Tweety:Al Gore ran a terrible campaign

[bigdarryl]

Bullshit he got 500,000 more votes than Bush the election was STOLEN from him by the Bush people alone with the Supreme Court over the Florida bullshit.Plus during the campaign he was given far more negative media coverage by the mainstream media and they kissed Bushes ass talking about he's a guy you want to have a beer with. I remember watching all three debates and Gore won all of them but all the media talked about was him getting in Bushes space.

[KansDem]

1. "...they kissed Bushes ass talking about he's a guy you want to have a beer with."

I still remember when NPR had Cokie Reports report on the "Bush charm offensive." He was "oh, so charming" and would use this "charm" to get things done in DC.

Oh, and he liked to give out nicknames, too. Bush was so folksy.

That was the last time I listened to NPR...

[bigdarryl]

2. yep and I'm afraid there going to do the same shit in 2012

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. Oh, he got things done alright...All his friends got even richer.

[karynnj]

44. The fact that all these top pundits KNEW Bush as the nasty drunk sone of Bush

really makes it hard to understand how they ALL suddenly spoke of him as "charming".

[elleng]

3. Yes it was stolen, Yes he won, and Yes, he DID run a bad campaign, imo.

Distancing from Clinton BAD move.

[Ishoutandscream2]

6. +1

Distancing from Clinton was very bad.

[PatSeg]

41. My opinion as well

Gore even admitted later that he just isn't good at campaigning. He doesn't appear to be a politician by nature, though I think he could have been an excellent president. Fortunately he has the opportunity to accomplish much without residing in the White House.

[elleng]

43. Yup + Hi,

PatSeg.

Our guy's hanging in there, isn't he?

[PatSeg]

45. Oh yes he is

and he has been so impressive.

One morning not long ago, I saw Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe. He mentioned Biden, followed by "the GREATEST vice president ever" - huge smile on his face. He is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

:hi:

[elleng]

47. great to hear that!!!

[ljm2002]

46. Nailed it. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

48. Clinton distanced himself from Gore, not the other way around.

Had Clinton decided to actually help Gore win the election, A. He wouldn't have looked the American People in the eye and lied to them, he either would've come out and told the truth or just kept his mouth shut, either case would've been better for Gore, especially after he had Gore stand up for him and B. Clinton wouldn't have wasted precious prime-time air-time during the convention; that was to nominate Gore, just to walk down the hallway so the cameras could gaze at his elegance, the convention was supposed to be about Gore, you know, "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow," the theme song from the 92 Convention, apparently Clinton did stop thinking.

[City Lights]

4. I remember Tweety commenting on the size of Gore's neck.

City Lights: Tweety's analysis of the 2000 race was terrible. He focused on anything but the issues.

[PatSeg]

42. He does make some rather odd observations

I sometimes wonder if he has attention deficit disorder.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Everything about it was terrible, including the campaign

The weekend prior to Election Day, Gore let his hair down and campaigned his ass off. Up until then...ball of confusion.

Yeah, he "won" anyway.

[ClarkUSA]

7. He's right, in a way. If Gore had run a better campaign and chosen a better VP, he'd have won.

Gore lost his home state; in fact, he never even bothered to campaign there. TN's few electoral votes would have sealed the deal.

If Gore was the man he is now, Bush II never would have been able to have Daddy's SCOTUS buddies pick the next president by stopping the vote count (which was trending for Gore at the time).

Not blaming Gore, of course. He didn't know any better. Al had to have a journey to get where he is now: Keith Olbermann's boss.

:)

Of course, we won't get into how Bill Clinton screwed his VP's election chances too at the same time he screwed Monica with a cigar.

[Armstead]

33. Jeeze, I actually agree with you for once...This is scary

:P

[blueclown]

8. Chris Matthews is a moron.

He offers nothing in terms of productive political discourse. He is a walking talking point machine. He has no capability for independent thought. How he has a TV show for this long is beyond me. He has left no lasting imprint on political journalism or coverage.

[provis99]

9. I disagree.

[blueclown]

10. What a thorough response.

I agree with your well-explained reasoning.

