imagine this AL GORE

[reymega life]

because the United States really did blow it this century by creating something way worse than dread Scott in 1857 it was AL GORE and by not electing him in 2000 america lost out of being that shining city on a hill because imagine what a gore presidency would be like it'd be Clinton times 20 at the least, AND the original World Trade Center would still exist, NO IRAQ AFGHANISTAN OR WAR ON TERROR, and no GREAT RECESSION.

[claudette]

1. I'm not sure

it would have been perfect, since, DINO, Joe Liberman was his running mate.

[Dorian Gray]

2. Huh?

I’m not quite sure what you mean here.

[Walleye]

3. I don't know how many times I thought of that, and he lost by 500 votes

From a state that was governed by the brother of his opponent. Yet once the court cases were settled, he gave a beautiful concession speech did not refuse to transition to the new administration. Trump lost by a great deal more than that. Al Gore was a true patriot

[dflprincess]

9. And as VP he presided over the count of electoral votes in Congress

And discouraged any challenge to them.

[Walleye]

36. That's right I remember that well, I had tears in my eyes

[Grasswire2]

49. yes, and the Congressional Black Caucus was there begging Gore, begging him.

I remember that vividly. But he would not challenge.

His gentlemanly nature was used against him. A la "Art of War" -- use a person's strengths against him/her.

[dflprincess]

50. Not just his gentlemanly nature but his love of country and desire for a smooth transition

At the time it seemed to be the right thing to do even though he (and we) were being robbed.

I have to wonder if he knew then what we all know now, would he have made a different decision.

[Farmer-Rick]

28. Gore won ...he had more votes in Florida

But W daddy's Supreme right wing Court stopped all the counting of ballots. Basically saying ballots didn't matter. And that Florida had to stop counting as the Florida Supreme Court had directed.

"Al Gore, not George Bush, should be sitting in the White House today as the newly elected president of the United States, two new independent probes of the disputed Florida election contest have confirmed." https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/29/uselections2000.usa

Gore did win but no one seemed to care.

[questionseverything]

45. There were over 200,000 over votes not counted

2/3 s were from black neighborhoods were they had punched by gore’s name and wrote in his name in the write in column

If the entire state had been hand counted he won by over 100,000 votes

Now it’s illegal to hand count ballots in Florida, a recount just means re running them through the machines

[Quixote1818]

53. Me too. nt

[GoreWon2000]

69. Al Gore lost nothing in 2000!

The 537 Florida vote total was a creation of Jeb and Harris who refused to follow Florida election law and count all of the uncounted votes because they knew that counting all of the uncounted votes meant victory for Al Gore. That got rubberstamped by the highly partisan Rehnquist 5. That's what really happened.

[BlueTsunami2018]

4. When he was robbed, the whole world was.

From Supreme Court appointments to climate legislation to continuing the economic policies that would have eliminated the national debt entirely, we all lost, big time.

[Polybius]

62. Supreme Court appointments didn't happen until Bush's second term

None of us know if he would have won a rematch in 2004.

[BlueTsunami2018]

63. If things had kept humming along, he'd have won easier the second time.

I also don’t think it would have been a rematch.

But it doesn’t really matter at this point. We were robbed and that’s the world we live in.

It would be nice to take a peak at the parallel universe where Gore got to take office.

[GoreWon2000]

70. Stolen first term made 2nd term more possible

bushthief barely squeaked by for the 2nd term by trashing John Kerry's military service and there are Florida like allegations about Ohio in 2004. The Rehnquist 5 helped to make all of it possible. No one should ever forget. bushthief was such a disaster that he made a fascist dictator like the orange turd possible with his extremist SCOTUS appointments and his tanking of the economy that left so many people behind,.

[jrthin]

5. That is why I LOATHE Ralph Nader. nt

[LakeArenal]

11. Yesssss.....

[Aristus]

13. Yeah, but the Naderites will tell you we're not supposed to be angry with them.

Because.....reasons......

