Gore 2000 and 2008?

By AviShalom

Co-blogger Creature had a post yesterday wondering if Gore might be about to get in the race because of concerns about Cltinton's electability, to which co-blogger Edward (in a comment) suggested that Gore is still "the man who lost an election he won through his own attempt at cleverness, thought Censorin' Joe Lieberman would make a fine vice president..."

Well, I want to join in the co-bloggers' fun on this! This is just one political scientist's/blogger's opinion, but for what it is worth...

It is getting awfully late for someone to enter either party's race--whether you are Fred Thompson or Al Gore. It is possible Gore could wait longer, but it is hard to overstate how hard it would be for him to put together fundraising this late--unless there was a wholesale ditching of Clinton and other candidates. Which seems like pure fantasy to me.

Now, on Gore's 2000 campaign choices, I am going to argue against the conventional wisdom for neither the first nor the last time. First, Gore's tacking to the "populist" direction and distancing himself from the Clintons (which was presumably part of his "cleverness") is what got him the 2000 popular vote, and also probably what kept him from losing Oregon and Wisconsin. Remember, Bush led the race almost all summer, despite very high aprpoval ratings for then-President Bill Clinton, and Gore needed to ward off losses to Nader while proving he was not just Clinton, Term III. Mission accomplished. Second, Gore's choice of Lieberman is one of the factors that won him Florida (absent the total breakdown of the Florida electoral administration process and the US Supreme Court coup, that is). It produced a massive mobilization of the Jewish vote, which was decisive in Florida (notwithstanding appalling ballot design turning some of that into votes for Buchanan or into "over-votes.") Lieberman also helped with the "I'm different from Clinton" message, given Joe's statement on the Senate floor against Clinton.

Edward is probably quite right about the perception of Gore in most circles. But the analysis is not correct just because it is conventional.

I say all of this as someone who (1) did not vote for Gore in 2000,* (2) would like to see him run in 2008, (3) loathes Joe Lieberman, (4) could never vote for Hillary Clinton, and (5) expects--and fears--that the next president will be another Republican. Just calling them as I see them.

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* And, no, I most certainly did not vote for the current incumbent, either!