[Rowdyboy]

11. Matthews is a joke but he's right on this one....Gore ran a miserable campaign....

For christssake he picked Lieberman as VP, he refused to let Clinton campaign for him (even in Arkansas where Bubba could have made the difference), and he couldn't even carry his home state. I love Gore but he was a lousy candidate-way too stiff and awkward. Not his fault but it certainly didn't help.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day and Matthews is right on this one.

[Samantha]

29. I disagree

Gore lost Tennessee by not that big a margin, something like 47,000 votes. However, when the Justice Department narrowed down to something like 21 cases that would be investigated for Election 2000 voter fraud, three of those were in Tennessee. I read a lot of the reports and it seems to me that Tennessee was a small version of Florida. Some of the stuff was shocking, really. But the plan developed by Rove was to make sure that Gore lost Tennessee because it would be a source of embarrassment for Gore forever. I think Gore lost Tennessee because the Republicans made sure he would. I posted many of the reports here on DU.

Clinton convinced Gore to pick Lieberman for VP. Clinton and Gore both knew it would be tight, and that Gore could not win without Florida. Lieberman was put on the ticket to ensure a victory in Florida. You might not like Lieberman, I really do not, but it was not a dumb choice, but a strategic decision not unlike John F. Kennedy putting Lyndon Johnson on his ticket. Kennedy despised Johnson, as did Johnson Kennedy. It is trite but true: politics make strange bedfellows.

And how exactly does one run a really smart campaign when he served under a President that had been impeached? Where is the textbook for that? The call has to come from the candidate running himself; not some commentators like Chris Matthews who know truly nothing about how to put together a winning strategy. Many predicted Gore could not win; but the strategy Gore devised, knowing how much of the South he would lose, set a pattern for Kerry to follow 4 years. When the campaign started, Bush* had a 20 point margin over Gore. Remember, Gore won the popular vote, so the decisions he made eliminated that 20-point margin. Not bad, right?

Kerry also won in 2004, but 25 percent of the vote in Ohio was dropped, which gave Bush* the edge and another four years. Once again, Rove stole another election for George W. Bush*.

It really is kind of insulting to overlook these details and and simply go with the Gore ran a terrible meme repeatedly over and over by some of the same commentators that repeatedly called Gore a liar. It is a true disservice to Gore.

Just my humble opinion.

Sam

[Rowdyboy]

31. I've followed politics since I turned 18 (1972)...in my honest opinion Gore ran an awful campaign

I don't need pundits to gives me "memes"-I've been forming my own opinions for 40 years and I know a godawful campaign when I see one. A degree in history/political science didn't hurt but actually studying elections proved far more useful.

According to election records Gore eventually lost Tennessee by 80,000 votes and if fraud was involved it was swept under the table pretty quickly and 100% effectively-very much unlike Florida. It won't be proven either way now so its irrelevant.

Would love your source for the information that "Clinton convinced Gore to pick Lieberman". Bill Clinton is known for his amazing political instincts and the Lieberman pick was the single most short-sighted tone-deaf selections in vp history. I find it very hard to believe that Clinton was involved in any way in that selection.

In the summer of 2000 shortly after the convention I had a conversation with a man who's political savvy (in my opinion)was unquestionable and Democratic credentials were solid, a 25+ year former state senator and committee chairman here in Mississippi who often battled governors and came out on top. The same man supported Clinton/Gore in 1992 and 1996. I asked him his opinion of the Lieberman pick and he shook his head and snorted. "Stupid sonovabitch just lost the election with that one" was his response. "He just gave up the south without a fight and he didn't have to". Senator Crook (yes, that was his real name) proved to be correct.

In hindsight, which is all I have to go with, Gore should have treated impeachment just like the country did-with all the contempt and disdain it deserved. Instead he "reached out" to the moralizers by choosing Lieberman and side-lining Clinton

This sentence of yours is extremely condescending don't you think:

"It really is kind of insulting to overlook these details and and simply go with the Gore ran a terrible meme repeatedly over and over by some of the same commentators that repeatedly called Gore a liar. It is a true disservice to Gore."

