When I watched former Vice President Gore on Larry King, it seemed as if he didn't truly believe that the 'real people' on the street were really telling the truth when they said, every single one, of them: please run.
Well, a poll released this week in New Hampshire shows that the support is real, very real. Here's the highlight.
The Gore factor:
The only obstacle for Clinton in the Democratic primary is Al Gore. Twenty-nine percent of Clinton voters would switch to Gore if he announced for president, and when all of the switches from other Democratic candidates were recalculated, Gore would defeat Clinton. In total, 32 percent of Democratic voters would support Gore over the candidate they are currently leaning toward.
Here's why this poll is so important.
First of all, New Hampshire has seen every single person who is running about 15 times by now. They've seen them in big crowds and small meetings. They've seen their television commercials and heard the speeches. They take their role as first primary very seriously up there and they are not likely to be swayed by the flavor of the month.
So the fact that in New Hampshire, Al Gore is leading the minute he enters the race -- pretty amazing. It's also amazing because D.C. types are saying Gore is running out of time, he has to raise money, build infrastructure, create a ground operation in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Maybe not.
Maybe Al Gore can get in the race, October 15 is my bet. Maybe Al Gore can get in, run a true progressive campaign driven the community online. Maybe he can ignore the mainstream media that were just pathetic in the coverage of his great new book.
The poll also says this about what's important to the voters there:
Iraq, the lead issue:
The most important issue to New Hampshire voters was the Iraq war (34 percent), followed by Homeland Security/terrorism (19 percent), health care (15 percent), economy/jobs (8 percent), education (7 percent), and the environment (7 percent).
So, it's not all about the environment. Seems to me that the voters in New Hampshire know what they're looking for. And his name is Al Gore.