Election Coverage, Politics
I am not an Al Gore fan. I couldn’t wait to vote against him in the 1988 primaries. I was then, and still am, a Bob Kerrey fan because I like my liberal pols to be tough, smart and aggressive.
I had my doubts about Bill Clinton in 1992, thought he was too malleable. And my heart sank when he picked Gore as his vice president. But as the Clinton presidency unfolded, with each new fake scandal trumped up by wingnut whackjobs, and with every successful policy initiative, I became a Bill Clinton fan. (Hillary, not so much. As I said here, I just can’t understand why Republicans are so provoked by such a bland, middle-of-the-roader.)
In 2000, I wondered if Gore could pull off picking up the Clinton mantle. The campaign — under the leadership of GOP-appeaser Bob Shrum (who also ran Kerry’s campaign) — was awful, and I believe the Gore team bungled the Florida recount. I hold Gore responsible for one of the greatest travesties of the modern era: the Bush presidency.
Nonetheless, it appears to me now that the 2008 election is Gore’s to lose, and here is why:
- By 2008, the Iraq war will be synonymous in the American pyche with “biggest mistake in U.S. history” and all the senators who voted for it will be unelectable. Gore was one of the first top-tier pols in the country to speak out against Bush’s war.
- For this reason and others, no senator — repeat: no senator — will be elected in 2008. Not Hillary, not McCain, not George Allen, etc. etc. Senators have voting records that are easy for their opposition to distort. This is why senators failed to win the presidency in 2004 (Kerry) and 1996 (Dole), and why no senator has been elected president since JFK in 1960, and no Republican senator has become president since Garfield in 1888.
- Gore has gone a long way to redeem himself in a series of speeches in which he let Bush have it on issues ranging from the war to the economy to race relations. This is what a full spectrum of Democrats, from liberal to conservative, have been yearning to hear. Can the namby-pamby stuff. Tell it like it is.
- The Bush presidency will end in disgrace, leaving majorities of Bush voters convinced that their votes in 2000 and 2004 for the man who would become the Worst President Ever were mistakes. This won’t help Kerry much because he lost legitimately (at least on the face of it), but it could help Gore who “wuz robbed” by the Bush team in its first and last non-incompetent maneuver, excluding their very efficient handing over of U.S. resources to corporate interests and the uber-wealthy.
- Gore’s biggest mistake in 2000 was running away from the Clinton record. The monumental failure of the Bush presidency — and Republican control of the government in general — have redeemed the Clinton administration, which now looks like a model of competence, efficiency and achievement. Also, the focus on Clinton’s sex life by the Republicans now appears to have been even more petty and unseemly than it did at the time to 60 percent of the country. Even so, Gore is no longer tied to President Clinton politically. Their estrangement is palpable.
Another prediction: Gore will do as Clinton did and pick a conservative Southerner for his vice president, maybe former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner or Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu.
I’m not saying I favor a Gore candidacy. (Not while Bob Kerrey is fit, tanned and rested.) I’m just predicting it based on the tea leaves as I see them 18 months before the campaigns get underway.
(I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks but it was this article that I saw on BuzzFlash that crystalized my analysis into this prediction.)
Topics: Election Coverage, Politics
I was for Bob Kerrey in 1992.
Instead we put in Clinton and he played GOPlite.
He’d tried to play compromise.
You see how the GOP compromises now.
If Kerrey ran today, Rove would put out an ad saying he sawed his own leg off in Nam.
Be Still My Heart!
Prediction: Al Gore Will Be Elected President in 2008 (from Jon Ponder at the Pensito Review)….
As someone who spent 15 years volunteering on election camaigns when I lived in Florida, I know that it’s factually wrong for John Ponder to blame Al Gore for Bush’s theft of the 2000 election in Florida. There never should’ve been a dispute in 2000 because the Gore campaign’s request to count the uncounted votes was a routine request that I’d watched be carried out many times in close local elections in Florida. The reason things were different in 2000 was because of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris who were determined to violate Florida law and not count the uncounted votes. Florida law clearly required that the uncounted votes be counted and Jeb and Harris made sure they weren’t in order to steal the election for Jeb’s brother. I would really urge John Ponder to acually read what the law was in Florida in 2000 before he wrongly blames Al Gore for what the Bush election stealers did so they could thwart the will of the people and steal Al Gore’s victory. Ponder’s blaming of Al Gore for Bush’s theft of the 2000 election is like blaming crime victims for what the crimminals do. Ponder’s blaming of Al Gore for Bush’s theft of the 2000 election has no basis in fact. It would be nice if Ponder had actually gotten the facts before he wrote his article.