You seem to think that I intend to insult Gore by stating my honest opinion of his campaigning abilities. I don't. Being a good candidate certainly does not make one a good man or vice-versa. I admire the man tremendously-he's one of the top 5 "presidents America never had"-men like Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson and Bobby Kennedy. His character and intelligence alone were enough to make him a hero of mine-hell I followed his fathers career before I picked up on Al.

For you to imply that anyone daring disagree with your interpretation of history is obviously too stupid to form individual opinions but must rely on self-appointed "pundits" is extremely smug and narrow-minded, especially on this board. I generally give people credit for being intelligent until they prove otherwise. I'd appreciate being shown the same respect.

[BlueMTexpat]

35. While I agree with a lot of what you say, especially about scum like

Matthews totally ignoring their own part in the 2000 debacle, Gore's 2000 campaign was not among his finest moments. His selection of Lieberman was a terrible mistake - and proven so by subsequent events (Lieberman threw Gore to the wolves in re the overseas votes, for instance, and has shown his despicable true colors repeatedly many times since). Had Gore also allowed Clinton to campaign on his behalf, especially in the last stages of the campaign, the FL electoral votes would likely not have been the principal deciding factor.

Of course, Matthews and his ilk also completely ignore their own part in the fiasco aka the 2000 election, most especially the fact that it was stolen right before our eyes with the aid of ethics-challenged Bush stooges like Clarence Thomas. And I still have a hard time with Kerry's failure to challenge the 2004 results, especially those in OH.

What a difference it would have made to the world if Bill Clinton had had more self-control! Clinton's bad behavior did make Gore walk a political tightrope, but that tightrope was basically one of his own making. Even at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, the Big Dawg's policies and personality were still much more popular than those of any Republican.

[Sherman A1]

23. I agree

[Uncle Joe]

12. The corporate media waged a near two year War Against Gore, slandering and libeling him.

No individual can run a "good campaign" when the vast majority of such a major institution is determined to tear them down, these are the same people that brainwashed over 70% of the American People that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 in spite of the facts and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The motivation for the corporate media to trash Gore is as old or older than Greek Mythology, it's because he did in fact champion opening up the Internet for the people, so they played Zeus to Gore's Prometheus and it made no difference whether the Internet was the greatest enhancement to freedom of speech since the First Amendment was adopted over 200 years ago, indeed it was because of it.

The corporate media saw the growing power and influence of the Internet as threatening their business model that being a stranglehold on the delivery and dissemination of one way, top down information critical for the people to make wise political decisions.

If no one else, the owners and upper management saw the writing on the wall, they knew their influence, power and wealth would diminish as a result

Matthews was most instrumental in enabling Bush to power and countless people have lost their lives as a result, so he should feel guilt.

Thanks for the thread, bigdarryl.

[Dawson Leery]

24. I distinctly remember Chris Matthews extreme level of hatred

against Al Gore.

[CreekDog]

13. how seriously do I take Tweety on this since he admitted he didn't like Gore because of Clinton?

i mean that was what this was all about.

he didn't like the Lewinsky scandal and hated the Clintons for it (yeah, Hillary too. :eyes: ) and hated Gore for it too.

Tweety's so random and impulsive, I don't think there's any point in trying to reason through what he thinks. the simple answer is that you'll agree with him a lot and disagree a lot and there's not much
point in thinking through why you disagree because he hasn't thought deeply about it either.

[OwnedByFerrets]

14. Rewriting history again Tweety?? Fuck you.

[Uncle Joe]

16. + Everything. n/t

[Akoto]

17. I don't think he's entirely wrong.

I think the election was stolen, but I also believe Gore could have further widened the gap by including Clinton in his campaign. It was a foolish decision to keep him out, especially when most people still liked him and saw the impeachment stuff as the witch hunt it was.

[Uncle Joe]

20. And if Gore had brought Clinton more in to the campaign, it would've become easier for the

corporate media to transfer Clinton's major integrity problem on to Gore.

This would've damaged Gore particularly in the moderate to conservative states where the margin of error was too small to tolerate Clinton's behavior.

