Reply #55: Apples and oranges - - both the elections and Gore's position v Kerry's

[AlGore-08.com]

1.) Once Gore was informed how close the vote in Florida was, he did not hesitate to take every legal option available to him (not to other people, to him) in order to fight to have all the votes counted. He only stopped when the Supreme Court ruled, because he had no other LEGAL options after that. Again, other people had legal options - - Senators like John Kerry and Barbara Boxer could have joined the Florida Fourteen in challenging the Florida electors, but they didn't.

During the recount, Gore publicized the various GOP crimes as they came to light - - the forging of absentee ballots, the voter purge, the bogus riot that shut down the Miami Dade recount. During his concession speech and ever since then, he has stated how strongly he disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling but had conceded because he believes in the rule of law. He has even said a few times, on the record, that he believes he won Florida.

In 2004, Kerry conceded immediately when he saw that he had lost Ohio. Edwards was the one who wanted to fight on.

2.) Gore won the popular vote by over 1/2 million votes and "lost" Florida by less than 400 votes (if you accept the official count). If Gore had spent the immediate post election period holding major political events, he would have run the risk of keeping the country as bitterly divided as it was during the recount. Aggressive politicking by Gore also would have run the risk of damaging the legitimacy of not just Smirk, not just the Extreme Court, not just the Constitution, but the rule of law itself. If you have read any of Gore's speeches made before or since the 2000 election, you know he sees his duty to the constitution and America as a much higher duty than his duty to his own career. (And if anybody really thinks we'd be better off having a civil war, I'd suggest they vacation in Iraq to get a taste of what civil war is really like.)

Kerry lost the popular vote by over 3 million. He does not have to worry about the constitutional implications if he campaigns noisily against the government.

3.) Gore was out of office as soon as Smirk was coronated; Kerry is still a Senator. Kerry wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't out making speeches and taking positions. What would Kerry be doing now if he was out of office? The most likely scenario is that he'd be doing lower key, much more infrequent events like Gore and Edwards and Clark, who don't have the plausible deniability that holding office automatically gives someone. "I'm not running for President, really - - I'm just deeply concerned about the impact of higher gas prices on the vitally important lint brush industry here in New Hampshire."