Al Gore, the defeated presidential candidate in 2000, has indicated to friends he is to abandon the quest to become president that his domineering father urged on him as a child.
After a political career dominated by an all-consuming ambition to reach the White House, Mr Gore's expected withdrawal from the 2004 race for the Democratic nomination would mark a decision of tragic proportions for the former vice-president.
Several of Mr Gore's closest friends told The New York Times that he was inclined to retire to a private life of teaching and writing and had stopped cultivating the big-money donors and political kingmakers needed for another presidential run.
"He certainly has the energy and appetite to do it," one friend said, "but if there's someone else who would really carry the mantle and really be who the party wants, then he's not going to stand in the way of that."
The decision to step aside for a new Democratic face would be a recognition that he would have little chance of defeating President George W Bush in two years' time, even though he won the popular vote two years ago.
Polls in the key primary state of New Hampshire have shown that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has an early lead among Democratic candidates.
Over recent weeks, Mr Gore, who has shed some of the weight he put on after his defeat and shaved off the wispy beard he grew in the political wilderness, has been on a high-profile nationwide book tour.
In scores of interviews, he has offered opinions on virtually every political issue of the day but his return to the spotlight has received a lukewarm reception.
Friends have said he is concerned about "the baggage he has with the media" and is said to have been distressed by press comment that he is reinventing himself once again in preparation for a presidential run.
Pulling out next month - when he has promised to make a public statement about 2004 - would avoid the ultimate humiliation of being rejected by his own party in his bid for a rematch with Mr Bush.
Although Mr Gore is intelligent, experienced and has a formidable grasp of policy, he has never been able to shake off the image of being calculating, condescending and willing to shift his stance on any issue for political advantage.
In 1992, he wrote: "I have become very impatient with my own tendency to put a finger in the political winds and proceed cautiously."
At the 2000 Democratic convention, Mr Gore said he had become "my own man" but this autumn he conceded he had bowed to his advisers too frequently during that campaign.
"If I had to do it all over again, I'd just let it rip," he told a party gathering in Memphis. "To hell with the pollsters, the consultants and all the rest."
Senator Albert Gore Snr, Mr Gore's father, served for more than three decades on Capitol Hill but never got close to reaching the White House. Instead, his burning desire to become president was transferred to his son.
Although he always portrayed himself as being from Tennessee, most of Mr Gore's early years were spent living in Suite 809 of the Fairfax Hotel in Washington.
He was a serious child who addressed his father as "senator" and was often left in the care of his older sister while his parents travelled the country.
Mr Gore's childhood tendency to try to please was transformed into a curious adult habit of exaggerating his role in events.
He is still mocked for claiming to have invented the internet and for insisting he was the model for a character in the novel Love Story.
His recent interviews and appearances, to promote two books about family life co-written with his wife Tipper, have been ponderous and have not been received with enthusiasm in Middle America.
Retiring to the hills of Tennessee, where there are towns called Difficult, Defeated and Nameless, would seem to be a prudent move.
But then again, Mr Gore has always had a reputation for changing his mind. One friend said: "He could still wake up one morning and decide to run again."
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/...re13.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/12/13/ixworld.html
After a political career dominated by an all-consuming ambition to reach the White House, Mr Gore's expected withdrawal from the 2004 race for the Democratic nomination would mark a decision of tragic proportions for the former vice-president.
Several of Mr Gore's closest friends told The New York Times that he was inclined to retire to a private life of teaching and writing and had stopped cultivating the big-money donors and political kingmakers needed for another presidential run.
"He certainly has the energy and appetite to do it," one friend said, "but if there's someone else who would really carry the mantle and really be who the party wants, then he's not going to stand in the way of that."
The decision to step aside for a new Democratic face would be a recognition that he would have little chance of defeating President George W Bush in two years' time, even though he won the popular vote two years ago.
Polls in the key primary state of New Hampshire have shown that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has an early lead among Democratic candidates.
Over recent weeks, Mr Gore, who has shed some of the weight he put on after his defeat and shaved off the wispy beard he grew in the political wilderness, has been on a high-profile nationwide book tour.
In scores of interviews, he has offered opinions on virtually every political issue of the day but his return to the spotlight has received a lukewarm reception.
Friends have said he is concerned about "the baggage he has with the media" and is said to have been distressed by press comment that he is reinventing himself once again in preparation for a presidential run.
Pulling out next month - when he has promised to make a public statement about 2004 - would avoid the ultimate humiliation of being rejected by his own party in his bid for a rematch with Mr Bush.
Although Mr Gore is intelligent, experienced and has a formidable grasp of policy, he has never been able to shake off the image of being calculating, condescending and willing to shift his stance on any issue for political advantage.
In 1992, he wrote: "I have become very impatient with my own tendency to put a finger in the political winds and proceed cautiously."
At the 2000 Democratic convention, Mr Gore said he had become "my own man" but this autumn he conceded he had bowed to his advisers too frequently during that campaign.
"If I had to do it all over again, I'd just let it rip," he told a party gathering in Memphis. "To hell with the pollsters, the consultants and all the rest."
Senator Albert Gore Snr, Mr Gore's father, served for more than three decades on Capitol Hill but never got close to reaching the White House. Instead, his burning desire to become president was transferred to his son.
Although he always portrayed himself as being from Tennessee, most of Mr Gore's early years were spent living in Suite 809 of the Fairfax Hotel in Washington.
He was a serious child who addressed his father as "senator" and was often left in the care of his older sister while his parents travelled the country.
Mr Gore's childhood tendency to try to please was transformed into a curious adult habit of exaggerating his role in events.
He is still mocked for claiming to have invented the internet and for insisting he was the model for a character in the novel Love Story.
His recent interviews and appearances, to promote two books about family life co-written with his wife Tipper, have been ponderous and have not been received with enthusiasm in Middle America.
Retiring to the hills of Tennessee, where there are towns called Difficult, Defeated and Nameless, would seem to be a prudent move.
But then again, Mr Gore has always had a reputation for changing his mind. One friend said: "He could still wake up one morning and decide to run again."
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/...re13.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/12/13/ixworld.html
Tell me something: Is all that sarcasm self-effacing?
I figured correctly, my hunch was that you wouldn't take the time or effort to look it up. Seems to pervade the kind of nonsense and demagogery you and your comrades bring to the fore. Hey, if I use language and words you can't equate to, I'll try to go a little easier on you.
