Al Gore is on the cover of Time this week, with a long piece about him by Eric Pooley. There's also an article about Gore by James Traub in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. (Traub used to be a pretty good reporter about educational matters. But he is suddenly full of himself having written an adoring biography of Kofi Annan and won the plaudits of those New York swells who thought that the secretary-general was so charming, and his wife so white and Swedish and a friend of the queen, no less, and they were such a marvelous couple that "oh, my God, why do you always bring up Rwanda and Bosnia?" He did understand the Palestinians and those nasty Israelis....) All of this truly irritating stuff about Traub notwithstanding, he does seem to have good insights into Gore. So is Gore a candidate? Pooley clearly thinks that Gore will forego "the last temptation" and actually "let the cup pass." This, despite his magnificent positioning as a popular hero who has a monopoly on a very popular (and urgent) issue. Traub does not exactly come down on the other side. But for those who are reluctant to give up (like me) and think that Gore is more pertinent now, better positioned, and has integrated the wisdom of his defeat by a haughty court, Traub seems to hold out some hope. I am not projecting my thoughts onto Gore at all. Nonetheless, I believe that Hillary will be unelectable. Obama would do better than Mrs.Clinton in an election. He'd win actually if he were the presidential designee but he will find many logs put in his path to the nomination, and they will be put there by the truly nasty crowd surrounding the Missus. If Obama can't make it within the party--and it becomes clear that this is so--that's when Gore might strike. And he would kick the living beJesus out of her. In the meantime, I saw Barack Obama on Friday, the first time I've met him face-to-face, and we talked for quite a time. He is immensely impressive, smart on his feet, deep in what he knows, intricate in his understanding, allergic to sloganeering, wry in his humor, and not falsely intimate with people waiting outside his office for a glimpse. Almost everybody has already said this but I'll say it too. He seems to me to be immensely comfortable in his own skin. How can I know from an hour with him? But there seem to be no ghosts tormenting him.