What is Professor Gore really doing?

Gore, says a friend, "is up to having a life like a normal human being."

From Candy Crowley
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- They call him "Professor Gore" now -- a private citizen adjusting to life without a motorcade or Air Force Two. He is a journalism teacher learning the joys of commercial air travel as he shuttles from classrooms in Tennessee, New York and California.

"He's up to having a life like a normal human being," said Gore adviser Greg Simon.

There have been sightings of Gore in his new life, but no answer from the man who was almost president. The question is, does he still want to be?

Gore tells people he is not thinking about that right now. He enjoys not being on a packed schedule, not being in the public eye, says one friend. He is a homeowner, a family man, a professor. He is focused on what he is doing.

But what he is doing, and where he is doing it -- New York and California -- are huge Democratic money states, and in Tennessee, Gore is teaching at a historically black college. It all seems to indicate that this particular homeowner and family man has politics in his soul even if it's not on his mind.

And Gore is giving speeches on issues he cares about. He is writing a book about families with his wife. He is having dinners with supporters of the financial sort. Friends insist these are simply "thank you" occasions.

And then there are those meetings he has in his home state of Tennessee, a state he lost.

"He's been visiting with people, first thanking them for all the work they did while he was in public service, and he's listening to people to see what they thought went right and wrong," Simon said.

Frankly, Professor Gore's private life looks like preparation for a return to public life.

It would not be easy. Clearly Gore has a donor and a voter base. But although there are Democrats who think Gore was robbed, there are others who believe he blew it by failing to capitalize on a boffo economy and a popular Democratic president.

It is both striking and telling to ask the vice president's former campaign manager about another Gore bid.

"I am a good fan of Al Gore, but I am also equally supportive of other candidates out there," says Donna Brazile. "And I do believe that we do have time to make up our minds.

"And I do encourage everybody who wishes to run, to run, and of course in the end if Al Gore chooses to run, he will have a tremendous opportunity to build a coalition and win in 2004," Brazile said.

Nice, but hardly on board.

One friend who exchanges e-mails with Gore and occasionally chats with him on the phone says one way or another this is a man who is going to have a public life, although that does not necessarily mean an elected public life.

The source, who believes Gore should run again, says Gore must first face the question, "Am I running out of inertia, or a conscious choice?"

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