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Campaign 2004 |
September 2002
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Whither Al Gore
Historians will always debate who really won the 2000 Presidential race. The Florida fiasco potentially offered Al Gore the chance to be president and failing that, to lock down the 2004 Democratic nomination in a rematch. September 11 and the stock market meltdown have changed all that. And made the question "Is Al Gore washed up?"
Less that a year ago, His Accidency, George Bush Minor, was laughed at as a semi-moron, who made it to the White House as a sort of affirmative action hire for Texas rednecks with connections.
The deaths in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on that Tuesday changed that. Americans, like humans anywhere, rally around their leaders in times of war -- even if those leaders don't deserve it. Like George Bush Major, Bush the Lesser's approval ratings soared thanks to the stupidity of foreigners. This ensured that no Republican would challenge Bush in any serious way for the nomination. It also made it look to Democrats like the 2004 nomination for their party would not be worth having.
And like his father, George III (Washington was Geo. I) saw his ratings slip when the economy did. Democrats of quality sense that there is GOP blood in the water. And where they couldn't attack Bush without being traitors in January, Enron, World Com, and that mob have made businessmen look like a threat to national security. When Republicans can't manage the economy, Democrats can win a fair fight.
And so, Prince Albert finds himself less of a contender than before. Bush is the head of the GOP (how far the party of Lincoln and T. Roosevelt has fallen!), and beating him is now possible. Gore's chances were best when his party thought he was cheated and Bush was unbeatable. Then, he could be the sacrificial nominee. Those days are a distant memory, and Gore maybe be one of the youngest has-beens American politics has produced.