Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has laid out conditions to end the fighting in Lebanon:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the fighting in Lebanon would end when two soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas are freed, rocket attacks on Israel have stopped, and the Lebanese army is deployed along the border. This appeared to be a concession by Israel, which had previously demanded the full dismantling of Hezbollah as a condition for ending hostilities

The Iranian Foreign Minister has arrived in Syria for talks and says a cease-fire and prisoner exchange is probably do-able.

As for Bush's recorded private conversation with Blair in which he used an expletive to describe Hezbollah, Crooks and Liars has the video and here's Bush's comment:

Via Kevin at LexBlog: Presidential hopeful John Edwards spoke to the crowd at Gnomedex in Seattle. He got a standing ovation when he left the stage.

One Gnomedex attendee pointed out that the human voice so fundamental to blogs contrasts with the practiced messages delivered by many politicians. Edwards agreed, and acknowledged his own shortcomings in that regard, saying that he can often sense when he is slipping into that mode.

"The problem is that we're so trained and so conditioned over a long period of time that being normal and real and authentic requires you to shed that conditioning," Edwards said of politicians. "It is not an easy thing to do."

I think that's right. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the polticians whose blogs I've read sound like they are reciting their campaign speeches. There's no persona, no sense of human being inside. They are all too predictable, as if three handlers vetted their blogposts to make sure no potential voter would be offended before posting them.

Al Gore discussed his global warming movie and why he is not inclined to run for President on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulis. Crooks and Liars has the video without the pre-commercial.

Via Atrios: "An Inconvenient Truth hits #9 for the weekend box office despite being played at only 77 theaters. Brings in a total of $1.7 million."

Al Gore told the Guardian the Bush administration is a band of right-wing extremists. He also repeated his now familiar refrain that he is a "recovering politician." Yet when the Guardian pressed him on a 2008 run, he gave non-definitive denials.

My prediction remains that he won't run. Here's more from the Guardian:

At the weekend, Time magazine reported that he was telling key fundraisers they should feel free to sign on with other potential candidates. The magazine quoted unnamed Democratic sources as saying that the former vice-president had also been asking the fundraisers to "tell everybody I'm not running".

Al Gore continues to make the news as people ponder whether he should run again for President, should he run and can he win if he runs.

Raw Story has quotes from Frank Rich's New York Times column in which he says Gore may be in the right place at the right time.

"If Hillary Clinton is the Antichrist, might not it be time for a resurrected messiah to inherit (and save) the earth?" asks Frank. "Enter Gore, celebrated by New York magazine on its cover as 'The Un-Hillary.'"

Rich calls "Gore's non-denial denials" whenever asked if he has "plans" to run for president again "Clintonesque." "If 'An Inconvenient Truth' isn't actually a test drive for a presidential run, it's the biggest tease since Colin Powell encouraged speculation about his political aspirations during his 1995 book tour," writes Rich.

Nora Ephron at Huffpo compares him to an old boyfriend who starts looking good after forty bad dates.

Senator Chris Dodd of CT has announced he is exploring a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Thoughts, anyone?

Arianna's there, and she says so.

....even with Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Penelope Cruz, Jamie Foxx, and Halle Berry here for the film festival, the hottest star in town is Al Gore. In Cannes for the European premiere of his powerful global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore has been surrounded by adoring crowds and deluged with interview requests. He told me that he gave 23 back-to-back-to-back interviews on Sunday, Hollywood junket-style (all on only one hour's sleep), and had another 23 scheduled for Monday.

Even though Gore has said he's not running:

Arianna saw "An Inconvenient Truth" and stayed for the Q and A with Gore in Los Angeles. She says he radiated commitment and confidence and then compares him to Hillary:

As a result of the soul-sapping tyranny of trying to please and placate everybody, she's become more processed than Velveeta. You can almost see every word that comes out of her mouth first being marched through the different compartments of her brain -- analyzed, evaluated, and vetted by each of them. What will the consultants think of this? How will it poll? Will working women between 25-35 in eastern Ohio think it's okay? How about likely voters in northern Oklahoma?

Her fear has caused a complete disconnect from who she really is and what she really thinks (that is, if she even knows anymore).

As to Gore, Arianna writes:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Al Gore was the lead act on Saturday Night Live last night giving an address to the nation as President, and Crooks and Liars has the video in both WMP and QT.

This is the self-effacing, plain talking Al Gore who was locked in a closet (or lockbox) during the 2000 campaign. In my view, he is the front runner for the Democratic nomination as President, if he can just be himself and not be controlled too much by handlers and focus groups. His outrage in past speeches to the excesses of this Administration touched a nerve.

With Al Gore's global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth, about to open, there's a lot of buzz about whether he will decide to run for President in 2008. I'm skeptical. Here's what he has been up to the past few years:

Since conceding to Mr. Bush, he has taught at several universities and written two books with his wife. He is on Apple Computer Inc.'s board and is senior adviser to Google Inc. He has founded Current, a youth-oriented, interactive cable network, and Generation Investment Management, which invests in companies deemed environmentally and socially responsible.

It's hard to see him giving all that up. Then again,

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani campaigned in Iowa today. He said if he thinks he can win, he will run for President in 2008.

It's time to get his history out in the blogosphere. The man is not qualified. People think he is some sort of hero because he didn't fall apart during 9/11. He is not. He was a prosecutor who loved putting people in jail and a Mayor who trounced the downtrodden.

Big Media Ezra has an excellent take on Al Gore in the new American Prospect.

The smartest thing Gore may have done is align himself with MoveOn and Howard Dean...he could reap mega-millions from the netroots if he decides to run. Hillary has the big money sewn up, but liberals don't appreciate her born-again centrism or support for war.

Gore has given no indication he wants to run. Part of me hopes he does. He's got more passion than he did six years ago. He seems more liberal. He's loosened up and expresses himself better. I think he can rally the liberal troops and that a lot of people may believe because he got robbed in 2000, it's his due.

And he'd bring his social security lockbox with him to the White House. I miss that lockbox.