Gore bashing & sour grapes

[politmuse1]

After 10 minutes of tonight's debate I had to walk away. I've never seen such a collection of whiners and so much sour grapes spilled in my life. As Ted Koppell said, any of those eight candidates would have been dancing with joy had Al Gore endorsed them instead.

Since when is it unethical to make an endorsement? You'd think this is the first time in American history that someone has decided to throw his support behind a candidate. Get real! That's politics. Everyone likes endorsements. They just don't like them when someone else gets them.

And if those candidates believe they'll win over Gore supporters by bashing our candidate, they prove themselves to be narrow-minded, not just vindictive.

BTW, I'm NOT a Dean supporter. I'm a Gore supporter. Someone will have to win my vote in this primary (and whatever little help I can provide by joining someone's campaign). I was tentatively leaning towards one of the candidates, but the Gore-bashing made me walk away.

Gore has every right to endorse a candidate, and the voters have every right to ignore the endorsement if they so wish. It's high time for the candidates to grow up.

[Padraig18]

Thank you!

The whining, pissing, moaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth over this endorsement is about to make me :puke:....

[MariaS]

1. Maybe you should have waited

and watched the rest. It got much better. Especially after Kucinich shot down Koppel.

[Cha]

2. What do you mean? the other dems were bashing

Gore?

[Closer]

3. I sincerely hope all these bitter people

CHOKE on the sour grapes!

And here's a little present for them.

[mmonk]

8. doesn't bother me

make it wallpaper if you like. I'm already past it.

[Closer]

15. Sorry you were never NOT past it.

Since you like it so much, here, look again :hi:

[chimpymustgo]

4. Oh get over yourself. Gore was out of line, and it was clear watching

the great candidates and the response from the audience tonight.

Our guys are terrific - and a lot of people are eager to see this thing play out. Sorry, Al - you had your chance on the stage. Get off, already.

[Cha]

11. Al Gore is Not "out of line" and you

"should get over yourself".

[caledesi]

20. Good one Zid! nt

[Liberal Veteran]

23. Out of line for what exactly?

Being a private citizen, Al Gore can support, back, campaign for, endorse, and ignore any candidate he god damned well wants to.

You think much too highly of yourself if you belief you have a right to tell a person who they can and cannot endorse for president and when they are allowed to do it.

Comprende?

[Terwilliger]

5. I agree you should see the rest (especially second half)...

and I agree that there is a lot of sour grapes going on.

You think it's bad now, wait 'til one of the Clintons endorses somebody :crazy:

[liberalnurse]

6. I'm listening to the CNN re-cap of the event.

Whooo.....I understand they attacked Gore!!!!! Crazy behavior.

Is the debates going to be replayed????

[tsipple]

7. Totally Childish

What were they thinking? It diminished all the non-Dean candidates.

[Southsideirish]

9. Why does Cspan take moronic calls with only name calling?

If a caller has nothing more interesting or intelligent to say than than "they are all a bunch of LOSERS!!!!" why does Cspan put them on?

[quaker bill]

10. It is sad

Gore came out solidly anti-IWR before the vote. Based on their votes, good portion of the candidates apparently disagreed with him. It was their right to do so.

It was Gore's right to endorse the candidate of his choosing at any time he chose to do so. (winning the popular vote ought to get you something)

It is not a surprise that he chose Dean. The two speeches he has given over the last year leaned in the same direction.

The sour grapes attitude will not harm Dean and will do no service to the other candidates.

[Killarney]

12. The debate sucked.

They didn't get to dig into the issues. It was all about the endorsement for too long.

[TrueAmerican]

13. This is flame bait

Lock this sucker.

[Pastiche423]

17. Who is it flaming?

[robbedvoter]

14. Gore told us to stop attacking his boy. W wants us to stop attacking him

It was inappropriate. It will backfire. People were actually feeling sorry for Joe - and this is the guy who usually gets booed.
It's a tradition that former presidents and vice presidents stay out of primaries. How would have Gore felt if Carter or Mondale would have endorsed one of his opponents in 1988 or 2000? It's called statesmanship. Gore failed the test.
For him to propagate the lie that Dean was the only anti-war candidate - made the whole thing uglier. Too bad you didn't watch the debate. You would have seen Dean run from the "anti-war is it". As clark said: "I told you so" is not a policy. So I guess Al Gore did accomplished something good.