[we can do it]

22. Same.🤬

[electric_blue68]

31. Was a fan of his...Till THIS! Your LOATHE is a perfect emotional description

Last edited Tue May 9, 2023, 03:04 AM - Edit history (1)

And then later he complained about LGBQ (?TI not yet added, so speak) rights as "gonad politics". Damn.

[Upthevibe]

37. jrthin........

The "what if's" have been a part of my life because of the 2000 sElection. If I think about it too much, it makes me mentally unhealthy. Through therapy and a lot of inner work, I've learned to not obsess anymore like I used to.

I despise Ralph Nader more than I could possibly express. I loathe Sandra Day O'Connor for the same reason. To this day I believe I have Fibromyalgia because of what happened during that election..

[jrthin]

52. Wow, do I hear you.

[electric_blue68]

67. : ( ...

Serious emotional stress can manafest physically as we all know.
Glad your efforts diminished that repetitive "what ifs"


As someone who worked in WTC South Tower 2 9/80 - 8/81, and many temp jobs in Lower Manhattan I was devastated in a sense of deep horror, and more so deep surealness. Luckily I didn't go back to "if Gore had be President" thinking. (It might have happened anyway but maybe not if Gore got that memo about striking in the US like W did. Who knows)


The one that will always haunt me is Bobby Kennedy's assassination.

[Trueblue1968]

38. That is why I LOATHE Ralph Nader TO INFINITY !!!!!!

AND BEYOND.

[housecat]

39. He's not the only spoiler. I think Hillary would have made if but for Russian asset Jil Stein

[jrthin]

54. Agreed. nt

[electric_blue68]

68. Could be : (

[RocRizzo55]

58. Agreed

It was not because of Nader, it was because of toothless Dems who did not stand up in Floriduh. Not to mention, Dubya’s brother was governor, and had much more to do with it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

59. A few years later Nader was at a Cisco shareholders meeting complaining the stock dividend was too

low.

I think his true colors came out then.

He may have done some good in the sixties but that was decades ago.

[Boomerproud]

6. Last weeks story on CNN about Sandra Day O'Conner and the wrong

decision by SCOTUS got very little airplay and discussion. Right down the rabbit hole and it was a huge deal that changed the course of history, as per the OPs point. There are no words to describe my sadness.

[dflprincess]

10. O'Connor eventually admitted she voted the way she did

Because she wanted to retire and didn't want Gore appointing her successor. Just another Republican putting her personal interests ahead of the country.

[pandr32]

29. I saw that!

I thought it would be a huge story--it should have been.

[Bayard]

7. But, Al Gore was elected

As was Hillary Clinton. Rethuglicans then were just getting started on stealing elections.

Yes, I'd like to think the world would be much different now.

[GoreWon2000]

71. Al Gore's White House claim is much stronger

Had all of the uncounted votes been counted as Florida election law required, there would be no electoral college issue because Al Gore got the most votes in Florida so he won both the electoral college and nationally. That wasn't the case with Hilary in 2016. She won nationally but not in the electoral college.

[MutantAndProud]

8. 23 years later and there is a chance to correct that now

It’s easy to chronicle each sledgehammer attack they’ve taken since. Time for them to pay the debt from their attempted bizarro world makeover project. They have lost so many functioning brain cells and became so cruel, their movement needs an Alzheimer’s ward treatment. Networks of law enforcement acting like thugs to be their backup and foot-soldiers? That’s RICO. Rip them all out at the root regardless of their thin paper shields or jurisdictional duck and cover move. Their actions during the Trump Games have dyed their hands like bank robbers grabbing prepped cash

[Botany]

12. No 9/11, no wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, no ISIS, no Big Branch mine explosion (w put a coal man ...

on the mine safety org.) no Dick Cheney becoming a billionaire from his outsourcing of DoD's work
to his Halliburton/KBR operations, no Thomas or Alito on the SCOTUS, no Ohio 2004, no outing of Val Plame
by Rove & Cheney, no Don Siegleman in jail, no w joking about where are the WMDs?, no the killing
of 10s of thousands of wild run salmon in CA as per Dick Cheney, no HAVA (help America vote act
gotta vote on electronic machines), no turning Clinton's surplus into a huge deficit, no Dick Cheney
shooting a man in the face after drinking, no letting the Saudis getting away with their crap, no
economic collapse, no green energy programs, and how many billions of tons of CO2 would not have
gone into our atmosphere?

