President Gore?

Could Albert Gore still get elected the 44th President of the United States?

Sources close to Gore - and sources not so close to him - suggest that he could throw his hat in the ring after all if he wins the Nobel Peace, the recipient to be announced later this week after they get all those other boring prizes out of the way (you know, the ones for chemistry, medicine, etc.). Gore, it is rumored, doesn't want to reveal his ultimate plans either way to avoid influencing the Nobel Academy one way or the other. No one in Sweden wants to award or deny Gore the ultimate prize on the planet in the interest of changing the American political equation. But the award could be within Gore's grasp. We'll see soon.

Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize as sitting Presidents. Jimmy Carter won it as a former President. Al Gore might win it as . . . a future President?

If he does win it, this would not be good news for Hillary Clinton, whose claim to front-runner status in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination campaign is primarily based on marrying well, just as Bush's qualification for the Presidency was living through birth. And exactly how much do Democrats fear she could lose to a Republican in a general election?

Michael Moore is encouraging a draft of Gore at next year's Democratic convention.