[onecitizen]

16. I know..........

Joe and Kerry seem to be the most angry about it. But Joe just seems to me to think it should just BE him to be the candidate. I guess cause he was the VP candidate last time. Forget that he seems to be a bush supporter. Not so much now, but when it mattered most. I was listening into his conversation after the debate and he was totally smearing Dean. He seems to be mad at Dean because Dean is ahead in the polls. Get over it Joe.

[caledesi]

21. Joe is SO last century. Go home Joe, just go home. nt

[Q]

18. You bring up a good point...

...in that many of us voted for Gore and still believe him to be the legitimate president of the United States. The 'president in exile'...so to speak. Millions of Americans voted for Gore and maintain a deep respect for him and his service to our country.

- That being said...those who trash Gore in their candidate's name should remember that they're alienating many other Democrats who are still looking for someone to support in lieu of their first choice: Al Gore.

[politmuse1]

19. About this "tradition" not to endorse

Robbedvoter says that it's a tradition for former presidents and VPs not to endorse. Maybe so. But tradition doesn't seem to serve the Democratic Party very well these days, does it? The traditional candidates aren't getting any traction (particularly the insiders, the office holders, the ones upholding all these wonderful traditions.)

Al Gore has been a player his entire life. He upheld every tradition in the book. He was considered an insider. He worked his way up the system, through the House, the Senate, the vice presidency, and won the presidency as well -- only to be robbed of it. And what did he get for sticking to all the "tradition"? He was kicked in the behind by the DNC & the DLC.

And now you expect him to stick to tradition while the place is on fire? While all our other traditions -- such as our Constitution and sticking to internanional law -- are burned in effigy?

Yes, Al Gore broke with tradition. He stood up for what he believes in, consequences be damned. I may not support the candidate he chose, but I'll always defend his right to make his choice.

[caledesi]

22. And that's why I love Al Gore (unplugged) nt

[tameszu]

24. OK, but you better be ready to stand behind those words if

Hillary and Bill make Ted Koppel's wet dream true and decide to do their OWN breaking of tradition and endorse a non-Dean candidate. And after all of this talk about how it's "everyone's right to endorse a candidate as a private citizen" and so on, you wouldn't have much reason to criticize it, right?

Would it be a mess? Probably! But would it be the Clintons' fault? To answer this, ask yourself again if it was such a good idea for Gore to let this particular genie out of the bottle.

[Cheswick2.0]

28. not comparable

Clinton is not Gore. They are coming from very different circumstances. However I think Clinton can endorse anyone he wants anytime he wants also.

[Eloriel]

27. Good post --

welcome to DU!

[loudnclear]

25. Hey, it's not sour grapes. Since when can't people express their

chagrin and disappointment? Are adults among us? Everyone of those candidates had a right to express their feelings about the Gore endorsement. Gore didn't seem to feel bad about dropping it on all of them without any courtesy calls. He seemed to slam them all except for Dean. What the hell do you expect. Just as Gore had a right to endorse Dean, the other candidates had a right to criticize him for doing it.
What planet are we on?

[Q]

29. Some DUers and Democrats went beyond mere 'criticism'...

...and went into the childish name-calling mode. Some even accused him of 'betraying Democracy'. This type of BS is unnecessary and counter-productive.

- I agree that everyone has a right to criticize...but to go beyond that in order to harm or smear Gore shows the shallowness of some people.

[robbedvoter]

26. I am sorry

I was very hurt - personally disappointed - and I used words and names that I wouldn't now. Whatever posts of mine using freeper names for Gore - I retract.
I had many good things happen to me today - I take it as a sign to be more forgiving/ I still disagree with the timing of this and the content of the speech - it diminished my respect for Gore.
That being said, I was way out of line - and I apologize.
And now, back to my celebrating! :-)

[fabius]

30. Molly Ivins did it for me!!!

For me the Molly endorsement was more significant than Al Gore. That's just me personally.

C'mon people. Kerry, Lieberman, Gep, etc. have endorsements too.