“After the last eight years, even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter.” - Al Gore

Urging Americans to reject the Bush legacy of incompetence, negligence and failure, former Vice President Al Gore - who has become the de facto Democratic standard-bearer in the past seven years - endorsed Barack Obama Monday.

Gore said George W. Bush and his cronies have “dishonored and disrespected” the Constitution and led our country through “eight years of the most serious foreign policy mistakes in the entire history of our nation.”

[NOTE: Did anyone else watching this get the feeling that this guy would make an excellent Vice President? Just throwing it out there]

At a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, Al Gore called for Americans to move past partisanship and select, in Barack Obama, a great leader who can solve the global climate crisis and create a brighter future for the U.S. and the planet.

He didn’t stop at foreign policy and climate change, either.

Al Gore cited myriad concerns about the environment, lead-painted toys and food safety - even pet foods - as other reasons to vote Democrat.

Joining Obama in the midst of the Democratic nominee’s two-week tour of the U.S. to talk about ways to revitalize the economy, Monday marked Gore’s debut in this historic, often contentious 2008 election.

Gore praised Barack Obama as someone who could mobilize people, young and old, who had never before taken part in the political process.

Follow the jump for some terrific Al Gore quotes from the rally …

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Former Vice President Al Gore has remained neutral in the 2008 Democratic presidential race - but he may still endorse a candidate, he says.

Many have speculated why Gore, one of the party’s most popular figures, has decided to stay on the fence, but he said this week that this reason for staying neutral is quite simple — and is still subject to change.

“My purpose in not endorsing a candidate is nothing elaborate,” Al Gore said on NPR. “I’m simply watching and listening to the campaign. As a delegate to the convention I will cast my vote at the proper time. I haven’t ruled out making an endorsement prior to that time, but I haven’t been moved to do so.”

Al Gore added that “I have respect for both candidates, they both have strengths, and I’m simply listening and watching like a lot of people.”

We’ve speculated that Gore prefers Barack Obama for a variety of reasons, and given the results of Tuesday’s primaries, the timing could finally be right for an endorsement. The impact of his doing so would be dramatic.

While John and Elizabeth Edwards appear to be divided - and content to remain uncommitted - An Average Patriot points out that Al Gore could essentially end the race today with endorsement. Why doesn’t he?

A day after their contentious Pennsylvania debate, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

Host Stephen Colbert remarked that former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards - who dropped out of the race before Super Tuesday - won the debate.

In any event, Obama’s addition to Colbert’s famed “On Notice” board, where he calls out various people and inanimate objects that have drawn his ire, got us thinking of all the stuff we’d like to put on notice lately.

Thanks to this terrific On Notice board generator, we were able to!

1. The McCain Girls were outed as a hoax. Which is funny, but also sad, as we were hoping they really were that unfunny.
2. Forget rural Pennsylvania voters clinging to guns or religion… how effing annoying is it when your socks stick to the rest of your clothes when you take them out of the dryer?
3. Ah, bad credit home loans. Two years ago, a gateway to homeownership, now the scourge of the financial world. Way to get greedy and screw over the whole country, Florida mortgage brokers.
4. The 27 million (to date) Democratic primary voters only represent 3,253 of the 4,049 delegates to the convention. The 796 “superdelegates” are thus 33,913 times more important than you. Let’s hear it for democracy!
5. Not only were George Stephanopoulos’ debate questions dreadful, but his name is so hard to spell, it costs us valuable blogging time daily.
6. As liberals, the obligatory remarks about Ralph Nader costing Al Gore the White House in 2000 will surface from time to time. Deal.
7. Really, Cindy McCain? The Food Network? You don’t have friends you can steal recipes from like everyone else?
8. Forget the ’60s radical group… the ’00s iteration of Weather Underground never gets its forecasts right more than 24 hours in advance.

The long-term goal may be saving Earth, but a short-term one for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is winning the backing of Al Gore.

The former Vice President, who won a Nobel prize for his work to combat rising temperatures, is also one of the superdelegates and one of the most influential Democratic Party leaders likely to determine who wins the nomination.

So the dueling candidates praise Gore during campaign speeches, offer up roles for him in future administrations, and, of course, keep in touch.

“They both call. And I appreciate that fact,” Gore said on 60 Minutes.

Barack Obama says he keeps in regular contact with Al Gore and has pledged to make him a major player on global warming in an Obama administration.

“I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem,” Obama said.

Hillary Clinton says she does not know whether Al Gore wanted to get back into government but is certain the American people would welcome it.

“I am very dependent upon the work that Al Gore has done for so many years on behalf of climate change,” the former First Lady said.

Al Gore’s spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, declined to comment on the Obama offer but was complimentary about all three of the presidential candidates.

