The guys in the smoke-filled room are Slick and Beastie.
Beastwoman pulled Gore's plug with three or four phone calls in 2003, when he started scouting around for early money. He took a trip out to California to try to tap Slick's old Silicon Valley backers that Slick had courted so assiduously since 1991......Hillary called ahead and cut his water off before he even got there.
No Gore candidacy in 2004.
No Gore-or-anybody-else candidacy in 2008.
Dubya has to find a successor now. And it can't be Jeff, and Condi has bumped herself off (probably the right call: she's still too green, and hasn't been a state governor yet; she's probably waiting on Ahnuld to move on).
Al Gore said a Hillary candidacy was a risky scheme and that she should be put in a lock box.