Democrats start to mobilise behind reborn Gore

America: The letter was oversized and registered, with a notice printed on the front requesting a response within 72 hours and another on the back saying "Do not tamper". Inside were further warnings that the letter was registered in my name and was intended exclusively for my use.

"Special Notice for Denis Staunton. You have been selected to represent Washington, DC in the 2006 Grassroots Survey of Democratic Leaders. Survey documents registered in your name are enclosed." How flattering, I thought. And how astute of the Democratic Party to recognise my unique insight into grassroots thinking throughout the city. Noting the instruction to use blue or black ink and not to skip any part of the survey, I worked carefully through the 14 questions on everything from social security reform to abortion rights and the war in Iraq.

Conscious of my responsibility as a Democratic Leader, I worried over each answer, considering whether I should try to reflect the grassroots view or just let rip with my own prejudices. Then I turned the page and saw question 15.

"To help make progress on issues like those discussed in this survey, will you join the Democratic National Committee as a contributing member today?" Below was a credit card form with options starting at $25 (€20) and a helpful note stating that the DNC can accept up to $26,700 from an individual in a calendar year. To complete the sense of deflation, two thoroughly politically ignorant friends I spoke to had received the same letter that day.

With November's congressional elections less than six months away, the Democrats are on a roll, confident they can regain control of the House of Representatives and perhaps take the Senate too. Candidates regarded a few months ago as no-hopers have become serious prospects for election and activists are working overtime to raise the cash needed for an unexpected number of close races.

At a fundraiser in Washington this week for a Democratic congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, however, the talk was not of 2006 but of the next presidential election in 2008. Could it be true, everyone wanted to know. Could Al Gore really be considering another run for the presidency, eight years after he so painfully and controversially lost to George W Bush? The speculation about Gore's intentions has been fuelled by the huge attention he has received for An Inconvenient Truth, his film about climate change which opened in New York this week.

Based on a slide show the former vice-president has been hawking around for almost two decades, the film is a stark warning about the effects of global warming. It received rapturous receptions at a gala screening in Washington and at the Cannes film festival and Gore has been touring the TV studios to talk about it, even appearing on the comedy show Saturday Night Live.

In all these appearances, a new Gore has been on display, no longer stiff and soporific but passionate and self-deprecatingly funny. After a lifetime as a centrist, Gore had already positioned himself on the left of the Democratic Party by becoming one of the first senior figures to denounce the Iraq war, and endorsing Howard Dean in 2004.

He insists he has no plans to make another presidential bid, adding that "politics is behind me". But he has been careful not to rule out joining the race in 2008 and a growing number of Democratic activists and bloggers are starting to see Gore as their best hope of regaining the White House.

Much of this enthusiasm for Gore is driven by the conviction shared by many activists that Hillary Rodham Clinton is becoming unstoppable as the Democratic nominee in 2008. Clinton has raised $40 million since 2001 and she is on course to be re-elected to the Senate in November in a landslide.

She enjoys the loyal support of some of the Democratic Party's brightest and most experienced operatives and opinion polls give her a 24-point lead over her closest rival for the presidential nomination, John Kerry.

Yet many Democrats fear that Clinton is unelectable, that she is too polarising a figure and that Americans may not yet be ready to elect a woman president.

"The Un-Hillary", roared the cover of New York Magazine this week. "President Al Gore? The amazing comeback of the political pariah who might be the one person to stop Clinton in her tracks." As Gore basks in unaccustomed admiration, Clinton's supporters are relaxed, predicting that the scent of failure around the former vice-president will prove too strong for Democrats and that he will soon become indistinguishable from the other middle-aged politicians seeking the nomination.

"Bring him on," said one prominent Clinton fan. "We need another white male. In fact, let's have 20 of them."