According to the Dallas Morning News, Gore and "other Senior Democrats" are discussing getting involved in the race to prevent the dreaded Super delegate clusterfuck. Quotes from the DMN below;
Former President Al Gore and a number of other Senior Democrats plan to remain neutral for now in the presidential race in case they need to to broker a peaceful resolution to what they fear could be a bitterly divided convention, party officials said Friday. Mr. Gore and other leading Democrats have met privately... (about the) Super delegates...Ms. Pelosi and three of the candidates who have dropped out of the 2008 race, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden have spoken with Mr. Gore in recent days.
Ok, so my guess is that Gore and the others are preparing to tell the Clinton's they need to pack it in if she doesn't score the same sort of knockout on March 4th that Obama has been delivering across the country. I figure the threat will be a either get out or we will endorse Obama en mass prior to the Penn primary. This would be my guess because if Clinton does not score massively in the two delegate rich states in March, the race will remain tight... leading to the nightmare for the Dems that the press keeps licking it's collective chops over. The fact that Gore and other high placed Dems are "staying neutral for now" is a tip off for me that the leverage they plan to use is a threat of a humiliating mass endorsement. Given Gore's stature at this point, such an endorsement would be humiliating.
I find it interesting that Edwards, Dodd, and Biden are all involved in this. My guess is that they all see themselves as potential running mates for Barack. Edwards I think because he stayed in long enough to hurt Hillary, and then dropped out on the very day he could do the most damage. Dodd and Biden because both would balance out the ticket in a logical way.... Young fresh faced black guy with old "experienced" white guy. Given Bill, I don't think anyone is all that interested in the VP slot, Biden has already said as much.
As for the "negotiation" part, will Obama be pressed to offer Hillary something? If so, I hope to god he doesn't have to give her VP. Is there a plum Senate post she could be given where she couldn't do to much harm?
Interesting that this appeared in the DMN... it's in the Guardian too, I think, but nowhere else yet, so I guess we will see. It makes sense though, as the whole party is obviously very worried that we are once again on the brink of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.