Lights, Camera, Al Gore!

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When people see his movie, they are also taking a new look at Gore himself. They are proving far more receptive than the audiences of his Senate days, when he would drag his global-warming flip charts to Washington dinner parties. Then again, there could hardly be a better backdrop than record gas prices and the onset of hurricane season if you are trying to draw attention to the issues of energy and the environment. Also working in Gore's favor is a political climate change, as the man who defeated him for the presidency in 2000 is currently suffering from approval ratings in the 30s. Says former Gore aide Chris Lehane: "People are now looking at him through the prism of the last six years and realizing that he had and has a lot to offer."

When Gore appeared at New York City's Town Hall last week, the notice in the box-office window read: TONIGHT'S PERFORMANCE IS SOLD OUT. NO WAITING LIST. NO STANDING ROOM. NO TICKETS FOR SALE. Gore was greeted by cheers, whistles and a standing ovation. Nine days earlier he got the same reaction at the film's Los Angeles opening.

Everyone in the Democratic Party seems to be asking the same questions: Could all this be a prelude to another presidential run? Could the new Al Gore be the answer for a party in which so many are discomfited by the fact that Senator Hillary Clinton is looking increasingly inevitable as the 2008 nominee even though she's commonly seen as unelectable? "I'm not planning to be a candidate again, ever. I have no intention of being a candidate," Gore says again and again. But he also notes, "I haven't made a Shermanesque statement because it just seems odd to do so."

That is the kind of fan dance you would expect from someone who still harbors hope for the job he fell just short of winning six years ago but doesn't want to look hungry for it. Democratic insiders weigh Gore's demurrals against his increasingly robust activism, not only on the environment but also in his full-throated criticism of the Iraq war. His opposition stands in sharp contrast to the support Clinton and many other leading Democratic contenders gave to the invasion of Iraq. And it is far more in tune with the sentiments of the party--and, more and more, the country at large.

One school of thought has it that if Clinton runs as expected, Gore won't be able to resist being drawn into the contest, if only because of a kind of sibling rivalry that goes back to the days when each had to maneuver around the other for influence in Bill Clinton's White House. Gore is the one Democrat whose entry into the race could deprive Clinton of the automatic front-runner advantage she now enjoys with fund raisers and activists.