If Clinton had either told the truth to the people up front or kept his mouth shut implying it wasn't the people's business, things might have been different, but that video was too damning to help Gore in any way, and the corporate media would've played it non stop along with their slander and libel that "Gore claimed to have invented the Internet."

Clinton left Gore with no choice.

[CakeGrrl]

18. More of the MSM divide-and-conquer circus:

1. Al Gore puts out an article where he gives Obama an honest assessment on climate change and also notes that there's a good chance that detractors will seize only on his criticisms out of context;

2. Article hits HuffPo, MSM;

3. Criticisms are taken out of context in the MSM!

4. Out-of-context criticisms are repeated on liberal blogs and meet with hearty agreement

5. MSM: "Should Al Gore run?" "Blah blah blah Al Gore, blah blah!"

6. Liberal blogs: "Should Al Gore Primary Obama?"


:crazy:

:rofl:

[Peacetrain]

19. +1... did you catch blitzer on CNN..

It was unbelievable.. Poor Donna Brazille.. he would just cut her short because all he wanted to hear was this a move for Gore in 2012.. he supposedly heard it somewhere.. yeah right..in his own head:silly:

[Uncle Joe]

21. I haven't watched the corporate media "news" yet but I would wager they didn't mention

Gore's criticism; of them which takes up most of the essay, comparing the corporate media to "professional wrestling referees."

[dsc]

22. that is such a total crock

In a year and a half, Gore's terrible campaign, despite the worst press of any major candidate has ever faced, he gained 15 points. That is more than any candidate gained except for Truman, Bush 1 in 88 and Ford in 76. He got a greater percentage of votes than every Democrat who ran from 48 to 00 except for LBJ and Jimmy Carter. Carter, despite running against the man who pardoned Nixon and in as favorable an enviroment as possible only beat Gore by about 1.5%. LBJ was the heir of a martyr and won over 60% of the vote. Gore out polled Kennedy, Truman, and Clinton as well as all of our losers in that time. Bad campaigner my ass.

[yardwork]

25. Gore ran a terrible campaign AND the election was stolen from him.

[krawhitham]

26. Stop fooling yourself, He did run a terrible campaign

Coming off 8 years of prosperity he should have won by 13 points & 100+ electoral votes

[damonm]

34. Abso - effin - lutely.

You GOTTA run a shity campaign if you lose your HOME STATE, fer Gossakes! If Gore wins TN, FL is an afterthought.

[Skip Intro]

27. He got more votes in spite of his bad campaign. His non-use of Bill Clinton was embarrassing,

for starters.

It was an awkward situation for Gore, and he handled it terribly. He should have either embraced Clinton, who had a high favorability at that point, or shunned him entirely. He ticked off some Dems, I'm sure, by his treatment of Bill. I'm sure other voters saw bad handling of the situation.

Given all that, he still got more votes than shrub. Hey may have gotten far more votes, making the theft impossible, had he taken a stand and stood by it.

[SadPanda]

28. He ran a terrible campaign! He would have won in a landslide otherwise...

The facts are:

He lost his home state of Tennessee by multiple percentage points.

He lost Florida because his own people dropped the ball on the Florida vote and the Florida recount.

He lost because he decided to distance himself COMPLETELY from Bill Clinton. He should have had Clinton campaigning in only Ohio & Florida. Instead he completely dropped him.

He was terrible in live debates. It wasn't that he wasn't able to express his opinions. It was that he would choose to repeat the same lines (LOCKBOX!) over and over and over again. It made him look preprogrammed and dull. Meanwhile he was running against a complete moron who just rambled on and on about nothing other than AMERICA FUCK YA.


Make no mistake, they stole the election in Florida, and Gore should have been President. But history will still record that his campaign was terribly mismanaged.


EDIT: I believe the main reason Gore's campaign was such a failure was that Gore himself hadn't been in charge of a major campaign he WON (that was closely contested) for a long time. Current Texas Governor, Republican Rick Perry, who at the time was a Democrat, was Gore's campaign chairman in Texas for his 1988 Presidential Campaign. That tells you something right there.

[Mz Pip]

30. I agree

and it goes to show you that it's not a good idea to take any election for granted. I don't know if Gore ran a crappy campaign because he thought he was a shoe-in or if he just ran a crappy campaign. But he should have won easily, and Florida should not have even been an issue.

