Gore Decides He Won’t Run for President

Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday that he will not run for the White House again, removing the prospect of a rematch with President Bush that some Democrats believed was his due, but others had dreaded.

“I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for president in 2004,” Gore declared on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” breaking his nearly two-year-long cogitation with a vow to work against Bush’s reelection.

The 54-year-old Gore -- who served as vice president to President Clinton for eight years before making his own run for the White House in 2000 -- said Sunday, “I personally have the energy and drive and ambition to make another campaign, but I don’t think that it’s the right thing for me to do.

“I want to contribute to ending the current administration. I think the current policies have to be changed. I think that my best way of contributing to that result may not be as a candidate this time around,” Gore said.

His decision clears the way for a spirited contest for the Democratic Party’s mantle to challenge Bush in 2004.

Among those likely to run are Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Gore’s running mate two years ago who made history by becoming the country’s first Jewish major-party candidate for national office. Other hopefuls could include Sens. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York political activist, also has said he plans to run.

Lieberman has said repeatedly that he would not seek the Democratic presidential nomination were Gore to run, but that he would probably do so if Gore did not.

A spokesman for the senator said Lieberman would refrain from comment Sunday.

Gore’s decision forecloses the possibility of a bitter replay of the 2000 campaign, which ended in a virtual tie, with Gore winning the popular vote but with Bush prevailing after the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, halted a controversial recount in Florida.

“He [Gore] was clearly the front-runner for the nomination,” said Bill Carrick, a Gephardt advisor. “Now you’ve got a classic race that’s just wide open.”

Gore’s decision will disappoint a lot of rank-and-file voters, who felt he had been robbed in one of the closest elections in history.

On Sunday night, Clinton said: “Al Gore was the best vice president America ever had. He would have been a fine president had history taken a different course two years ago.”

To insiders, only the timing of the decision was a surprise, as Gore had said he would confer with his family over the holidays before making any announcement. His recent policy pronouncements and public criticisms of Bush during a nationwide book tour led many to believe that he would run. But others thought that his heart just wasn’t in it.

Some of the former vice president’s ardent supporters -- as well as key strategists and party officials around the country who worked tirelessly for him two years ago -- walked away from the 2000 debacle angry at Gore for having run what they regarded as an inept campaign.

They felt he should have routed Bush, as the nation was at peace and the economy still appeared strong. And so in recent months many of Gore’s onetime loyalists have signed on with other prospective candidates.

Gore’s support among elected Democratic officials also had weakened, sometimes in glaring ways.

For instance, at a private gathering that preceded the recent memorial service in Minneapolis for Sen. Paul Wellstone, many Democrats all but shunned Gore -- “as if he had leprosy,” said one Democratic senator who was there.

In that same room, he said, Clinton was virtually mobbed by admirers.

Another harbinger of Gore’s decision came during an October gathering of the extended Gore family in Carthage, Tenn., to celebrate the 90th birthday of the vice president’s mother. Throughout the weekend, according to one person who was present, not a word about politics was spoken.

In his CBS interview, Gore acknowledged that some Democrats were not eager to see him run again.

“The last campaign was an extremely difficult one,” he said. “I think that there are a lot of people within the Democratic Party who felt exhausted by that, who felt like, ‘OK, I don’t wanna go through that again.’ And I’m frankly sensitive to that feeling.”

While Gore’s decision no doubt heartened some Democrats, it probably came as a disappointment of sorts to the White House.

Buoyed by Bush’s high personal popularity -- still registering in opinion polls at more than 60% -- Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist, has been itching privately for a Bush-Gore rematch.

Asked Sunday night if he was surprised by Gore’s announcement, Rove said, “Yes and no.”

“I thought it would be a fool’s errand, but he’s probably figured it out.”

Bush’s popularity soared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and he now holds an almost 20-percentage-point lead over Gore in polls that examined another contest between the two.

After Bush’s inauguration, Gore all but vanished from public view. But it seemed like he couldn’t win for losing.

He set out to give Bush some space to launch his presidency, but many of his die-hard supporters lambasted him for not standing up for his beliefs by challenging Bush’s actions.

And then, just as Gore was beginning to reemerge, 9/11 struck and profoundly altered the landscape, virtually freezing all political activities.

As a private citizen, Gore taught at Columbia University and then at Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State University -- where he also set about mending fences after losing the state to Bush. Had Gore carried his own state, Florida’s outcome would have been moot.

Gore and his wife, Tipper, also co-wrote a book about families, “Joined at the Heart,” just released and panned by some critics as pedantic.

In the last year, Gore also has served as vice chairman of Metropolitan West Financial, a Los Angeles-based financial services holding company, providing advice on biotechnology and information technology.

As part of his home-state political fence-mending, the Gores bought a house in Nashville -- a white house.

In many ways, it was the first house of their own. The Carthage farm they own once belonged to his parents; their Arlington, Va., house was inherited from Tipper Gore’s parents.

Friends say the Gores have relished decorating the Nashville house and seemed to truly enjoy their new -- and far more private -- life.

They also both treasured having more time to spend with their two grandchildren, Gore friends said Sunday.

“At the end of day, he was just very, very happy with his life,” one said.

Moreover, Gore came to believe that he could still shape public policy and influence political debate from outside the arena. His recent speeches on Iraq, health care and the economy all drew considerable news media attention.

“He still will have a platform to impact things that he cares deeply about, and he doesn’t have to run for president,” one former top Gore aide said.

In the end, Gore displayed one familiar trait: a penchant for springing surprises on people -- even those close to him.

The former vice president’s decision, and the timing of his announcement, surprised even Frank Hunger, Gore’s brother-in-law and perhaps best friend. Hunger said he had no idea that Gore had made a decision one way or another.

Gore had been scheduled in the coming days to consult “a long list of people” to discuss his political future, one Gore insider said Sunday night. “I don’t know what accelerated the decision,” he added.

Gore was in New York over the weekend and hosted “Saturday Night Live,” where he donned a wig and in jest pretended to be Trent Lott, the beleaguered incoming Senate majority leader now defending his post against charges that his remarks at a birthday party for 100-year-old Strom Thurmond were racially intolerant.

In his CBS interview, Gore acknowledged that, in passing up a bid in 2004, he may never again run for the White House.

“Well, you know, never say never. But I make this decision in the full knowledge and awareness that if I don’t run this time ... that’s probably the last opportunity I’ll ever have to run for president.”

But Gore indicated he would not be looking back.

“I’ve come to closure on this. I don’t think it’s the right thing for me to be a candidate in 2004.”

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Times staff writers Doyle McManus, Richard Simon and Aaron Zitner in Washington and Mark Z. Barabak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.