Reporters Call Al Gore “Mr. President”

How does one interpret this?

Al Gore has been out of politics for nearly eight years, but you wouldn’t have known it backstage at the Oscars.

Some journalists addressed him as Mr. President, although Gore lost the closely contested 2000 election to President Bush. Others called him Mr. Vice President.

Gore, whose film “An Inconvenient Truth” captured the Oscar for documentary, pretended at one point during the awards show to be announcing his candidacy for president, but backstage he sang a different tune.

“I do not have plans to become a candidate for office again,” the former vice president told reporters.

Another source says:

Hands shot up all over for Al Gore when he came backstage. What did the international press want to know? Maybe something about how it was to star in an Oscar-winning film? Or how they can help stop global warming? Or how can they fix the wipers on their Priuses? Um, no. Two questioners addressed him as “Mr. President,” and it continued from there, with journalists imploring him to take on Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. For the record, Gore said: “I do not have plans to become a candidate for office again.” Pretty clear in any language.

So do we have a Freudian slip? A slap at the 2000 election process, that gave the presidency to Bush in spite of the fact that Gore won the popular vote? An encouragement to run in 2008?