Gore's Puzzling Intervention (Broder - Wash Post)

[stevedeshazer]

On Monday, just about the time word was spreading that Al Gore was going to endorse Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination, Andrew Kohut, the respected pollster who runs Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, released a survey showing that "voter opinion is still fluid in the early Democratic primary states."

Dean, the former Vermont governor, led Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri by 8 points in Iowa and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts by 14 points in New Hampshire, with 17 percent undecided in each state. But in South Carolina, the most contested state on the first multistate day of voting, Dean was running sixth, trailing Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Gephardt, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and even activist Al Sharpton.

Kohut's national poll of Democrats showed four candidates bunched within the margin of error -- Dean, Clark, Lieberman and Gephardt -- with none having more than 15 percent support; 23 percent said they were undecided.

In the light of that survey and others like it, Gore's decision to intervene early -- and especially his call on Dean's rivals to "close ranks" behind the governor -- is one of the more eccentric developments in modern political history.

link:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54827-2003Dec10.html

[bemildred]

1. More feeble attempts to spin Gore's move.

Like Broder would give a crap about Democrats.

[stevedeshazer]

2. Agree

All the "pundits" want to make Gore's endorsement into something "eccentric."

Broder never uses such language to describe Bush.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. Junior isn't "eccentric"...

...he's "Fascist".

Remember when Bush stated publicly three different times that all of this "would be easier if it were a dictatorship"? The vast majority of Americans thought he was joking at the time...I doubt seriously if anyone is laughing now except the NeoCons.

And thanks to the figurative assassination of Gore by the mainstream media during the 2000 election, "eccentric" is a term that will be believed by many, including a large faction of Democrats.

[Kahuna]

13. I thought it was somewhat "eccentric" before Broder..

used the word. Gore basically said that Dean is the man and that all Democrats should give up and get behind him right now. :wtf: That's very odd.

[cigarstore]

18. True

I have NEVER seen this happen and I've been around awhile.

[DFLforever]

3. Guess he didn't see Zogby's South Carolina poll or the recent Gallup

national poll....these Washington-based columnists can be sadly misinformed. Someone should e-mail him Blumenthal's article in the Guardian...maybe that would help him 'understand'.

[GalleryGod]

9. Still Waitin on Big Dawg and Senator C. According to Saltonstall ...

It's Open War between the Clintonistas and Al & his Daughter Korena.
Dean's playing Straw Man for a much bigger struggle. I consider Wes Clark to be Clinton's future Front Man,too.

Bring 'Em on!

"Dis is good every 10 years or so..to git da' Bad Blood Out"
Clemenza to Mikey Corleone.

[Kahuna]

14. Clinton has better class that to coronate Wes or anyone else..

Clinton knows that that is something that party elders (former presidents and vice presidents just don't do). Especially not before one vote has been cast.

[cigarstore]

4. Gore's endorsement of Dean is unprecedented

I can't remember anything like it. I think it is falling flat and will ultimately have no effect on the nomination race.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cigarstore]

6. Hi Gore

:nopity:

[Romberry]

20. If you had bothered to pay attention...

...Gore told you and the whole world explicitly that he was going to endorse a candidate and would do so "in time to make a difference" in his last speech to MoveOn.Org.

If you weren't paying attention, whose fault is that?

[fshrink]

7. The "eccentric development"

that I would qualify as such was the organized theft of a presidential election in this country 3 years ago and the constitutional crisis it opened de facto. But, no, politologists, as the kremlinologists of the past, are facinated, and do their best to fascinate us, with the nano-considerations they present as stellar events.

[ibegurpard]

10. yup

My blood boils when I see things like "subversion of the democratic process" to describe an endorsement when we have Florida staring us in the face.

[MaineDem]

11. I bet I'm not the only one who agrees with this article

It was an odd thing for a major party leader to do.

[Kahuna]

15. It's absolutely strange and not done. Makes me think..

Gore is off his meds to do something like this.

[jimbot]

12. I don't think it was odd.

Gore no longer holds public office. I think he doesn't agree with the centrist leanings of his party and would like to exert influence on it. I'm not perfectly sure that this is the right way to go about it, but I think that he perceives that his actions were righteous and he was helping his party.
I really don't buy the running for office in 2008 garbage, I realize that politics is filled with political animals but I think in this case it may actually be different.

--JT

[fishnfla]

16. Hey wait, I said it first!

Something about Gore's endorsement bothers me. I dont think its gonna help any of us. And yes, I am one of those undecided Dems.

[DrBB]

17. I, for one, would still like permission to VOTE for a candidate

...before Al Gore tells me to close ranks behind the candidate HE has chosen without a single primary or straw poll being held.

It's fine with me if he wants to endorse Dean or anyone else. What disgusts me is him wanting to declare the race over, putting his weight behind the count-the-money-and-call-a-winner trend that our media-driven politics are going in.

Cause when you figure it that way, the winner in Nov 2004 doesn't come out as Dean or anyone else with a -D after his name.

[grannylib]

19. That was my one objection to Gore's endorsement...not the endorsement

itself but the expectation that anyone supporting another candidate would just pack it in and go, "Ah! No more thinking...I'll just go with Al's choice!"
Way too early for that, IMHO...
No disrespect intended to Gore or to Dr. Dean; I just thought that part of the issue was poorly considered.

[Romberry]

21. Gore didn't tell you who to vote for.

Gore explicitly said we each had to make up our own minds. He didn't tell you who you had to vote for.

QUOTE:

Democracy is a team sport, and I want to do everything I can to convince anybody that is interested in my judgment about who among these candidates has the best chance to win and the best chance to lead our country in the right direction -- I want do everything I can to convince you to get behind Howard Dean and let's make this a successful campaign as a group.

It is about all of us. And all of us need to get behind the strongest candidate.

Now, I respect the prerogative of the voters and caucuses and in the primaries and I'm just one person, but I'm offering my judgment.

The man offered his judgement for those that care about what that judgement may be. That's what an endorsement is. I suspect that had it been for a certain other candidate -- as many had sort of expeceted -- we wouldn't be seeing all the harping we are now.

Sour grapes make for bad whine.

[deminflorida]

22. It Backfired....

It backfired, it had the opposite effect of what Gore wanted, to propel a loser to the forefront of the primaries so he could run himself in 2008. He thought that Democrats in general looked at him with some sympathy because of the 2000 election, but they actually look at him as the one guy who's race it was to lose, and he lost it -and then abandoned them in 2004, because he did not have the courage to take on Bush again himself. Gore should really consider permanent exile now from politics forever.

[littlejoe]

25. I would like to know

under what delusions deminflorida is suffering. Backfire? How did you derive that outcome?

[TygrBright]

23. If Dean gets the nomination...

...the entire Post complement of editorial writers is going to put on black armbands and start howling "Oh, woe is us!" in unison.

I don't know what they're scared of, but they're sure as shootin' shit-scared of something connected with Dean.

But I suspect they're actually doing him a lot of good. The more the "inside the beltway" establishment in all its aspects (including media) dislikes something, the more likely it is to actually be making favorable impressions outside the beltway. They're that clueless and disconnected.

bemusedly,
Bright

[littlejoe]

24. No matter what Gore's motives were,

let's keep in mind that he has the right to endorse anyone he chooses at any time. All candidates were seeking his endorsement, so I now have to believe it is nothing more than sour grapes on their part. What would Lieberman or Kerry or Gephart or Clark be saying now, if Gore would have thrown his support behind any one of them?