From a reader:
“Jonah,
I keep hearing about all the political clout that Al Gore has and it makes ask an easy question. If he ran today, could Al Gore even win his old Senate seat? Considering he didn’t even win his home state in 2000 it seems pretty unlikely. It seems like the people who know him best are not his biggest supporters. I don’t know what it means but I think it would be interesting to apply this test to people such as George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp… and so on. See if they could recapture their last elected position prior to making it to the Presidential ticket. My guess is that it would give you an idea of just how far a person has strayed from the ideals that got them into the spotlight in the first place. Just a thought.”