“Former Vice President Gore thinks that both candidates are very strong. Both of them have offered plans to address the worsening climate crisis … as has Senator John McCain,” she said. “It’s a real turnaround to have candidates on both sides of the aisle offering, you know, solutions and plans to the climate crisis.”

Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, has dedicated most of his professional life since then to fighting climate change.

Although he may not be eager to get back into the political fray as the tight race between Obama and Clinton rages on, Gore definitely has an agenda: to make certain that global warming on the top of the president’s priority list.

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In February, Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift examined a scenario that seemed absurd, and maybe still is. But gridlock and tension between Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton persists, and the longer that’s the case …

Consider the fact that above all else, Democrats want to win in 2008, and the more these two tear each other apart, the more difficult it may be to triumph over John McCain. Or so the theory, held by many, would have it.

The new rallying cry: Al Gore on the second ballot.

The last time a political convention went to a second ballot was 1952, but this year anything is impossible. The superdelegates, who will ultimately play into the decision, are not bound to any candidate and can do what they want.

Moreover, delegates won in primaries go to the convention with a pledge of support for one candidate, but one of the biggest myths of the process is that delegates are bound to follow that pledge beyond the first ballot.

Therefore, if the first ballot is conducted and neither candidate has the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination, another name could be introduced.

All it would take is asingle  delegate perhaps from Tennessee, or any other state, for that matter, to raise an official point of order, and with the backing of five other state delegations, the name of Al Gore could be put into play.

Gore would surely be tempted - with the convention ending August 28, that’s just two months on the trail. By the time Election Day arrives, the honeymoon phase of the new Al Gore 2008 campaign may not even have worn off.

Of course, this also presumes Barack Obama would be his running mate (the odds of Gore taking Hillary Clinton as his V.P. are even slimmer than … anything else in this post ever happening), and that gets pretty dicey.

A Gore-Obama ticket would be formidable, yes - strong on national security and experience, while still embodying change - but many Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton voters (and the candidates themselves) would be hurt.

The last thing the Democrats want would be to face a Barack Obama / Chuck Hagel / Michael Bloomberg independent ticket. That would be political theater for the ages, but probably sweep McCain into the White House.

The Democratic party faces three clear options for settling the quagmire of the narred, potentially disenfranchised Florida and Michigan delegates.

The problem according to Bloomberg News’ Albert R. Hunt, is that these three choices range from cataclysmic to problematic:

1. The Clinton forces muscle the votes on the party’s credentials committee and seat the full slate of Michigan and Florida delegates, 366 in all, based on the results of January’s primaries. Given her wide victories in these contests that did not count, she would pick up a large number of delegates. Many, including Nancy Pelosi, have called it unacceptable that delegations which broke the rules decide the outcome of this historic race. A large number of Barack Obama supporters might be (justifiably) inclined to walk out if a Michigan primary in which “Uncommitted” won 40 percent of the vote factored into the nomination.

2. Michigan and Florida are denied seats at the convention, or the party could pick its own representatives from those states. Even though Florida and Michigan broke the rules and that justifies this move, it would be a disaster. Stiffing crucial states (44 combined electoral votes in November that John McCain will already be in good position to capture) would be political suicide.

3. The party can require new elections in both Michigan and Florida. This is as controversial and complicated. Unfortunately, it also looks inevitable.

The Barack Obama campaign would love Michigan and Florida caucuses, where they would be more successful because they are better organized.

The Hillary Clinton camp wants primaries for Florida and Michigan, which would be costly and for which no one seems willing to foot the bill.

The Democratic National Committee could foot the bill for the re-votes, but in a display many are calling incompetence on the part of chairman Howard Dean, it is lagging in fundraising and doesn’t have the money.

Perhaps the only logical course of action is for convention chairman Pelosi and her party leaders to take this out of the hands of Clinton, Obama and Dean to designate an arbitrator or small committee to resolve the matter. Quickly.

Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell would be an ideal choice, as every such panel he’s headed has been lauded as credible and successful.

Other respected figures who aren’t in either camp might include former Vice President Al Gore or former President Jimmy Carter.

Despite our belief that these states broke the rules, therefore should be barred and are simply adding hysteria by demanding a do-ever, this is not going to happen and we all need to come to grips with it. Someone fair must settle it.

The only practical solution is some combination of caucuses and primaries, fewer delegates than slated but a respectable percentage, with the two campaigns sharing the cost with the state parties and private donors.

The clock is ticking. The party leadership needs to get a plan in place quickly, if at all, lest we hand these states over to John McCain early.

It’s already a strange campaign.

But what if, post-Super Tuesday, the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remains as tight as it’s been?

And what if - you knew this was coming eventually - you then threw Al Gore into the mix?

Delegates are awarded in proportion to the vote — not winner-take-all, so if Clinton and Obama continue to split the vote in many states, this could potentially last awhile.

If it does, and they continue to attack each other, there just might be an opening for someone to step in and unify the party.

