know, you’re thinking: Wow, after, what - three tries at becoming president he finally realizes that he doesn’t have what it takes to become president. But, of course, that would be too easy. The USA Today reports that The Prophet thinks he can make a change more effectively outside of the presidential office than he could in it:

NASHVILLE — Former vice president Al Gore said Friday that he still hasn’t ruled out a presidential bid in 2008, but he doesn’t expect to run and might not possess the skills necessary to be elected president now.
Gore spoke to The Tennessean today before signing copies of his new book, The Assault on Reason, at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at the Mall in Green Hills, in Nashville.
My telling didn’t begin by my own work; it began at the hands of my abuser. It certainly was not his intention to reveal that his “dearest” wife was daily used for emotional target practice, but still he did. It was also the farthest thing from my mind to consider that his treatment of me was even wrong and that I might have some recourse against it. Years before I had steeled myself against the harsh perception that I was destined to remain forever bound to the maniac who called himself my husband. So when the day came that I was unable to find a suitable excuse for his outright abuse, I was terrified. How was I to maintain the image of marital peace when I was now being treated the same way in front of others as I was at home? How was I to defend his actions when others were now witnessing the very behavior?
Take Good Notes

A while ago I got a post card from my eye doctor reminding me “It’s that time again” . I nodded in agreement and forgot about it.

jazz radio
jazz singer
jazz theory
latin jazz
this is jazz

About a week later my eyes were bothering me and I said to myself “I need to remember that they are bugging me so I can tell the optometrist when I go in. It’s that time again I think”. Then my eyes stopped being weird - in that I stopped noticing them. I think we should not notice our body parts. I mean, the day you say “Hmm. I can feel my pancreas”, it is not going to be a good day. Slam your thumb in the car door and tell me you liked it better when you didn’t have to spend so much time thinking about that thumb.

I decided to take advantage of my insurance and made an appointment with my friendly neighborhood Eye Doc In A Box . I called them up, talked day and time and came to something we could both live with.
It had been “comfortable” to be abused in the privacy of my own home. No one else saw it, I didn’t have to make excuses, and once I left the doors of my home I began the play-acting that I called my life. Because there were never any bruises, it was not too difficult to hide. Being in a new city among people who never knew “me” before, made it easy for my abuse to avoid notice. For them, the absence of bruises meant the absence of any cruelty. They never saw the inside, however. They never saw the disappearance of hobbies, interests, skills, gifts, talents, or other little joys because they had nothing with which to compare me. To them, the real “me” was the one being created in our home, changing ever so slightly each day until I became the person the abuser wanted me to become.
For months, Gore has said repeatedly that he probably won’t run for office again, but wouldn’t say that he would never run for office again. He reiterated that stance on Friday, but downplayed the possibility of another campaign.

“I don’t want anyone to interpret that answer as throwing a little red meat out for speculation,” Gore said. “I am just being candid. But I don’t expect to get into this race. I have given the reasons why. I strongly prefer to serve in other ways.”