30 March 2008
President Gore?
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: Presidential Election 2008 .
Senior Democrats mull Al Gore’s nomination
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president.
The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November’s election to the Republican nominee, John McCain.
Former aides to Al Gore now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party’s convention in Denver during the last week of August.
Two former Gore campaign officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that a scenario first mapped out by members of Mr Gore’s inner circle last May now has a sporting chance of coming true.
Mr Gore, who was Bill Clinton’s vice-president and has since won a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his work on green issues, remains an influential figure eight years after he beat George W Bush in the popular vote but lost the White House after the Florida recount fiasco.
The opening has emerged because opinion polls show Mr McCain stretching his lead over both Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton, whose campaigns are engaged in a daily cycle of attacks, character assassination and mutual recriminations on religion, race and the economy.
Between a quarter and a third of Obama and Clinton supporters say that they would not now vote for the other in November. The prospect of a new Gore candidacy was raised last week in Time magazine by Joe Klein, the doyen of American political writers, and discussed on the main cable news networks, CNN, Fox and MSNBC.
If neither Mr Obama nor Mrs Clinton has the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination, and if both appear unable to beat Mr McCain, under one scenario a group of about 100 party elders – the “super-delegates” – could sit out the first ballot in Denver, preventing either candidate winning outright, and then offer Mr Gore the nomination for the good of the party.
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Tim Mahoney, a Democrat congressman from Florida, said last week: “If it goes into the convention, don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket.” This suggests the party would accept a Gore-Clinton or a Gore-Obama pairing.
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7 Comments so far...
Saddened Says:
30 March 2008 at 3:32 pm.
The democrats want to break new ground with a woman or a black person. I can’t see them being all right about a white man coming in and stealing the show at the last minute. I think that instead of solving their problem of unity something like this would make it worse.
SGS Says:
30 March 2008 at 3:43 pm.
Gore will be on ballot this November, whether the Democrats want him to or not. He already has been approached by the Green Party (Nador’s party) to be their nominee. He has not rejected their offer. But yeah, if he has the choice of being a nominee of either party, he’ll be Democratic one right away. His Global Warming (Hoax) Crusade has earned him some brownie points with the Greenies, enough that Nador won’t take away his presidency like he did in 2000.
E.E. Says:
30 March 2008 at 3:50 pm.
He’s a media hog so I think you are right.
Angela Rogin Says:
30 March 2008 at 5:48 pm.
It’s weird that so many supporters of each candidate say they won’t vote for the other one if they get the nomination. Their positions are so similar that you would think it wouldn’t matter a whole lot. They were so sure they would take it this time and now all this is happening. I wish I had a crystal ball because I don’t have a clue what is going to happen in November.
SGS Says:
30 March 2008 at 6:17 pm.
Angela, Obama is not the only one who is having a “Messiah” complexity. Their followers have gone beyond being a rational voter. They have moved to the point of the worhshippers of their choosen prophets. They are following them because of who they are, not because of what they are offering (which, as you said, are pretty the same). It’s sad.
Peter Says:
30 March 2008 at 7:23 pm.
SGS, you nailed it exactly. That is why the Obama supporters won’t go for Hillary. It’s a pretty scary proposition to blindly put your faith in a man that way. We have seen what it has done in the past and it isn’t good.
Angela Rogin Says:
30 March 2008 at 9:00 pm.
You guys are right. I hadn’t thought of that.
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