Al Gore: 'I'm Not a Candidate'

May 21, 2007 — -- Al Gore's recent high-profile projects have many Americans wondering if and when he'll enter the 2008 presidential election.

After the success of the 2006 documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," the former vice president is out with "The Assault on Reason," a book that criticizes the Bush administration, politics in America and the way the media portrays it.

But on "Good Morning America," Gore told ABC's Diane Sawyer that a presidential run isn't on his radar.

"I'm not a candidate," he said. "I'm not pondering it, I'm not focused on that… I'm focused on how to solve the climate crisis and in order to solve the climate crisis I'm convinced we will have to fix the cracks in the foundation of democracy."

Gore took aim at the news media's use of buzz words when covering politics, pointing to a graphic next to him that said "The Race to '08."

"The frame, the logo for this discussion, 'Campaign '08'… that's not what this is about," he said. "This book is about what's gone wrong and how we can fix it."

According to Gore, the series of mistakes that led to the war in Iraq is an example of what he wants to fix: a fractured political system that doesn't allow the American people to have their say.

"There's hardly anybody in America left, Diane, who doesn't believe it was a terrible mistake to invade a country who didn't attack us," he said. "We have been making a series of really important, really big mistakes, and the question is how can we reinvigorate the role of we the people in democracy."

Gore believes there should have been a full-fledged, public debate before the decision was made to go into Iraq. He hopes his book can help America avoid getting into another war like the one going on now.

"I think that if we had a full debate and a full airing of the pros and cons… then we would've been much less likely to have these troops trapped over there now in the midst of a civil war," he said. "We have the basis for curing the problems in American democracy but it involves not just picking a candidate, not just running a campaign."