Push grows for Gore to join US presidential race

Washington, Oct 13 (UNI) With former Vice President Al Gore winning a Nobel Peace Prize, his political supporters have stepped up their campaign to persuade him run for 2008 US presidential election.

Mr Gore, who addressed a press conference in California yesterday, said he was honoured to share the Nobel peace Prize with the United Nations panel on climate change but declined to take questions on his future political plans, thus, leaving the doors open for speculations.

Meanwhile, some ''grassroots Democrats from across the country'' have already launched a Draft Gore Movement, believing that ''Al Gore is the true voice of our party and the only leader and statesman who can return the White House back to the American people.'' It also has a website DraftGore.com.

In reply to a question: Isn't it too late for him to throw his hat into the ring, DraftGore.com says the former Vice President still has plenty of time to enter the race, given his universal name recognition, army of supporters nationwide, and wide base of donor support.

It says the minute Al Gore would announce his candidacy, ''his poll numbers would shoot through the roof and the excitement, we believe, would carry him to victory.'' The goals of the Draft Gore Movement are: (1) We hope to demonstrate to Al Gore the groundswell of support he enjoys among the grassroots; (2) We'll try to present him with an action-ready army of supporters in all critical states so he can hit the ground running should he declare his candidacy; (3) We hope to persuade him that it's a moral imperative that he run in 2008.

Al Gore who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George W Bush have repeatedly said he won't enter the presidential race.

Recent polls place Gore in third place with about 10 per cent support, well behind Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and roughly tied with John Edwards. All of them are aspirants for the Democratic Party ticket.

Mr Gore donated his share of the 1.5 million dollar prize to the non-profit organisation he founded last year, the Alliance for Climate Protection.

UNI