Here’s an interesting column from Sunday’s Washington Post. A few thoughts:

The inconvenient truth is that as a politician, Gore has always been more successful in a supporting role. In the Senate, he was a visionary on environmental issues, nuclear proliferation and, yes, the Internet, which he never did claim he invented. And people forget that his addition to the ticket in 1992 helped jump-start the Clinton campaign. But Gore never seemed comfortable as a presidential candidate; he surrounded himself with consultants who deluged him with bad (Don’t mention Clinton!), frivolous (Wear earth tones!) and conflicting advice. He ended up bringing three different demeanors to his three debates. He never talked about the environment and other issues close to his heart, and he never sounded as genuine as he did in his movie.

Of course, the current Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a longtime Gore rival, and a new Clinton-Gore ticket is too far-fetched even for a thought experiment. But who knows? Maybe if Gore agreed to run with Obama or John Edwards or Mark Warner before the primaries, there would be a new Democratic front-runner.

Could the experience of a political veteran such as Gore coupled with the unadulterated enthusiasm from a junior Senator such as Obama be the Democrat’s ticket to success?

Obama is clearly a diamond in the rough; mountains of talent but no experience to support it. But what’s to say that this strategy can’t or won’t work? Look no further than the White House: as Andrew Sullivan explains, “An Obama-Gore ticket, with Gore as the veep, is a variation on the Bush-Cheney 2000 strategy – a young, untested pol with a daddy at his side.” Seemed to work for them.

Daddy Gore has been touring through the lecture circuit and even took his crack at the film world, with surprising success. But lets keep in mind that, in the end, Gore is a politician who belongs in Washington. An Obama-Gore ticket would be a delectable thought, but must be substantiated with more principles and platforms before I or anyone else can make any sort of assessment.