Posted on December 16, 2002 at 3:11 p.m.

WHAT:

Former Vice-President Al Gore has announced he will not seek the presidency in 2004. University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) political scientist Christopher Stream, Ph.D., can provide insight and analysis of some of the reasons Gore made this decision.

WHO:

Stream’s primary research interests include state and local government administration, public policy, health policy and public opinion. Stream has taught courses on welfare policy, governmental budgeting, and state health policies. He has published articles in State and Local Government Review, Public Administration Review and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. He is currently writing two articles on public opinion and taxes. Stream is an assistant professor of political science in the UAB Department of Government and Public Service.

COMMENTS:

“Al Gore’s decision not to run for president caught me by surprise. I had underestimated the discontent and bitterness toward Gore within the Democratic party. I think Democrats are starting to recognize the 2000 presidential defeat and now the congressional defeat as strategic catastrophes. They may be at a point where they no longer want to “focus on the past” (as Gore mentioned in his 60 Minutes interview). I think they realize they need to move beyond Clinton-Gore. Thus, Democrats sent a strong message to Gore that his policies and ideas were no longer needed. Gore himself basically alluded to this in his 60 Minutes interview. In the end, I think Gore calculated that the risk of losing the nomination in 2004 was too great an embarrassment to bear.”