Al Gore has become a key player in a presidential poll – but it has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. It’s the presidency of the federal ALP.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann wants it, yet some of the party faithful now voting in the postal ballot are concerned by his bullishness on uranium mining. His answer? Go green. Talk up global warming. Jump on the Gore bandwagon.

The former veep gave the presidential aspirant a very nice wrap on Sunday as he promoted An Inconvenient Truth. “In SA, you have probably one of the best examples of any state in the entire world where you see how leadership can make a tremendous difference in promoting renewable sources of energy,” he said.

And that opened the door for Rann to hop into Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane when sneered at going to “unsuccessful candidates for the US presidency who cannot even convince their own people that they are right” for advice on climate change in Question Time yesterday.

Nation profile on a good, green issue. All very handy for the presidential campaign.