Gore's back: with message, without robot

By Philip Gailey for the St. Petersburg Times, reprinted in today's WSJ:

What's really going on here is that political reporters are looking for a good story and antiwar Democrats are looking for an alternative to Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the 2008 nomination. Gore may come closer than other potential presidential hopefuls to being the "Not-Hillary'' candidate they yearn for. He has been moving to the left at a time when Hillary Clinton has been inching to the right. He opposed the war from the start; she supported it and still does. A Gore-Clinton primary contest could leave other Democratic hopefuls on the sidelines. It would be the mother of all nomination battles - former first lady vs. former vice president in the same administration.

What? Earth to Washington, DC! Surely this isn't The Big Idea for 2008, is it? Can't we raise the bar a bit? There's gotta be some better choices out there!

Why don't we have, like, an American Idol Primary for the Democratic Party? We can all just call in, and the winner will surely be about as accurate as a ballot vote would, right? Trump may even show up and host it! Becky, call my agent.