Joe Klein's right on this. I don't think Al Gore is going to run*, but I really wouldn't peg that prediction on whether he's sporting a double chin that week. Gore is in the public eye now, and despite being a bit heavier than when we last saw him, the public is responding pretty damn well. His decision to run again will be based on whether he thinks he can win, and whether running will enhance or degrade his ability to mobilize the country on global warming. The idea that a guy so burnt by publicly focusing on his appearance in 2000 would kick off another candidacy by making radical changes to his waistline seems a bit ludicrous.
*To expand on that for a second, I think Gore knows that right now, he wields a lot of influence among the base and, thus, in the party. So, for the time being, every candidate wants to remain in his good graces, and that means adopting his environmental critique. The second he enters the race, however, they'll have to beat him on the issue, and since there's no realistic way to get to his left on it, that'll probably mean hitting him from the right. In other words, if he stays out, he can make something close to his position a veritable consensus opinion among the Democrats. If he enters the race, his positions becomes a liability to them, and they'll have to find a way to defuse it.
