Friday, February 24, 2006

Is Al Gore Running? Probably.

gore_ap

(image via acslaw)

We predicted a month ago that Al Gore would run in 2008 from Hillary Clinton's left and win the Democratic nomination. At a recent Tim Russert taping, Democratic master-strategist James Carville all but guaranteed that Al Gore would run. Amazingly, Dick Morris is in agreement. According to TheHill:

"The Democratic base�s anger at Gore�s defeat in 2000 was assuaged by the worse Kerry defeat of 2004. The idea that he was an incompetent candidate has been replaced in Democratic iconography by the idea that he was cheated out of the presidency. The hiatus has healed his reputation with the base in much the same way that the negative rap on Nixon for losing in 1960 was ameliorated by the Goldwater wipeout of 1964.

"History indicates that candidates who won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College have all come back to win revenge in subsequent elections. Andrew Jackson, cheated in 1824, won in 1828. Grover Cleveland, cheated in 1888, triumphed in 1892. Samuel Tilden, who won the popular vote in 1876, never ran again, but he dealt away the White House in a deal for the withdrawal for federal troops from the South, allowing the Ku Klux Klan to take over.

"... For those who ponder the disloyalty of Gore�s taking on the wife of the man who plucked him from the ashes of his 1988 defeat to make him vice president, please recall Harry Truman�s line that if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.

"Could Al beat Hillary? If Mrs. Clinton persists in her support of the Iraq war, he could."

More here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Al Gore may run but he won't get very far. Ms. Clinton is a much better fundraiser and has a much better start. Also Al lacks the common touch that powered candidates like Dean and Clark in 2004. Also Iraq may or may not be the issue of 2008, if anything we could be back to a "it's the economy stupid" situation when the national debt from Iraq needs to be paid off. Also Dick Morris has an ax to grind with Ms. Clinton going back a long way.

WillyWonker said...

- yeah, but...

"when the national debt from Iraq needs to be paid off" will unfortunately be when our grandkids are ready to collect Medicare part B.

Sadly it will be a long time before people realize how destructive this war will be to the US economy in the future.

I'd LOVE to see a candidate take a serious stand on the environment, but it�s probably true that Hilary would run fundraising rings around Al Gore.