Gore Likely to Endorse Before Primaries
NEW YORK -- Democrat Al Gore says he will probably endorse one of his party's 2008 presidential candidates. And it won't necessarily be Hillary Rodham Clinton, the wife of his former boss.
"Uh...no," the former vice president told 02138 magazine when asked if he feels "some obligation" to endorse the senator from New York.
"I have friendships with her and with other candidates, and they're all on equal footing at this point as far as I'm concerned," he said.
Gore said several candidates had called and visited him to seek advice. He declined to name them.
In the interview, Gore again declined to completely rule out a presidential run next year but said "it doesn't feel right at this point." He also said he doubted he would ever completely rule out a return to politics in the future.
Gore, who has devoted much of his recent career to publicizing the dangers of global warming, acknowledged he would have more influence doing so as president. But he said he felt satisfied raising awareness of the issue so that the next president would have to confront it.
He also praised a proposal by Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Chris Dodd to enact a carbon tax on polluters. "I'm convinced that we should eliminate the payroll tax and replace it dollar for dollar with a (carbon) tax," he said.
Gore, who graduated from Harvard University in 1969, graces the September/October cover of 02138 magazine, which chronicles the activities of Harvard graduates. When asked about a fellow Harvard alumnus _ President Bush, who earned an MBA in 1975 _ Gore had little good to say.
"I'm losing my objectivity where President Bush and (Vice President Dick) Cheney are concerned," Gore said. He added that his sense of anger "is so saturated that when a new outrage occurs, we have to download some existing outrage into an external hard drive in order to make room for a new outrage."
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