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Plenty of Apple fanatics are drooling over Al Gore's three 30" Cinema Display monitor setup, but few appear willing to comment on the infallible Steve Jobs' apparent endorsement of the failed presidential candidate and eco-warrior in the new Time cover piece by Eric Pooley [Photo: Time, Steve Pyke]:

We have dug ourselves into a 20-ft. hole, and we need somebody who knows how to build a ladder. Al's the guy," says Steve Jobs of Apple. "Like many others, I have tried my best to convince him. So far, no luck."

While Apple fanatics usually jump on every word out of Jobs' mouth, they appear content to keep this political endorsement as quiet as... well, as quiet as Al Gore kept the internal Apple options investigation. Despite the well-known liberal politics of Apple's CEO and many of his devotees, support for his fellow board member's presidential run is not as well received as Gore's support for the sometimes controversial executive.

Is Steve Jobs' endorsement of Al Gore a colossal mistake on the order of the overpriced Cube, a brilliant strategy to shut Gore up about a "greener Apple", or seemingly important but ultimately irrelevant like the iPod shuffle not having a screen?