Transcript Of Gore's 60 Minutes Interview

Former VP Tells Lesley Stahl He Won't Run In 2004

(CBS)  LESLEY STAHL:
You know, you’ve been all over television, all over the newspapers for this last week. You’ve given back-to-back interviews. You’ve answered virtually every question except one (laughs) and that is, are you or are you not gonna run in 2004? Are you gonna run?

AL GORE:
Well, I’ve decided not to run. And I--

LESLEY STAHL:
You’ve decided not to run?

AL GORE:
I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for president in 2004 ... And I found that I’ve come to closure on this. I don’t think it’s the right thing for me to be a candidate in 2004.

LESLEY STAHL:
Well, I think a lot of people are just gonna be bowled over. You’re not a candidate. You’ve been looking like a candidate. Tell us how you have arrived at what I think is gonna be a stunningly (laughs) surprising decision?

AL GORE:
Well, I’ve run for president twice, and there are many other exciting ways to serve. I intend to remain actively involved in politics. I want to help whoever the democratic party’s nominee is in 2004 to-- to win the election. I’m gonna explore a lot of other opportunities.

LESLEY STAHL:
The ambition to be the commander in chief, the ambition to sit in the Oval Office, that’s gone?

AL GORE:
Well, I personally have the energy and the drive and the ambition-- to make another campaign. But I don’t think it’s the right thing for me to do. I-- I think that a campaign that would be a rematch between myself and President Bush would inevitably involve a focus on the past that would in some measure distract from the focus on the future that I think all campaigns have to be about.

LESLEY STAHL:
You say you had the ambition. You still have it even you said. Still have the dream?

AL GORE:
Well, you know never say never. But I-- I-- I make this decision in the full knowledge and-- and awareness that-- if I don't run this time, which I'm not gonna run (CHUCKLES) in 2004, that-- that's probably the last opportunity I'll ever have to run for President. Don't know that for sure, but probably it is.

LESLEY STAHL:
You think you could beat the President?

AL GORE:
Look, I think I could.

LESLEY STAHL:
You think--

AL GORE:
But the truth is, Lesley, that anybody who tells you they know what's gonna happen (LAUGHS) two years from now.

LESLEY STAHL:
No but--

AL GORE:
And what happen is just unrealistic.

LESLEY STAHL:
I'm still trying to understand why you're not gonna run.

AL GORE:
The last campaign was an extremely difficult one. And while I have the energy and drive to go out there and do it again, I think that there are a lot of people within the Democratic Party who felt exhausted by that. Who felt like, okay, I don't wanna go through that again. And I'm frankly sensitive to that-- to that feeling.

LESLEY STAHL
A democratic, you believe, could beat President Bush.
AL GORE
I absolutely believe that. Think about what happened in 1991.when-- the first president Bush was just as high-- well, higher in the public opinion poll--

LESLEY STAHL:
But not sustained like this.

AL GORE:
Well, that-- that’s true. But-- nevertheless, he was at 91 percent or something. I felt then that-- the economy was bad and it could turn back-- toward democrats. It ultimately did and-- very few people thought that. I feel the same way now.

LESLEY STAHL:
Now you have democrats already out there. You have Kerry (PH) and Gephart (PH) and--

AL GORE:
Edwards and--

LESLEY STAHL:
--Edwards and--

AL GORE:
--Leiberman--

LESLEY STAHL:
--and wi--

AL GORE:
--will now run.

LESLEY STAHL:
So which of the democrats do you think has the best shot?

AL GORE:
I don’t know.

LESLEY STAHL:
So you don’t have a feeling of what-- do you have a feeling of what it will take, what a democrat has to look like, what he has to stand for, to beat President Bush?

AL GORE:
I think there has to be a-- an unrelenting focus on the economy--

LESLEY STAHL
And why, you think the econony is just gonna continue to spiral downward? Is that what you’re saying?

AL GORE
I think that the policies they’re commited to do not work. And I think that if they don’t change em, which I don’t think they’re likely to, that it’s gonna be apparent to people.

LESLEY STAHL:
So this is it? You were in the House-- you were in the House.

AL GORE:
Uh-huh (AFFIRM).

LESLEY STAHL:
You were in the Senate for two terms.

AL GORE:
In the House for 8 years, the Senate for 8 years and--

LESLEY STAHL:
Ran for President twice.

AL GORE:
-- Vice President for 8 years, yeah.

LESLEY STAHL:
Vice President of the United States for 8 years. And this is it.

AL GORE:
I had another 8 year plan in mind. (CHUCKLES) But it didn't work out.

LESLEY STAHL:
But are you surprised in a way that-- that yourself--

AL GORE:
Yes. Yeah.

LESLEY STAHL:
-- that you're doing this?

AL GORE:
Yeah. I've-- I've faced the decision on running for President twice before. And-- both times I have decided to-- (CHUCKLES) to jump in. And there was a big part of me that-sort of assumed that that's what I would do this time around.

LESLEY STAHL:
Now I've heard you say a couple of times, 'this time.' You said, 'I'm not gonna be a candidate this time.' What about 2008?

AL GORE:
Well, I've also said that I-- I make this decision in-- in the full awareness that it probably means that I will never have another opportunity to run for President.
Now I'm not-- I'm not-- planning on some-- some future race.

LESLEY STAHL:
So you're gonna grow your beard back?

AL GORE:
(LAUGHS) I don't have a-- I don't have a plan to do that. But don't-- don't rule it out.