The night after former Vice President Al Gore helped turn in some of the highest ratings of the season for &uot;Saturday Night Live,&uot; he announced he won’t be running for president again.

And his fellow Democrats breathed a sigh of relief.

Polls focusing on possible Democratic presidential candidates for 2004 show Gore as the most recognizable member of the party.

But that doesn’t mean Democrats wanted him to run.

Gore has a knack for bowing out gracefully, although it sometimes takes him a while to come around to everyone else’s line of thinking.

(This time, he waited until after a frighteningly good impersonation of Trent Lott on a late-night variety show).

Gore’s decision means that Democrats might be able to choose a fresh face to run against popular President George W. Bush in two years. The Bush camp already knew how to run against Gore &045; and voters had already seen that show. Remember how that one turned out?

We got few new ideas &045; and a lot more headaches.

And after this year’s Election Day drubbing, the Democrats need not only some new faces but some fresh ideas &045; or perhaps a better way of communicating them.

Regardless of which side on which your own politics lie, you have to realize that our democracy thrives on that interplay of ideas among different parties &045; Democratic, Republican and otherwise.

The parties keep each other balanced in the same way our three branches of government keep each other balanced.