text: Getty Al Gore not planning to run against Hillary, advisers say 
   
   Despite some hopeful speculation among Democrats that Al Gore might jump into the 2016 presidential race in the face of Hillary Clinton’s troubles, people close to the former vice president and Democratic nominee say he’s not considering it. 
   
   “There’s no truth to it. He’s laser-focused on solving the climate crisis," Gore spokeswoman Betsy McManus told POLITICO Thursday evening. 
   
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   Earlier Thursday, Buzzfeed News posted a story saying that “supporters” of Gore “have begun a round of conversations among themselves and with the former vice president about his running for president in 2016, the latest sign that top Democrats have serious doubts that Hillary Clinton is a sure thing.” The story quoted a “senior Democrat” as saying “they’re getting the old gang together” and “figuring out if there’s a path financially and politically,” and the article cited “a member of Gore’s inner circle” who “asked to be quoted ‘pouring lukewarm water’ — not, note, cold water — on the chatter.” 
   
   But Mike Feldman, who was Gore’s traveling chief of staff during the 2000 presidential election campaign and speaks to him regularly, says the speculation is probably just “Democrats talking to other Democrats. … I’m not saying there’s nobody out there fantasizing about it, but I haven’t heard anything and I’d be pretty insulted if there were a group of Gore advisers meeting and I wasn’t invited. I just don’t think this is on his mind.” 
   
   In recent days other close Gore advisers have also told POLITICO that they have not heard of any interest from the 2000 Democratic nominee in another run. 
   
   One likely reason for the current speculation about Gore is that Clinton is facing new iterations of email-gate, flagging poll numbers and still-surging Bernie Sanders-mania, despite a conviction among many Democratic strategists that Sanders is not electable. And strategists know that if Clinton falters, there are probably only two tried-and-true Democratic candidates who can be considered experienced enough to step in: Vice President Joe Biden is one (and is said to be actively considering a run), and the other is Gore, Biden’s Democratic predecessor as veep. (A possible third might be 2004 loser John Kerry, with the current secretary of state now riding high over his diplomatic coup in Geneva to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.) 
   
   Gore has stayed entirely out of presidential politics since he won the popular vote but lost the White House 15 years ago. In a phone interview, Democratic strategist James Carville said while he also “hasn’t heard” anything from the Gore camp, he wouldn’t be surprised if Gore weren’t at least considering the possibilities. “Running for president is like having sex. No one did it once and forgot about it. If you can do it, you want to do it again, it’s something you don’t get out of your system.” He also noted this was a “very fluid cycle, and it’s still early in the process.” ||||| China Stringer Network / Reuters ID: 6604407 
   
   Supporters of Al Gore have begun a round of conversations among themselves and with the former vice president about his running for president in 2016, the latest sign that top Democrats have serious doubts that Hillary Clinton is a sure thing. 
   
   
   
   Gore, 67, won the popular vote in the 2000 election and has been mentioned as a possible candidate in every contested Democratic primary since then. He instead spent much of the 2000s focused on environmental campaigning and business ventures. He has largely slipped out of public view in more recent years. 
   
   But in recent days, “they’re getting the old gang together,” a senior Democrat told BuzzFeed News. 
   
   “They’re figuring out if there’s a path financially and politically,” the Democrat said. “It feels more real than it has in the past months.” 
   
   The senior Democrat and other sources cautioned not to overstate Gore’s interest. He has not made any formal or informal moves toward running, or even met with his political advisers about a potential run. 
   
   A member of Gore’s inner circle asked to be quoted “pouring lukewarm water” — not, note, cold water — on the chatter. 
   
   “This is people talking to people, some of whom may or may not have talked to him,” the Gore adviser said. 
   
   Roy Neel, a former top adviser to Gore, said Thursday he hadn’t spoken to Gore about it and dismissed the idea of a bid. “It’s extremely unlikely,” he said. 
   
   Gore himself didn’t immediately reply to an inquiry emailed to his personal account. 
   
   Polling this week put Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders ahead of Clinton for the first time in New Hampshire. And she is contending with another round of stories about her use of personal email, and the security of the server on which it was hosted, during her time as secretary of state. 
   
   In June, when asked who will be the next president, Gore joked that he would dodge the question, before saying that it was “actually too early” to say. Gore declined to endorse Clinton in 2008, choosing to stay out of the Democratic primary until after Obama secured the nomination. 
   
   Gore has had other focuses in recent years. In particular, Gore and a business partner are suing Al Jazeera, which purchased Current TV from him, over $65 million dollars held in escrow during the deal; Gore and his associate contend the money belongs to him. The Qatar-based network acquired Current in early 2013 in a deal reportedly worth $500 million. 
   
   
   
   The former vice president has taken a step back from the climate change advocacy groups he helped to found, focusing instead on his business ventures and being a public climate change expert, if not the active lobbyist he once was. Climate change is still a top issue for Gore, and he’s been happy to trash the Keystone XL pipeline, putting him to the left of both President Obama and Clinton on the issue. Both have publicly reserved judgment on the project until a State Department review is complete. 
   
   In March, Vox editor Ezra Klein argued that Gore, with his ability to fund a campaign and to mount a serious challenge to Clinton, should run for president. 
   
   
   
   Klein cited Gore’s support for single-payer health care, his advocacy on climate change, and his opposition to the Iraq War to make the case that “the rest of his positions are closer in line with Democratic Party activists than, say, Clinton’s.”
target: – At 5pm yesterday, Buzzfeed published a report claiming supporters of Al Gore were "getting the old gang together" to discuss a possible run for the White House, chatter that Andrew Kaczynski wrote signaled some Democrats' doubts about their frontrunner. Kaczynski's report was certainly restrained. He writes, "A member of Gore's inner circle asked to be quoted 'pouring lukewarm water'—not, note, cold water—on the chatter." But that didn't stop the avalanche of follow-up reports. Politico's report throws that cold water: "There's no truth to it. He's laser-focused on solving the climate crisis," Gore's rep tells the site.