As Hillary Clinton's campaign touts a new round of polls showing that she's the only Democrat in the race who leads every GOP candidate in each of three critical swing states, supporters of Al Gore are making what must be one last-ditch effort to persuade him to get in.
In a full-page ad in today's New York Times, a group calling itself Draft Gore says Gore must "rise to this challenge" or else leave himself and millions of others "forever wondering what might have been."
"You say you have fallen out of love with politics, and you have every reason to feel that way," the group tells Gore in the ad. "But we know you have not fallen out of love with your country. And your country needs you now -- as do your party and the planet you are fighting so hard to save."
The group says that no Democrat currently in the race has "the combination of experience, vision, standing in the world and political courage" that Gore would bring to the White House. "Nor," it says, "do they have the support among voters that you enjoy and that would lead you to victory in 2008."
Although Gore isn't in the race, a national AP/Ipsos poll taken earlier this month included him on a list of candidates from which Democrats might choose. He came in third with 12 percent of the vote -- behind Clinton and Barack Obama, but a few points ahead of John Edwards.
A spokeswoman for Gore tells the Associated Press that he appreciates the sentiment expressed in the Draft Gore ad but has "no intention of running for president."
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