Gore reinvents himself yet again
By Bill Schneider
CNN Political Unit
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The Dean movement, Gore says, is "promising to re-make the Democratic Party as a force for justice and progress and good in America."
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Remember how Al Gore kept re-inventing himself during the 2000 campaign? He's still at it.
This week, the newest Al Gore showed up to claim the political Play of the Week.
Former Vice President Al Gore joins the revolution! Gore, the ultimate party insider, has cast his lot with Howard Dean's outsiders.
Gore's endorsement doesn't just make Dean the man to beat. It also transforms Gore into a man with a future. Gore is clearly impressed by Dean's army of energetic, Internet-savvy political insurgents.
"Howard Dean really is the only candidate who has been able to inspire, at the grassroots level all over this country, the kind of passion and enthusiasm for democracy and change and transformation of America that we need in this country," said Gore on Tuesday.
There's a political movement going on out there.
"What even we underestimated was the huge response that we've gotten in terms of the resources, the energy, the number of people out there leafleting and talking about Howard Dean," said Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, on October 17.
Al Gore doesn't want to stop it. He wants to be part of it.
Back in 1964, Barry Goldwater led a political movement that lost the election but re-made the Republican Party. The Dean movement, Gore says, is "promising to re-make the Democratic Party as a force for justice and progress and good in America."
A reporter promptly asked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, whether she thought the Democratic Party needs a makeover. Her answer? "No.''
Gore made the endorsement in Harlem -- Bill Clinton's neighborhood. How's that for a poke in the eye?
By embracing Dean, Gore has distanced himself even further from the Clinton legacy, which is something that puzzles his old friends.
"In supporting Howard Dean," said fellow Democratic hopeful Joe Lieberman on Tuesday, "he's supporting somebody who is standing against so much that the Clinton-Gore administration stood for.''
If Dean loses, could Gore be setting himself up to run for president in 2008? He might have to face Hillary Clinton. But she'd be the candidate of the past. He'd be the man of the future, allied with a hip political movement.
He'd be Gore the Dean dude -- winner of the political Play of the Week.
Gore could also end up tainted by a Dean loss. "You did this to us,'' the Democratic establishment would say.
But Gore doesn't care what the establishment says about him any more. He's a Dean dude now.
