Gore is vindicated

The Politico

Good Friday morning. Once lampooned and beleaguered, Vice President Al Gore is avenged. Denied the presidency in the chaos of the Florida recount of 2000, he now has received what is arguably the most prestigious award in the world. His obsession with the environment and global warming, which led former President George H.W. Bush to mock him as "ozone man," has now been certified on a global stage as a worthy and consequential crusade.

CNN, picking up CNN International, carried the announcement live from Oslo, Norway, initially in confusing translation. The APNewsAlert moved at 5:01 a.m.: "Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize."

The vice president is in the San Francisco area. The calls for a candidacy from a scattered but dedicated band of supporters could now become a roar. But Gore has already shaken off his ghosts. Top adviser Michael Feldman tells Playbook about presidential rumblings: "My sense is that this won't affect that calculation. He has said all along he has no plans to run for president. He's been spending all his discretionary time on the climate crisis. This great honor will further enhance that."

John Edwards was the first of the candidates with a congratulatory statement, at 5:17 a.m. Sen. Clinton had told Keith Olbermann on Thursday that she was "so hoping" Gore would win, and that no one deserves it more.

Gore said in a statement e-mailed to reporters and bloggers at 5:44 a.m.: "I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis—a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level. My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis."