Does the prospect of the Democrats going all the way to the convention without knowing who their nominee is going to be have you staying awake at night?

If so, you might want to get in touch with Farrell S. Seiler of St. Johnsbury. He's a retired small businessman and wind energy consultant. He's also someone who worked for a Draft Gore group during the New Hampshire Primary and still thinks the former Veep is the best shot the Dems have at regaining the White House this year.

Presently, the retired Seiler is the Vermont coordinator for a Draft Gore movement. He said Gore fans around the country are waiting to see what happens on March 4 and beyond before making a case that the party should turn to Gore, the one guy he says everybody in the party likes and nobody hates.

"Our position is that Obama and Clinton will have so beaten each other up by the time the primaries are over that it's going to make it easier for the Republicans to win in the fall," Seiler told me on Wednesday. "We may need to reach into our bench and draft the individual who has the most experience of anyone, is respected on the world stage and would be ready on Day 1 to take the reins of the presidency."

Toward that end, Seiler sent out a polished fundraising letter to 500 Vermonters earlier this month in hopes of stirring up a write-in effort for the March 4 primary. He's since decided to throttle back on that effort and is returning the money he raised after deciding Vermont isn't the place for the Draft Gore movement to make its stand.

Instead, he argues that time will come if the situation is still unresolved after the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. He thinks West Virginia's May13 primary might be the time to show the Gore flag.

It's not as crazy a thought as you might think. I checked it out and just four months ago, Gore came in second in a CBS poll of likely Democratic primary voters with 32 percent, behind Clinton's 37 percent and way ahead of Obama's 16 percent. And Gore wasn't a candidate at the time, or even acting like one.

Sure, the chances of this playing out the way Seiler sees it are slim, but the year has already had a number of odd turns. Just ask John McCain. Or Rudy Giuliani. Or Hillary Clinton.

-- Sam Hemingway