I forgot no Citizens United, no massive refugee crisis caused by the Iraq War, a President Gore
would have had bin Laden and al Qaeda taken care of, no President Trump either, and no trillion
dollar right wing slush fund from stealing all the oil from Iraq. No Gitmo or torture of Iraqis for
fighting against America's invasion.

And this would not have happened:



France warned us about how an invasion of Iraq would cause massive blow back to which the GOP answered
with freedom fries.

[Mblaze]

41. All true

But there would definitely have been green energy programs.

[LakeArenal]

14. No way to know.

But I think Reagan was the beginning of this outcome.

[Mr.Bill]

20. The beginning was

Ford pardoning Nixon. That invited a free-for-all crime spree for republican presidents with no consequences that has continued to this day.

[LakeArenal]

23. Right you are.

[Backseat Driver]

30. I agree with you, Mr. Bill. n/t

[fierywoman]

15. That SNL with Gore a few years after the presidency was stolen from him --

-- God, that was painful to watch (where he pretended he had been Prez all that time, and the following things had been accomplished.)

[brooklynite]

16. Unfortunately Al Gore helped.

Set aside what the Court ruled: Gore lost TEN STATES that Clinton won. Wining any one of them would have made Florida irrrelevant.

[Farmer-Rick]

32. Gore had more votes in Florida

The federal Supreme Court stopped all that silly stuff about actually counting ballots. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that All votes should be counted. But if they were, everyone knew W would have lost. So the federal Supreme Court made everyone stop counting ballots.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/29/uselections2000.usa

"Al Gore, not George Bush, should be sitting in the White House today as the newly elected president of the United States, two new independent probes of the disputed Florida election contest have confirmed."

[brooklynite]

55. And fewer votes in TN, KY, WV, LA, AR, MO, AZ, NH, OH...

[TexasBushwhacker]

40. Including his home state of Tennessee

Honestly, the cards were kind of stacked against him and I'm surprised he did as well as he did. VPs rarely win immediately after serving. Nixon lost to JFK. Humphrey lost to Nixon. Ford lost to Carter. George HW Bush won, but only for a single term. Biden was right to not run immediately after serving as Obama's VP. Gore should have waited a cycle.

[GoreWon2000]

72. Blame the pro bushthief media!

bushthief had the media in his hip pocket throughout the 2000 campaign. The way they trashed Al Gore was unprecedented. It's documented in the archives of the Daily Howler blog. Al Gore did win nationally and the ugly truth is that he also got the most votes in Florida so he won the electoral college too.

[hamsterjill]

17. Just think how much further along we would be on climate change.

I can’t think about it. It literally makes me cry.

[llmart]

18. "Oh, but he was too stiff and policy wonky"...

said a lot of our American voters. They preferred to have someone who you could have a beer with, as if that's what you need in charge of our country.

Face it, we have a lot of simple minded people who I think should just stay home if they can't be trusted to make a mature decision when they vote.

[lark2]

19. I agree about what could have been.

The day SCOTUS stole the election for the right wing is a very dark and dangerous day in our history. It's right up there with 1/6, maybe worse because their treachery succeeded in giving the election to the loser. FL would 100% have gone for Gore if the counting were finished. I was there in MiAMI when the fascists were banging on the windows so hard where the votes were being counted, the police were constantly stopping them, but they'd immediately go back to it. It was scary. Cops should have arrested them.

Anyway, I have had the same fantasy you described many times.

