Who Al Gore should have picked as a running mate in 2000?

[Cascadian]

Poll question: Who Al Gore should have picked as a running mate in 2000?

I know it's long ago and it's a new election year but I want to know who do you think Al Gore should have picked as a running mate instead of Joe Lieberman. My opinion is had Gore picked somebody other than Lieberman, he would have received more numbers thus giving him Florida and ultimately the White House.

John

[corporatewhore]

1. Wellstone -he needed a liberal for balance

He would have made a damn good vp and an even better pres :cry:

[Wonco_the_Sane]

2. Picked Joe

They did win after all. I think Clinton could have pushed Al over the top if Al would have let him help more.

[Cascadian]

3. Gore should have not been afraid to allow Clinton to help.

They could have highlighted the achievements the Clinton administration have done. They could have done much better. I must say that Gore's campaign left a lot to be desired. He could have easily won it all with some changes.


John

[WindRavenX]

6. Yeah

But Gore was screwed either way- too many people unfortuantly saw Clinton as morally corrupt just because of the Monica incident and tied that to Gore. Very very unfair, but...people do that. He still should've asked Clinton for help.

[Cascadian]

4. 5 votes for Wellstone so far!

wow!

John

[Cascadian]

9. Now 7 votes for Wellstone!

He is definately missed.


John

[MinnFats]

14. now, 11 for Paul

Oh, God.
The repellent Norm Coleman was on Minn. public radio today, reminding us all how very much we miss Paul Wellstone.
Coleman is devoid of original thought. A chanter of pleasant slogans, all designed to be in perfect sync with The White House of Evil.
There are rumors here that little Normie has hopes of being on a national ticket someday.
We would have to pass the gates of hell before that could happen, I think.

[saltpoint]

5. "Other"

This is a good post.

Gore should have chosen Jim Jeffords. I think it would have helped him with independents nationwide.

I think Jeffords would make a pretty good VP choice in 2004, too.

[Awsi Dooger]

7. I wanted Edwards, a continuation of our two-southerners formula

Balance blows and confuses. Pile on, and hard.

Another youthful, energetic southerner would have had some pull in northern Florida, and not cost us anywhere. I know Lieberman is credited with getting out the elderly Jewish vote in Florida, but they weren't going to vote for Bush or Buchanon anyway, at least not intentionally.

Plus can you imagine the visual contrast of John Edwards vs. Dick Cheney in that one VP debate? And there is no way Edwards would have pathetically sat there with a little grin and let Cheney dominate the course of that debate, like Lieberman did.

[Jim Sagle]

8. Tom Harkin.

[eissa]

16. I love Tom

I think he would make a great VP choice now as well. I remember his speech during Wellstone's memorial and it was simply amazing. I don't know much of his record, but he appears left-of-center. I voted for Graham in this poll, although I thought anyone would be better than Joe.

[IndianaGreen]

10. I heard that Kerry was considered as a VP

I wish Gore had picked anyone other than Lieberman.

BTW, I voted for Kerry in this poll.

[Cascadian]

11. A Gore/Kerry ticket would have worked.

Both are Vietnam vets and double-up on the deserter Bush and maybe Gore would have won.


John

[IndianaGreen]

12. Kerry would not have thrown in the towel during the Florida debacle

Kerry would not have capitulated on the military ballots cast after the election.

OTOH, there may have not been a Florida debacle at all! One of the biggest turnoffs about Lieberman was his role to censor music and movies with Bill Bennett and Lynne Cheney. Lieberman's use of "GAWD" to punctuate his sentences was also a downer.

[morgan2]

13. jim baker

then the election in florida could have been fixed for him.

[Arbustosux]

15. Bill Richardson

.

[tom_paine]

17. On this we can all agree: Lieberman was a DISASTER

From his overall weakness as a candidate and a man to his proven track record of waffling and betrayal, not to mention his obsequious deference to the Imperial Family at a time when the exact opposite was called for.

Libereman was a disaster and a disgrace, even if he had been a string candidate, the simple truth was that the South will NEVER (collectively, not individually) vote for a Jew or Black for Emperor.

Sadly, this is probably true of the rest of the Empire, not just the South (but especially in the South)

No, I am not slamming everyone from the South. There are many fine people from the South and many good liberals and progressives.

This is not a geographic slur, but rather a statement about that Southern Heritagew we keep hearing so much about...

