama.

If Gore’s most easily mocked attribute is his seriousness, it’s also what is most authentic about him and what got him pretty far in public life. But he didn’t make fun of himself this weekend; he insulted himself.

Gore’s most unattractive feature is his penchant for frequent, ham-handed attempts at reinvention. This latest sequence – the big Iraq speech before the election, the voracious book tour after the election where he promiscuously courted every camera and microphone in the country, "Saturday Night Live" - ensures that his withdrawal will be seen by many as just one more choreographed crock.