I feel your pain, Gore2008. I know where my cousin is coming from but to me, the person who rolled over and played dead too soon was Kerry (John) in 2004, not Gore in 2000. There were some very legitimate questions about Ohio and the discrepencies between the exit polls and the voting polls, but we’ll never know the truth because John Kerry was too embarrassed to ferret it out. People who don’t live in Florida have a hard time understanding our particular brand of Republican domination and how it just wears you down. The GOoPers have every angle covered with a sleazy move while you’re still negotiating the legit way. People not from these parts also don’t understand how much it rankles those of us fighting the good fight to be labeled as “red staters.” People who use that term commit the same crime the Republicans do — screwing the Democrats who are still the registered majority in this state out of representation. I do, of course, see my cousin’s point about Gore. If he had run the kind of campaign he’s run ever since he lost in 2000, Bush would not be president today. Let’s all hope Jon is right that he will take the office in 2008.
Believe me, Gore2008, I am quite familiar with the the situation in Florida. I agree with your description of what happened 100 percent. But In the final analysis, there was a legal dispute and Gore got out-lawyered.
He should have never been in the situation of depending on the Florida vote in the first place. He lost Tennessee!
The Gore campaign made mistakes, as did Kerry’s, as my Florida cousin said.
The intersecting personality in the two losses is campaign manager Bob Shrum, so if it makes you feel better about Gore, blame Shrummy. (I know I do.)
If Gore wants to try to redeem himself with another go, I’m for it. I can’t say I’ll vote for him in the California primary but if he wins the nomination, he’s got my support, for what it’s worth.
John Ponder still doesn’t get it! He’s trying to claim he knows what happened in Florida in 2000 despite the fact that he’s never worked on an election campaign there. His attack against Al Gore makes it clear that he doesn’t have a clue about what Florida election law was in 2000. I’ve actually worked on election campaigns n Florida so I know from first hand exerience. It’s not about the lawyering, it’s about counting the votes. Florida election law in 2000 clearly required that the uncounted votes be counted. Ponder is completely oblivious to the fact that there were 10,000 absentee ballots in Florida in 2000 that the counting machines couldn’t read that were hand duplicated and counted as Florida election law allows. Most of these absentee ballots are located in the most heavily republican counties in Florida. They favored Bush by more than 2 to 1. The Bush campaign never challenged the counting of these absentee ballots because they so heavily favored Bush. The ballots cast on election day that the counting machines couldn’t read should’ve been treated the same way the absentee ballots that the counting machines couldn’t read were treated as thats what Florida election law says but the Bush election stealers deliberately broke the law and made sure that these legal votes weren’t counted because they knew that counting all of the votes meant victory for Al Gore. Furthermore, a hand count just as the Gore campaign had requested in the Presidential race was in fact done in a local fire department advisory board race in Pinellas County that changed the outcome of that local race in Florida at the very same time that Bush campaign co-chair was on national tv denying the very same request of the Gore campaign in the presidential race. Let’s also not forget the lies of Ralph Nader and the fact that a wing of the republican party, the republican leadership council, spent $5 million on a tv ad campaign that spread Nader’s lies about Al Gore in crucial states like Florida which resulted in Nader siphoning off crucial Al Gore votes in Florida with republican help. Let’s also not forget the pro Bush mainsteam media’s unprecedented “war against Gore” while they let Bush off the hook for the many lies he told during campaign 2000 and since. The only documentation of the pro Bush mainsteam media’s “war against Gore” can be found at, http://www.dailyhowler.com. The truth will always be that despite everything that was thrown at him, Al Gore is the rightful winner of the 2000 election. He got the most votes nationally and in Florida. What the Bush campaign did in Florida in 2000 to stop a legal vote count was a broad daylight coup. In the words of famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, “none dare call it treason”. Ponder’s effort to blame Al Gore for what the Bush election stealers did to steal the 2000 election has no basis in fact. It’s long overdue for the ugly truth about the Bush election stealers ending of democracy in America with their theft of the 2000 election from Al Gore in Florida to be told.
I absolutely agree that the Bushes stole the election in Florida. What the Republicans did there was dirty and corrupt. I also agree that the media went after Gore, just as I believe they kowtowed to Bush.
But in the final analsyis — and if you re-read what you just wrote, Gore2008 — we were outgunned. They swarmed us on the ground, they pelted us from the legislature, they sent goons to intimidate recounts, on and on and on. Florida GOP pols from the governor on down were willing to take actions that went up to and beyond what was legal or ethical. They played harder, faster and meaner. They had the power of the majority and they took it.
We agree on the facts but have reached different conclusions. I think Gore is ultimately responsible for losing the election, and you think I’m blaming the victim. It is possible that we’re both right.
If Gore does run in ‘08, it will be interesting to hear what he thinks of Florida in ‘00.
At the risk of butting in again…
Jon, if by “outlawyered” you mean Bush had the Supreme Court on his side, I agree. I also agree with Gore2008 that it’s a lot more complicated than that. And I don’t think it’s really fair to expect Gore to carry Tennessee. I lived part-time in Kingsport and I’m not seeing the whole state go for a Gore type for president. Certainly many Tennesseans would and did, but I think it would have been a tough nut for any Clinton heir-apparent to have cracked in 2000.