[Bombtrack]

18. No, we can't all agree. Almost all studies show

that Lieberman was the number one reason Gore got the highest percent of both the black and jewish vote of any candidate since LBJ.

And he was also one of the top reasons he got as close in Florida as he did.

The Nader votes also weren't caused by the Lieberman record, they were caused by the Clinton-Gore record, and Gore's personality as well.

Lieberman did help inoculate the "morality-gap" caused by Monica greatly, as well as soccer moms and dads who thought it was brave to ask a jew to be his runningmate

[tom_paine]

22. Got a link to some of these studies?

(and before you flame me as an anti-Semite...I'm Jewish)

Is there a study showing how many people wouldn't vote for Gore because his running mate was a Jew?

I'm guessing people sort of keep that to themselves, so myguess is you won't find that information. It is quite charming and touching and naive to think that there is no racism in Amerika...or even in America when it still was around, but that just isn't so.

Florida clearly didn't matter. The Imperials were GOING to have that state, whether they had to double punch 10,000 Gore votes and "fix and refeed" 10,000 Bush votes and disenfranchise 20,000 African-Americans with the purposefully vague Phony Felons Purge...or whether they had to double punch 100,000 Gore votes and "fix and refeed" 100,000 Bush votes and disenfranchise 200,000 African-Americans with the purposefully vague Phony Felons Purge...

Finally, whatever else you say, Lieberman's disgraceful performance in the VP debate, in which he kowtowed and bootlicked and conceded Cheney every lie he told, especially the odious "I made my money without government help," did more to harm us than all of what you said, even if it was true.

In fact, the Party-Loyal Right-Wing Sub-media didn;t even have to lie to convince people that Cheney won that debate.

Cheney mopped the floor with Lieberman, who's weaknesses as a candidate and a man were on display for all to see.

Finally, in Florida itself, the state which Lieberman did so much to secure for Gore, his behavior during the recount, again rife with groveling, conceding, and general betrayal of his own campaign, cancelled out whatever good he did in the end.

But I guess I'm just an anti-Semite, eh?

[Bombtrack]

25. No, and I never implied any anti-semitism

I studied this in my last semesters polisci class, and if you want to order the textbook I believe in was in "Political Science : An Introduction" from prentice hall

[Sparkle]

27. I don't think so.

I voted for Gore because of Gore and not Lieberman. In fact, I would have preferred that Gore had chosen someone else but he didn't. So it was Gore/Lieberman.

[sandnsea]

19. Gore/Kerry would have won easy

We wouldn't have lost so many Green voters with Kerry. And his strong military background, along with Gore's fairly strong defense stance, would have swayed alot of those southern voters. And Kerry also just has a strong core which would have been much better to run with than Lieberman. Gore/Edwards would have been a good ticket too though. Lieberman was the worst choice possible.

[Terwilliger]

20. ABLOB

Anybody But Lieberman Or Bayh

[Bandit]

21. He should have picked Ann Lewis and so should our nominee

Ann Lewis is like a female Bill Clinton. Extremely smart and witty and doesn't take shit off any GOP thug. She is one of our brightest and boldest and should get more attention. She really ROCKS. She gets standing ovations every time she speaks.

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. Bush would have won Florida by a comfortable margin w/o Lieberman

[libview]

24. how about Bozo the clown

[Sparkle]

26. He was already taken....on the republican ticket.

[Snivi Yllom]

28. Kerry would have been really good

But he might have shown up Gore as the better of the two.

Kerry-Gore would be better.

[the populist]

29. Lieberman is Jewish

Gore knew that he would have trouble getting Florida. So he picked a Jewish Senator to help him win the state. The Florida Democratic Party and its activities during elections are pretty much run by Jewish Democrats. That is why it was such a shock to see Florida go to Bush. But hey, Bush was more dirty than Gore and the most corrupt always win.

I pick Bob Graham because even though the Jews control the Democratic Party of Florida, you still need support from the mainstream swing-voting whites.

[Katie]

30. Other..Bill Clinton..but seriously..

maybe not as VP, but not using President Clinton to help him campaign was one of Gore's biggest mistakes. Clinton's approval ratings were in the high 70's before he left office. Funny, but the economy was in good shape during the 2000 election, and it still kept this race too close for comfort. I'm not really sure if it was Gore's choice of VP Or Gore himself that caused that. Gore won the popular vote, no doubt about that, but with this adminstrations record I'm surprised it was this close.