Gore no threat to Hillary

If Al Gore runs for the Democratic presidential nomination, the former vice president appears to draw evenly from the top two contenders, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.

Each loses roughly five percentage points to Gore if his name is included among the hopefuls, according to a new nationwide Gallup survey of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Clinton holds a wide lead over the field, either way — suggesting that a Gore run might not affect the outcome at all.

With Gore included, Clinton still handily leads the pack at 33 percent while Obama gets 21 percent to Gore’s 18 percent, a statistical dead heat for second place. Take Gore out of the equation and the Gallup poll shows Clinton at 39 percent and Obama at 26 percent.

John Edwards trails badly in either scenario, posting 11 percent at fourth place with Gore in the mix and back to third place at 13 percent without Gore.

Hat Tip: CQ Politics