Also posted at MyDD
This will be the chance for people around the country who support an Al Gore candidacy to meet in person and put our heads together to come up with ideas how we can work to encourage Gore to enter the fray. (Remember "We have the power!")
I have posted the event on DFA-Link with a tentative time and date of Friday, August 3, at 6:00 PM. Please RSVP here:
http://www.dfalink.com/...
This seems like a good time since YearlyKos activities on Friday appear to end at 5:15. I put McCormick Place as the stand-in location, but we will probably want to have the meeting off site since the convention will be done for the day and we will likely have local participants who aren't attending YearlyKos. If you are staying in a hotel near the convention, please note that in your RSVP since a nearby hotel would be an obvious choice for our location (e.g., in the hotel bar).
For those who think Gore is not running or think such efforts are a waste of time, I will offer my take on the situation:
In 2003 (December 2002 actually) he ruled out running in 2004 and asked supporters to look elsewhere for a candidate. Despite being asked thousands of times by now, Gore has carefully refused to rule out a run. He has also said "it doesn't take 500 days to run for President."
That doesn't mean he WILL run -- I think those who want him to run need to let him know how we feel in every way we can: letters, blog posts (like this one today, for example), Draft Gore organizations, petitions, T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, etc.
The Bloggers for Gore group is coming up with some very interesting ideas on this front which will certainly be topics for discussion at our YearlyKos meeting.
If Gore sees a groundswell of support for a run, that will increase the chances he decides to do what he has pointedly not ruled out. His no doubt increasing fustration with the way the other candidates are not addressing and offering real solutions to the climate crisis will also play a factor in his ultimate decision, I suspect.