Former Vice President Al Gore's new status as a Nobel Peace Prize winner is encouraging some of his political supporters in the United States to urge him to run for president next year.  But as VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington, most political experts doubt Gore will make a run for the White House in 2008.

Al Gore speaks at a news conference as his wife Tipper looks on in Palo Alto, California, 12 Oct 2007

Gore told a California news conference he is honored to share the Nobel award with the United Nations panel on climate change.

"I will accept this award on behalf of all of those who have been working so long and so hard to try to get the message out about this planetary emergency," he said.

Gore took no questions at the news conference, leaving open how his newfound status as a Nobel Peace Prize winner might affect his future political plans.

Gore supporters wasted little time in seizing on his Nobel recognition in their continuing bid to urge him to run for president next year.

Monica Friedlander is founder of the group DraftGore.com, which has run ads and gathered signatures in a bid to press the former vice president to make a second run for the White House in 2008.

Al Gore listens to a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, 26 Sept 2007

"There is just such a tidal wave of support and excitement about him as the potential candidate," she said.  "It is very, very difficult for him to resist, or at least so I hope."

Gore narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush.

University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato says there is little doubt that Gore's Nobel prize will now inspire his supporters to push even harder for him to enter the presidential race.

"This will juice up the Gore drafters," he said.  "They have been dying to get Gore into the race.  They are very dissatisfied with the prospect of Hillary Clinton being the nominee.  This may be their last stand."

Gore has said repeatedly he is not planning a run for president next year, though when pressed he refuses to rule out the possibility.

"Well, you know, I am not pondering it, I am not focused on that," he said.  "I am focused on how to solve the climate crisis," he added.

Among those who doubt Gore will join the presidential race is longtime political observer Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily News, a guest on this week's Issues in the News program on VOA.

"He keeps saying he has no plans, and usually the 'no plans' language is designed to keep your options open," he said.  "But I suspect he is probably not going to run.  I think he is probably making too much money, getting too much adulation to put himself through the meat grinder again."

If Gore were to change his mind and enter the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, most analysts predict it would be an uphill fight.

Recent polls place Gore in third place with about 10 percent support, well behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and roughly tied with John Edwards.

Expert Larry Sabato says a decision to run would put Gore at a clear disadvantage compared to those Democratic contenders who have been running and raising money for months.

"It is very hard to run for president from a standing stop, and he would have to move to sprinter's position immediately to have any chance of even making all the deadlines to file for the various primaries," he said.

Al Gore and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature Davis Guggenheim at 79th Annual Academy Awards, 25 Feb 2007

The Nobel Peace Prize is the latest honor for Gore in a year that began with Hollywood honoring his documentary on climate change.

The documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, helped make global warming a top environmental issue in the U.S. and around the world.  Gore accepted the Academy Award for Best Documentary. 

"We need to solve the climate crisis," he said.  "It is not a political issue.  It is a moral issue."

Gore's views on climate change still have plenty of critics, especially congressional Republicans like Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

"Thousands of meteorologists, climatologists and scientists disagree with you," he said.  "Are they all wrong and you are all right?"

Gore told reporters Friday he hopes the recognition of his work will elevate global consciousness about the challenges of global warming.   Gore described the issue as a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.