Before we get down to the question of will former VP Al Gore run for President in 2008, let's understand why people want him to run. Believe me, this is as important as the main question of will he or will he not.

People want him to run because he's been consistently right - Right about the value of the internet, right about global warming, right about the Iraq war. And the fact that he was right, coupled with not needing to kneel before special interests or voting blocs has left Al Gore free to speak his mind. He says what he things, and he's usually right. That's a pretty deadly combination for a guy who was Vice President and won the popular vote in 2000, but lost the Presidency. Almost every registered Democrat would like to turn the clock back, send President Bush back to Texas, and hand the Whitehouse keys to Al Gore.

This combination of nostalgia, straight talk, backlash against the Bush administration policies plus Al Gore's embrace of and by Hollywood, is what is driving this draft Gore boomlet. Now, with that out the way, let's get down to business.

There are a few ways you can come to a conclusion about Al Gore's plans. Some are logical, some based on inside talk and some plain speculation and wild rumour.

The conventional wisdom among the mainstream media is that if Al Gore starts losing weight, he's going to run for President. Second is the media exposure. There's a tremendous hunger for Gore news. Anything new about Gore hits the headlines on Google News in minutes, and spreads like wildfire on the blogs. A few days ago, there was a rumour from somewhere that Al Gore had cancelled all his apoointments. That created a bit of hysteria, until Gore's spokesperson trashed the claims as totally untrue. And everytime Gore is the limelight ( Assault on Reason, Inconvinient Truth, Live Earth Concerts, Al Gore III arrested ), it leads to fresh round of frenzied opinion that Al Gore just might step in, maybe.....

There is a small bit of evidence which says Al Gore is not going to run. It was never picked up by the big newspapers and magazines. Nobody wrote a story on it. Probably beacuse it was drowned out by hurricane Katrina. This is the story.

"On September 3 and 4, FasterCures worked with a small dedicated group of people to airlift approximately 270 medical patients and evacuees from the New Orleans airport to hospitals and shelters in Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee. This is the story of how it happened."

Please read the full story of exactly what Al Gore did to help patients stranded in New Orleans. There's no way I can explain it all here. But the summary is that Al Gore fought the red tape, got on a plane and personally rescued two plane loads full of patients out of New Orleans.

And he refused to take either credit or give an interview or talk about it in any way with any media outfit. This is not a politician. This is a man with a mission, a person who believes in himself and his duty to help others. He's dedicated the rest of life to helping others, and he won't make any compromise to give that up. After the heartbreak of the Florida chads, the only thing that is driving him now is his sense of purpose, a feeling that he needs to do something and leave a mark.

Al Gore will not run for President in 2008, because while President Bush was enjoying a holiday in Crawford, TX, Al Gore was fighting FEMA bureaucrats and rescuing planeloads of survivors, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.