[reymega life]

21. don't worry china will achieve what we never could do this century

and will "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" be their tenet that is always delinquent on THEIR deals.

[Farmer-Rick]

33. Yup, If all the votes had actually been counted in Florida

Gore would have won. But the federal Supremes weren't having it and stopped that stupid idea of counting all the ballots like the Florida Supreme Court had ruled.

[GoreWon2000]

73. Well said!

[LymphocyteLover]

24. I weep for what this country could've done and the damage prevented, if Al Gore had been rightfully

sworn in as POTUS in 2001.

[Mysterian]

25. A long-term campaign must be started to eliminate the electoral college

Starting with public education why it should be eliminated.

[JCMach1]

61. It's called the Interstate Compact

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation

Only states with 75 more votes needed

[Mysterian]

64. Still need to eliminate the electoral college

A statute can be undone as easily as it's passed.

[JCMach1]

66. If I can't get de jure, I will take de facto... Much harder to change

the Constitution

[GoreWon2000]

75. No electoral college issue if all Florida votes were counted.

While I certainly agree that the electoral college needs to be eliminated, it's important to understand that had all of the votes been counted as Florida law required, Al Gore would've won Florida, the electoral college and nationally.

[Hortensis]

26. :) Do we need to imagine we also gave Democrats strong control of congress,

or would Gore have done it all on his own? (I need a cartoon showing him coldcocking McConnell or gassing the legislative branch into an 8-year coma, can't impeach him for a coup d'etat if they're asleep)

How about the states? Almost all action would require state cooperation and...action. There are 50 of them, roughly half virtually totally controlled by Republicans. Maybe Gores' coattails would have swept a dozen or so into Democratic control?

There are no easy answers, and no superhero presidents who can just run over 100M Americans who hate them while the other half sit and cheer him on.

Vote to elect Democratic majorities at all levels of government every time, and we'll claw and leap our way to where we should be.

[roamer65]

27. There would have been a Great Recession.

The Great Recession was the result of overly easy Federal Reserve monetary policy.

Too much cheap money during and after the 2000 dot.com crash.

But I’m pretty sure all the other stuff you mention would not have happened.

[OMGWTF]

34. Solar panels on every government building, etc.

I think about this all of the time. SCOTUS unleashed the hell that was the GeeDumbya and Cheney The Dick maladministration.

[electric_blue68]

35. BOTANY - That was Some (sobering) List! Most of that would not have happened...

and more good things would have happened.

As an NYC'r who spent 9/80-8/81 on the 73rd flr of South Tower 2, and lots of temp jobs in Lower Manhattan - 9/11 was devastating.

And I marched against the Iraq War.

But Climate Change that's like the Clincher! The difference he'd have made.
We could have made some serious catch up time after Ray-gun won, and took down Carter's WH solar panels!

[Botany]

47. Don't forget that under Clinton assault weapons were

banned and we didn't have the shootings like we have
now but w and the GOP brought them back.

Don't forget that w and Prince Bandar (ambassador from
Saudi Arabia) whose wife helped to pay for some of the hijackers) less then 1 week after 9/11 spent the evening @ the White House drinking coffee and smoking cigars.

[electric_blue68]

48. Oh, I remember when Clinton's assault ban ended and was not renewed (🤬 Repugs)...

I either forget, or didn't know about Prince Bandir (though the name does sound vaguely familiar) since I was/am an NYC'r who spent a year 80/'81 on the 73rd flr for of South Tower 2 I was devastated after 9-11; didn't pick up on everything. Too busy partly caught in this surreal daze of disbelief!

[RANDYWILDMAN]

42. The GOP cout of 2000

Fuck all those losers !!!

We the USA got screwed big time cause of this decision by the Right(just know how wrong they are gaslighting us by calling themselves that) wingers

[FailureToCommunicate]

44. I was at the big event where Gore was introducing Tom Harken as possibly his run-

ning mate....


Ah well. What might have been.

