Gore Not in Race, But Pushing Agenda for Party
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: At New York University now a live picture of former Vice President Al Gore speaking there. He has made it very clear that he has no intention of throwing his hat into the ring for the 2004 presidential election. But why is he getting so much attention anyway? He seems to be bashing the president's policies at great length. Our Bill Schneider is joining us now from Los Angeles to help us kind of dissect what Al Gore is saying and not saying. And, Bill, what is this positioning all about? He's certainly coming out very publicly about his disagreement with the Bush policies. Yet, at the same time, he says he won't run. What's going on?</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well he is determined not to run for president, he wants to kill all those rumors that he might get into the race. But he wants to lead the Democratic onslot against George Bush. He thinks Bush is vulnerable both domestic policy and international policy because of the faltering economy and because the United States sadly appears to be admired in Iraq and Americans are getting killed every day. So I think they see an opening there. I believe Democrats see Bush as vulnerable, potentially vulnerable. And I think Gore wants to make sure that he rallies the party.</s>WHITFIELD: Now as I said he's peaking now at NYU. But let's listen to what he said just a short couple minutes ago.</s>AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The direction in which our nation is being led now is deeply troubling to me. Not only in Iraq, but also here at home on economic policy, social policy and environmental policy.</s>WHITFIELD: So he doesn't necessarily want to run, Bill. But you're saying he is trying to throw some support to the Democratic Party as a whole and that's what his soul ambition is?</s>SCHNEIDER: That's right. He wants to rally the Democratic Party to give them some encouragement. You can fight this president, you can win this race. I think Democrats are very worried right now because they see the only candidate of the nine who are now running who has any momentum is Howard Dean. And some Democrats are worried they can't win with Howard Dean because they would turn the election into a referendum on gay civil unions, on the war in Iraq, on tax cuts and they don't think that's the Democrats best issues. So a lot of Democrats have been saying, We've to find a candidate who can stop Dean. But they're divided between Gephardt and Lieberman and Kerry. You can't stop one candidate with three. So there's a kind of fantasy, maybe we can bring Al Gore in to the race and unify behind him. But I don't think it's going to happen and Gore has given it no encouragement.</s>WHITFIELD: So what would it take, you suppose, in order to try to change his mind for those who really try to want to get him into the race?</s>SCHNEIDER: Oh I don't think it's likely to happen under any circumstances. I suppose it's theoretically possible if the Democrats look like they're going to nominate someone and that candidate suddenly is discredited because of some embarrassing revelation and the party's in crisis and they come to Al Gore and say, Please, you must come in and save us. It's possible it could happen then. But at the moment I think it's very unlikely that Gore or Hillary Rodham Clinton is likely -- she's the other fantasy candidate -- is likely to come in to unify the party. The Democrats want someone who can unite them, and at the moment they're getting more and more divided between Howard Dean and the candidates who think he can't win.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Bill Schneider, thanks very much. Of course if Al Gore says anything else of particular interest as he addresses those at NYU, we'll be bringing that to you as soon as we can.</s>SCHNEIDER: OK. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com