THE NOTE (which I would visit a lot more if it had hyperlinks to the stories it discusses — come on guys, get into the 21st century, or at least the late 20th!) raises questions about Al Gore:

Given the venue of his widely covered speech, we wonder how Gore’s Tennessee fence-mending is going, and whether anyone is paying a pollster these days to test such a thing. And what do Volunteer Staters say in focus groups these days about their former Senator? And what will happen to Gore in 2003 if public polls show him still losing the state to Bush?

I haven’t seen any polls, but I also haven’t heard anyone in Tennessee Democratic politics speak of Gore with anything but disdain.

On the other hand, I’ve also seen not one, but two bumperstickers reading “NOT LAMAR.” I have yet to see a single pro-Lamar Alexander sticker.

Actually, I think that’s probably not an “on the other hand” at all: I think that both Al and Lamar are seen around here as has-beens in national politics who aren’t all that popular with the voters at home, either.