That’s the only conclusion I can draw from yesterday’s announcement. There’ve been similarities there all along. But in this case I think it boils down solely to political calculation of the landscape. Richard Nixon lost in a squeaker in 1960 after having served 8 years as VP. He concluded that he couldn’t run again for eight years. The party and the public didn’t want him to do it (of course, Kennedy’s assasination was a big and unique factor). But from 1960 to 1968, Nixon thought about running again. Gore didn’t say “You won’t have Al Gore to kick around anymore,” but he might as well have. And this idea that he won’t be able to run ‘08 strikes me as more of an appeal for sympathy than a reasonable calculation. Why can’t he run in ‘08? He’ll be young enough. The only thing that would stop him is if a Democrat beat Bush in ‘04. But I doubt he thinks that’s likely.