Like, say, Al Gore.

The former V.P. insists he won’t run, though in his last statement on the matter, he said, “I see no reason to rule it out entirely.”

It’s worth noting, as high-profile endorsements are piling up, that Al Gore has not backed either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama so far.

Don’t expect him to, either. A recent report indicates that an endorsement by Al Gore is looking extremely unlikely.

Obviously, the reason for that is up for debate.

An Oscar, a Nobel Prize and massive amounts of free media have catapulted Gore to a new national and international status that could be tarnished by taking sides - especially the losing one - in the primary battle.

Perhaps Gore, who recently spoke out in favor of gay marriage, believes he can do the most good for the world if he remains out of the fray. Or maybe he’s still weighing his own entry into the race of a lifetime.

Al Gore, private citizen, continues to do much more to shape the global political debate than Al Gore, senator or vice president.

We are all familiar for his amazing work on climate change. Now Gore, who as vice president supported the Defense of Marriage Act, posted a video on his Current TV Web site in which he stands up for gay marriage:

“Gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women — to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage … I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage.”

The Politico notes that this pushes the Democratic establishment toward a position he now shares with some leading Dems, and may prompt grumbling in gay political circles that this batch of candidates aren’t there.

Indeed, all three Democratic contenders support equal rights for gay and lesbian couples, but have sought to woo gay voters indirectly: Elizabeth Edwards has voiced support for same-sex marriage, while Barack Obama recently chastised the black church for its history of homophobia.

Will Al Gore’s comments up the ante?

Many celebrated July 4 with barbecues and fireworks. Al Gore III, however, had better ideas. The 24-year-old son of former Vice President Al Gore was arrested on suspicion of drug possession after being pulled over driving his Prius 100 miles an hour down an Orange County freeway.

At least he was driving a Prius. When deputies searched the car, they found a stash of pot, along with Valium, Xanax, Vicodin and Adderall. He was booked with the classy mug shot below.

Al Gore III, who is being held at the Santa Ana Inmate Reception Center on $20,000 bail, has been arrested before. He was charged with marijuana possession in 2003 and ticketed for reckless driving in 2000 and 2002.

Who’s in to win, and who’s in without a snowball’s chance in hell? The 2008 election is a year and a half away, but the race is in full effect, and the After W staff has once again handicapped the Democratic field (previous rankings in parentheses)…

1. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Senator (1)

The Hillary Clinton money machine rolls on, methodically stockpiling both operatives and cash. The endorsement of Tom Vilsack will help her in Iowa, although the fact that he never polled well there in the first place is a telling sign. The clear frontrunner handled the “Hillary 1984” video about as well as one could (she didn’t have its creator offed… yet).

2. Barack Obama, Illinois senator (2)

The usual pattern is that an upstart candidate like Barack Obama gets the Messiah treatment from the media, only to be torn apart once he becomes a true contender. The media’s obsession with Clinton has buffered Barack Obama somewhat, but he isn’t trending all that positively either. Could the luster be wearing off? Ever so slightly?

3. John Edwards, former North Carolina Senator (4)

Making good progress connecting with people, seemingly offering more substance than his chief competition. Polls show him leading in Iowa where he needs a win, and making up ground in New Hampshire as well. The story of his wife, Elizabeth, battling cancer only showcased his family as a true team, despite some pundits’ cries for them to call the campaign off.

4. Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States (3)

Still within striking distance at a moment’s notice, but with Al Gore, one gets the impression he’s using the possibility of entering the race as a means of garnering attention and leverage in his ongoing battle against global warming. He’s too smart not to exploit this, and if it is his primary motivation, we still laud every moment of his efforts.

5. Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor (5)

This isn’t the NCAA Tournament. When the media is calling you a sleeper, that’s generally not a good sign. There’s no doubt he’d compete well against anyone in the GOP field, but Bill needs to pick it up, and quick.

6. Chris Dodd, Connecticut Senator (6)

A distinguished, affable fellow - one with the best hair in politics, no less - who really classes up the race. It won’t get Chris Dodd many votes against the heavyweights ahead of him, but his presence is a boost for the party.

7. Joe Biden, Delaware Senator (9)

The good news: Joe Biden is the big mover and shaker this time around, having leapfrogged two candidates! The bad news: look down who he jumped. Oh well.

The Senate passing its Iraq war resolution nonetheless means Biden’s stock rises. He has no chance, but it’s a start.

8. Dennis Kucinich, Ohio Congressman (7)

Not seeing the same kind of support as he did last time around. Which is too bad, because even that wasn’t all that much.

9. Mike Gravel, former Alaska Senator (8)

Our dark-horse pick to take over the 7th spot next time. Watch.

FINISHED/UNRANKED: Al Sharpton, Tom Vilsack, Evan Bayh, Wesley Clark, John Kerry.