So come 2012, let this be a lesson. There are no sure things. Yeah, Obama should win in a landslide given the idiots who are running against him - but it doesn't mean he should slack off and assume victory before the first ballot is cast. I don't think he will but we shall see.

Bachmann or Palin are soooo much worse that Bush II. Just that should keep everyone on their toes.

[CrazyBob]

32. Should have won handily

One of the worst campaigns I have seen.

[ImNotTed]

36. Gore DID run a terrible campaign

He should've gotten 340+ against Incurious George, which would have entirely mooted Florida. Jesus, the guy couldn't even win his home state!

[rpannier]

37. I saw Matthews love fest with G Gordon Liddy

Both of them went after Gore
The interview would have made O'Reilly blush at how petty the criticisms of Gore were

[Township75]

38. Gore did run a piss poor campaign and he lost because of it.

The election never should have been within 500000 votes, nor 500 in FL. It was close because he was a pompous a-hole during the campaign and was so determined to show that "I am my own man". He had an inferiority complex being next to Bill Clinton and decided the way to get rid of it was be an a-hole.

[chrisa]

39. W, Bush didn't win the Presidency

Gore lost it

[Uncle Joe]

40. Gore didn't lose it, the American People did. n/t

[Johnny2X2X]

49. He did

All Gore had to do to win in a landslide was say these 5 words, "Look at Texas under Bush!!!!" If people were shown what a total shithole Texas was under GW no way would they want that for the Whole Country. America is now Texas in the late 90s.

[Honeycombe8]

50. He DID run a bad campaign. He lost his own state, geezlouise.

The economy was great, he had distanced himself from Clinton who was still battling the scandal. It SHOULD have been a slam dunk. Florida should not have been so close, to begin with.

I don't know if you remember, but people were making fun of his stiffness, lack of naturalness, his orange makeup. He seemed to have a bad manager.

What he said made sense, of course. But the American public is so visual, now.

And then because it was so close....Nader's few percentage points made the difference.

It was a bad campaign. Not entirely Gore's fault. They hire people who handle the campaigns who are supposed to be experts. Gore's manager made a lot of mistakes in trying to manage Gore.

[The Eagle 718]

51. He was 20 points down at the start of 2000

has the media against him and still won the popular vote. Not a really bad campaign if you ask me.

[TheKentuckian]

53. He ran a bad campaign. He was wooden as Pinocchio, he selected fucking Looserman, he distanced

himself from Clinton who would have won by his largest margin if he could have run again, he toed the money party line which gave room for opposition from the left, and most stupidly he agreed with money mongering shit for brains at about every possible opportunity.

Then when he still won, he conceded and then "un-conceded" and then he folded like a cheap suit instead of fighting to the death citing national unity and some old bullmess.

[Awsi Dooger]

52. Bush had a horrible September then Gore sighed the election back to 50/50

Don't let anyone tell you the first debate wasn't devastating for Gore. I hosted debate watching parties in those days, roughly 20 people. Young women were literally ducking around the corner and calling friends and relatives during Gore's sighs, disgusted at his antics and in disbelief that they had preferred Gore just an hour earlier.

Gore had seized the likability aspect with the convention speech, and his post-convention tour on Oprah and elsewhere. He was in such a commanding position that Ed Rollins conceded the election was all but over if Gore won the first debate.

Sighs took care of that. Chris Matthews always likes to focus on the journey into Bush's space. That was debate three. Others point to Gore's passive "I agree" failures in debate two, the foreign policy recital by Bush. But I saw first hand that women moved away from Gore based on that first debate. The tracking polls caught it almost immediately, including the daily CNN poll which was released on Inside Politics every afternoon.

[quaker bill]

54. As a Florida volunteer

I would have to say it needed improvement. That said, the Kerry campaign was slightly worse. Barack Obama came up with the right idea, he sidestepped the FL Dem infrastructure and ran his own operation, it was more effective by an order of magnitude. Unlike Kerry and Gore, the Obama team knew who their voters were and where they lived. This made GOTV easy.