[Beautiful Disaster]

46. I'm not sure. I think Gore maybe delays things but that's it.

9/11 is likely to still happen under Gore. I think he takes things a bit more seriously but beyond full-on grounding of all flights indefinitely, the terrorists probably still board the plane. Unless Gore radically overhauls the way the FBI and other departments handle terrorism, it's probably not enough. In reality, the FBI only became aware of Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, two of the hijackers, in August - mere weeks before the 9/11 attacks.

Gore maybe beefs up a level of security but a lot of what happened on 9/11 was baked into the cake. They were already in the country as early as 2000 and were flying (no pun intended) under the radar even during Clinton's administration.

I think 9/11 would have initially benefited Gore - but it also would have likely led to a larger-level of conspiracies on the right toward the events. We all know about LIHOP (Let it Happen on Purpose) and MIHOP (Made it Happen on Purpose) that came out of the left in those days after 9/11 and I think the right would have been much more severe in their conspiracies. We've seen how conspiratorial the right is now and they were always suspectable to it even back then (lots of crazy conspiracies about the Clintons too in the 90s). A devastating event like 9/11 would have absolutely brought a level of conspiracy theory like we hadn't seen (until COVID).

Because of that, a significant amount of Republicans don't get behind Gore. But he still sees a decent approval bump.

Gore probably invades Afghanistan but doesn't go to war with Iraq.

I'll be honest, I think the only reason Bush won reelection was because of Iraq. It was popular JUST enough to deliver him the presidency.

Bush barely was able to keep it together and a large part of that was due to economic decline that was masked by 9/11.

With no Iraq, which boosted Bush's numbers that had started to dip from his surge after 9/11, Gore probably sees low approval. The fact Democrats have been in power for twelve years now, and conditions not ideal, Republicans likely win in 2004.

We'd still probably see a recession - and War on Terror, tho different with Gore.

And now a Republican president in 2004. Maybe it's Bush again. Maybe McCain. Or maybe George Allen.

[Grasswire2]

51. My young adult son lost his faith in America that night.

And that is tragic.

[GoreWon2000]

74. I lost faith as well

American democracy died on 12/12/00.

[Pluvious]

56. I've often pondered the question...

Would Gore have been President if Monica Lewinsky had been born a male ?

[RocRizzo55]

57. There would have been no 9/11

Because 9/11 was an inside job.
Never forget.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

60. So you're one of those

Blocked

[GoreWon2000]

76. bushthief ignored multiple 9/11 warnings

It's been well documented that bushthief ignored multiple well documented 9/11 attack warning from Israel, Jordan, Russia a d the 8/6/01 PDB that specifically said, "Bin Laden determined to strike the U.S." President Gore would never have ignored such warnings.

[EnergizedLib]

65. We can't say for sure about the alternative

Maybe there is or isn’t a 9/11, but there’s still a Rush Limbaugh, there’s still a Fox News. If we get President Gore, that might mean no President Obama, no Tea Party, no birther movement.

But in an alternate universe, maybe there’s another right wing resistance group that’s the bane of our existence, assuming everything in the original timeline before 2000 remains the same.

Assuming a President Gore wins re-election, we definitely don’t get a corrupt Roberts Court.

We think of what could’ve been, but there’s still been some good stuff in the original timeline since 2000.

[Midnight Writer]

77. I always remember with a chill when W Bush was asked on election night if he was worried

about being behind in Florida's early counts.

He calmly responded with his trademark smirk. He wasn't worried at all about Florida. His brother Jeb promised W he would deliver Florida and W was confident that he would.

[Turbineguy]

78. I seem to recall Saddam Hussein talking about keeping oil priced in dollars

instead of Euros.

[Silent Type]

79. Definitely believe we would be much better off, though not positive we would have avoided 9/11, great recession, etc.

Climate change would be better for sure. Healthcare probably better. Yeah, probably no Iraq, although lots of people were bent on blowing up something in ME after 9/11.

Fact is, white wingers still existed in big numbers.