A new Quinnipiac poll was released today, and it shows Al Gore continuing to trend upwards despite the fact that he isn't in the race (yet). And while it still shows Al in 3rd place, just slightly behind Mr. Coal-To-Liquid (aka the audacity to hope that coal starts to miraculously burn clean), he does the best of any of the candidates in head-to-head matchups against the Repubilcan front runners:

The top three Democratic presidential contenders all have caught up with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the Republican leader: New York Sen. Hillary Clinton gets 45 percent to Giuliani's 44 percent; Illinois Sen. Barack Obama ties Giuliani 42 - 42 percent and former Vice President Al Gore gets 45 percent to Giuliani's 43 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

Giuliani, leading in national and statewide polls by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh- pe-ack) University for several months, had a 49 - 40 percent lead over Clinton in a May 3 national poll, where he also topped Gore 48 - 41 percent and Obama 44 - 41 percent.

His favorability ratings are also the highest.

As I've been telling people all along, Gore's present path is a brialliant one to take to the White House. Why bother wasting time and money on a year-long campaign, when you can remain in the spotlight, raise your profile, and increase the positive view that low-information voters have about you? If Gore didn't mean this to be a campaign strategy, that's all the better. But if he did, than it is BRILLIANT!