This Is Too Funny

A brand new, really spiffy, environmentally friendly bandwagon to jump on! Forget the buzz about Gore '08. This is even better. How about Gore  '08 v.2.0. Or vp.2.0, as it were. As in a modest proposal for Gore running for VICE President in '08. So speculates Michael Grunwald in the Washington Post.

Yes, Al Gore should run for vice president.

John Nance Garner famously said that the vice presidency wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit, and for Garner (who served under FDR) it probably wasn't. But it is now, a trend that began with one Albert Gore Jr.

Gore was one of President Bill Clinton's most trusted White House advisers, lunching with him every Tuesday, encouraging him to sign a controversial welfare reform bill, persuading him to bomb Serbia. Gore also oversaw the administration's environmental policies, launched a dorky but effective "reinventing government" campaign, and demolished Ross Perot in a free-trade debate. He was often described as the most powerful vice president in history.

And he was, until he was succeeded and supplanted by Dick Cheney, a former White House chief of staff, defense secretary and head of George W. Bush's vice presidential search committee. Cheney's control over Bush may be more myth than fact, but it's no myth that he wields unprecedented clout for a number two — on foreign policy, energy policy, just about every policy. Cheney has become a kind of chief operating officer for the federal government, pulling levers behind the scenes, working his Washington contacts. And Bush has never seen him as a threat, in large part because he's ruled out running for president himself.

That's a perfect model for Gore, a distinguished public servant with limited political skills. His most noted stumbles while in office were political stumbles — fundraising follies such as collecting campaign cash at a Buddhist temple, his PR-deaf "no controlling legal authority" explanation of said follies, his over-the-top defense of Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and then his tortured efforts to distance himself from Clinton during his campaign.

The inconvenient truth is that as a politician, Gore has always been more successful in a supporting role. In the Senate, he was a visionary on environmental issues, nuclear proliferation and, yes, the Internet, which he never did claim he invented. And people forget that his addition to the ticket in 1992 helped jump-start the Clinton campaign. But Gore never seemed comfortable as a presidential candidate; he surrounded himself with consultants who deluged him with bad (Don't mention Clinton!), frivolous (Wear earth tones!) and conflicting advice. He ended up bringing three different demeanors to his three debates. He never talked about the environment and other issues close to his heart, and he never sounded as genuine as he did in his movie.

This is probably the single silliest trial balloon I have personally ever witnessed. What's even funnier is the running mates Grunwald proposes:

Of course, the current Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a longtime Gore rival, and a new Clinton-Gore ticket is too far-fetched even for a thought experiment. But who knows? Maybe if Gore agreed to run with Obama or John Edwards or Mark Warner before the primaries, there would be a new Democratic front-runner.

Oh, please, bring this one on. The American public would have absolutely endless fun with this one. I might have to start watching Saturday Night Live again just to see the way they'd skewer it. ("I invented the Vice-Presidency" comes to mind right off the bat).

And they rightfully would have fun with it.