I also agree with Gore2008 that Nader and the misguided people who voted for him really sealed the Bush victory. The Republicans wouldn’t have tried so hard in 2004 to get Nader a slot on the Florida ballot if it had been otherwise.
As usual though, we all have to point the finger in the general direction of the mirror. Had we, as Gore supporters or Bush detractors, risen up and demanded a different outcome, we’d have it. Had we used the time since then to demand reform (or better yet, abolishment) of the ridiculously obsolete electoral college system, we’d have it. And we all know if Bush had been cheated out of an election victory in 2000 because of the electoral college system, it would have disappeared in 2001.
I think Al Gore has grown since 2000. Tennesseans thought he became remote as VP.
As Senator and Congressman, he was engaged and alive, holding 1200 town meetings in Tennessee. I saw him at one in Memphis in 1984 — he was witty, charming and answered every question.
As VP, he grew remote from his state, which he failed to carry in 2000. He allegedly frequently flew into Nashville for weekends, with the reputation of having clogged traffic for 42 miles with his motorcade, losing votes.
Al Gore should have carried his home state.
I was deeply disappointed when he refused to meet with sick Oak Ridge workers injured by nuclear weapons plant workers there — as the former Editor of the Appalachian Observer and advocate for workers, I tried to get a word with him when he visited Deerfield Beach, FL as VP — the twenty-somethings with their Blackberries had my card but refused to arrange a meeting. As a Florida voter, I probably would have worked hard in Gore’s Presidential campaign. The lingering resentment of his not wanting to talk for a minute about Oak Ridge environmental crimes (and compensation of workers) left me voting for him in 2000, but not working in the campaign. I felt like he and Bill Clinton were both deeply insensitive to worker rights causes. It was not always that way.
I was honored to testify before Al Gore at his July 11, 1983 hearing on the Oak Ridge mercury pollution crisis, which was a classified secret (kept even from President Jimmy Carter), until my FOIA and declassification request was granted by DOE on May 17, 1983. Gore sworn in all the witnesses, conducting an investigative hearing. Yet no one ever went to prison or jail for even a day for putting 4.2 million pounds of mercury into local creeks and groundwater, and into workers’ lungs and brains, without signs, fences, respirators, warnings or basic protections. Half the free world’s mercury was in Oak Ridge, which “LOST” 10% OF IT.
Gore’s environmental values, as expressed in Earth in the Balance, are first-rate. He championed Global Warming as an issue, holding the first hearing, in 1978.
Al Gore deserves to be President because of his grasp of environmental issues alone. Time will tell if he has re-acquired the common touch, the populist legacy of his late, great father.
“DOE’s Toxic, Hostile Working Environment Violates Human Rights,” my 3/22/2000 written Senate Governmental Affairs Committee testimony on Oak Ridge and other nuclear weapons plant Company Towns’ deadly poisons and worker health sequelae.
http://www.downwinders.org/slavinhtml.htm/
Gore won Florida — I agree. Living in St. Augustine during the election, we saw police state tactics used in this area.
27,000 votes were not counted in Jacksonville (20,000 African-American).
Democratic lawyers were ill-advised when they dropped the ball on this in the recount effort. They were erroneous in failing to litigate the statewide recount we were promised.
Governor Jeb Bush’s and local Repugs’ influence led to petty extremes, well documented.
One I know of personally is a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) officer pulling over a car by the Bridge of Lions for not having its license plate lit well enough — our car had a Gore-Lieberman sticker. The lights on the license plate had not dimmed in three years.
The FHP had just announced publicly that week that it could not afford gasoline to patrol I-95.
The FHP’s fine for the Gore-Lieberman sticker was $10.
The police state tactics of the Jeb Bush regime: priceless.
Next time, Gore needs to leave no vote uncounted. He must reach out to victims of industrial diseases and “dance with the ones what brung him.” The corporate-wiener-Blackberry-punks don’t know anything about history (or who Al Gore is). Gore must campaign as the candidate of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, not like a Tony Coelho clone in search of corporate largesse.
If Al Gore runs,Exhibit A for why he should be President is “An Inconvenient Truth,” which won two Oscars (R).
I have admired Al Gore’s work since he came to Oak Ridge on July 11, 1983 to investigate the world’s largest mercury pollution event (4.2 million pounds).
America and the world needs his intellect, whether as President or Secretary of State.
How about a Gore-Edwards or Edwards-Gore Democratic ticket, likely carrying Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi and Virginia?
Two progressive Southerners will win, as in 1992 and 1996. And as Al Gore, Sr. said on Election Night 1970, “the truth shall rise again.:
What do y’all reckon?
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-471-7023
904-471-9918 (fax)
EASlavin@aol.com
Now that Al Gore has won the Nobel Prize, he should seriously considering running for the job to which he was elected in 2000, but which was stolen from him by James Baker III, his thuglike Repug plug-uglies and the U.S. Supreme Court.