Gore likely to star at Democratic convention

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Gore, long mocked as an exaggerating bore, seems certain to land a lead role at the Democratic National Convention as an internationally recognized defender of the Earth.

Eight years after losing one of the closest White House elections ever, Gore is being embraced by party faithful as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning crusader against global warming, and one of the most successful failed U.S. presidential nominees in history.

While the Democratic Party has yet to announce its lineup of convention speakers, the former vice president is on an anticipated short list of headliners at the four-day gathering in Denver that opens on August 25, party aides say.

"He'll receive a tremendous reception," said Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, a convention delegate.

"A lot of us still feel he was cheated" in the 2000 vote, Harkin said. "If he'd been president, we wouldn't have had these (Bush administration) messes the past eight years."

"Also, we admire his tenacity in protecting the environment. Many share his vision on what needs to be done," Harkin said.

In traveling the world to warn against the threat of climate change, Gore, 60, routinely draws packed crowds and has earned rock-star status among young supporters.

On July 17 in Washington, more than 4,000 crammed into Constitution Hall to hear Gore. Tickets, all free, were snapped up within 24 hours after it was announced he would be there.

"He's charismatic. He's a strong orator. He has a presence that draws you in," George Chipev, a 20-year-old Georgetown University student, said afterward in listing attributes that even Gore backers admit he lacked in his White House bid.

Added Beth Camphouse, 21, a student at James Madison University: "Al Gore is one of the few public figures challenging my generation to do anything. He's inspirational."

In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize that Gore won in 2007, the film version of his slide-show lecture and book on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award for best documentary feature that year. In 2006, he helped found the nonpartisan Alliance for Climate Protection.

STILL HAS CRITICS

After eight years as vice president and 16 years in Congress, Gore has rejected calls to run for office again.

"I don't think I'm very good at some of the things that the modern political system rewards and requires, and I've found other ways to make a difference and to serve the public interests," Gore told his hometown newspaper, the Nashville Tennessean, last year. "And I'm enjoying them."

"You've got to give Al Gore credit," said Shirley Anne Warshaw of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. "He became a star by rising above politics with his passion for the environment. He's now international leader on an issue more and more people care about. There has been no more successful defeated presidential candidate."