by Russell H. Smith

Created on: July 17, 2007   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

Any meaningful debate regarding Al Gore's aspirations for the U.S. presidency in 2008 must first address "an inconvenient truth" about his 2000 presidential campaign. It had nothing to do with climate change or indeed Bill Clinton, but was cyclonic nonetheless, ultimately leveling Gore's campaign and thwarting his move across the corridor of the West Wing. The great spoiler was the eclectic Ralph Nader, agent provocateur an American icon in his own right.

In the world of American power politics, Nader remains one of the most polarizing and provocative figures of his generation. Conventional wisdom would have us focus on the controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling "on writ of Certiorari to the Florida Supreme Court" December 12, 2000, which finally decided the election result. History tells us that the Gore campaign bled thousands of votes to Nader, as his Green Party ran political interference that ushered in a Bush II White House.

So it might be an appropriate question for Al Gore to ask: Is Ralph Nader contemplating running in 2008? After all, there are now utterances of displeasure and derision from Nader regarding the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, sinister in its septic similarities that afflicted Gore in 2000. Team Gore will be conscience of the conflagration that is Ralph Nader. In an insightful account "Nader - Crusader, Spoiler, Icon", Justin Martin writes just how wrong Nader read the 2000 election. Challenged from the floor at a fund-raising event regarding his damage to the Gore campaign Nader predicted: "Don't you worry...George Bush is so dumb, Gore will beat him by twenty points this won't be a nail-biter." Several disillusioned ex-Nader campaign strategist's sensing voter-leak registered a web site called "Nader's Raiders for Gore" to arrest the flow, but it was too late.

Team Gore will also be cognizant of the worldwide phenomena created by An Inconvenient Truth and the enticing platform it has created for a 2008 presidential campaign. Among other things, it further humanized Al Gore while confirming his innate ability to deal with a complex global issue. It also portrays a strikingly powerful juxtaposition with George W. Bush's calamitous presidency of absolutism. But is success transferable? Can an Academy Awarding former Vice President use a documentary on climate change, the vagaries of CO2 emissions and a non-compliant Kyoto Protocol as capital for the U.S. presidency? There is a populist notion in America that Al Gore's finest

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