Oh, give me a break!
Al Gore chose Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Lieberman solidly promoted the Iraq war, supports the death penalty, opposes affirmative action and supports school vouchers. What does that choice say about Gore's real beliefs, or maybe his competency?
Thanks for nothing, Al. Stay retired.
7
Frank Bruni, Americans have moved on since the 2000 election, why haven’t you? Let it go already.
4
You wanna be saved by Al Gore? You really are in bad shape.
6
When will Mr. Bruni stop his lies regarding the "stolen" 2000 election. Hasn't he read his own paper's analysis? https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/us/examining-vote-overview-study-disputed-florida-ballots-finds-justices-did-not.html
Every likely recount scenario the NYTimes reporters could conceive of had Mr. Bush winning and Mr. Gore losing!
5
no hillary. no biden. no warren. no gillebrand. none of those hackies.
beto beto beto beto
6
To wax nostalgic over Gore and to wonder "what might have been" for 2000 requires putting the following aside:
1. A President Gore would have done nothing to prevent the 2008 financial crisis. This is true whether you believe that the crisis was caused by lax regulation of Wall Street (Gore supported this) or by government intervention in the mortgage market on behalf of low-income homeowners (Gore supported this too).
2. Some commenters, in response to prior posts from me on the GWB presidency, have pointed out that Gore was an outspoken advocate for regime change in Iraq and might very well have taken us to war against the Saddam Hussein regime as GWB did.
3. A Republican-majority Congress would have probably strong-armed Gore into signing into law the budget-busting tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 to combat the effects of the recession early that decade.
4. Gore has his own documented issues on sexual assault and infidelity, which could have easily led to his own Lewinsky-type scandal or worse.
Under a President Gore, 9/11/01 might have been prevented (although this still strikes me as unlikely because the necessary changes to airport security procedures would not have been enacted in time), and the U.S. would have probably gotten further in terms of climate change progress (although no legislation on this would have come from a Republican-majority Congress). But any Gore presidency would have lasted only one term anyway; Jeb Bush would have beaten him in 2004.
5
Al Gore lost in the end by a state governed by his brother and a Supreme Court staffed by his father so if anyone could scream fraud, it was Al Gore. Worse, it gave us George W. Bush, 17 billion dollars spent in Afghanistan and the Taliban is still functional. Iraq is a mess although Donald Trump is so twitter-painted we tend to forget the last worst president's legacy.
It's highly unlikely Al Gore can override Donald Trump's warped ability to shape the news. He ran a disjointed and undefined race, having to distance himself from Bill Clinton's disgrace and - some say - he really didn't want the job. His efforts on climate change are tremendous but if the Republicans can denigrate John Kerry's war record they can surely twist something less specific, at least until Florida slides into the Atlantic which will solve both the electoral problem and the deniers calling it a hoax.
We need new candidates not a rerun of the past.
3
How about a younger more credible candidate that has many of Gore's advantages without many of his disadvantages - a candidate that can put the a crucial state in play - the serving and newly elected Senator from Ohio - Sherrod Brown.
7
Yep, Gore's intelligence and class are what we should have. It's a part of the ideals the fathers had in mind. But, qualifications for president in this formally highly-touted republic are slim: be at least 35 and born here. Relying on a semi-literate populace to run for, and vote for, other semi-literates seems self-defeating. Being suckered by a snake oil salesmen turned politician after eating years of goof-ball news and conspiracy commentary is where we are. Could we not have a special "drivers license" test for voters and those seeking public office? Maybe they should all be required to take a class in the Constitution and have some understanding of history? Maybe, just maybe they should have to do that?
4
The only thing I'd question was his, to my mind, uninformed choice of a running mate: Joe Lieberman.
5
Please please please Mr. Gore, run for president in 2020! By then I'll be retired and can work for you a lot. Please????
3
In stopping a state recount which was constitutionally mandated under Florida law, the Republican majority supreme court literally stole the 2000 election from Gore. Since then as Bruni notes democratic institutions and norms have been under assault from the right, from the blantant theft of a supreme court pick from Obama s presidency, to measures to restrict the basic right to vote. So....all this is an argument that Gore made the right call in meekly conceding the election?!?!?
2
Al Gore is a class act and I would gladly vote for him in 2020.
I think the actual point of piece is not to critique what Al did in 2000, but how absolutely despicable it is for Republicans to intentionally assault the legitimacy of elections. They have gone so low in the era of Trump one wonders if they would prefer anarchy to losing their power.
5
Gore Virtuous?
The preeminent climate change evangelist sells cable TV network (Current TV) to fossil fuel monarchy Qatar for $500 million.
That’s pretty virtuous.
Gore’s Vision?
$500 million. Duh.
(and telling those benighted little people how to live).
Just the visionary we need to vanquish Trump.
Is Al Gore a member of the Joel Osteen Hypocrite Club yet?
3
Abu Graib Torture, a war on false pretense in Iraq. No movement on his favorite issue of global warming.
Gore accepted a Supreme Court decision not to count every vote. I’m not sure he had any effective short term choice. The fix was in.
In the longer term though, he could’ve fought for a better system of counting, with less gerrymandering, less disenfranchisement through unequal prosecution which Floridians only this election began to fix.
He could’ve fought to improve the electoral system instead of letting it rot for another generation. Which is what happened. And by not fighting, the Republicans kept at it. Which is where we are at today with a system that does not represent the majority of Americans. Even the House doesn’t show that split correctly in many states.
He did lobby for more movement on global warming, but that is an issue that goes out the window, when centerists are in charge.
Frank Bruni might think that believing in America is defending the status quo, and as a richer white male, that probably works out ok for him. For the rest of us, America can do better.
Al Gore should’ve fought harder, and the next American President should too.
Was is good for America?
4
Is Mr. Bruni suggesting that Democrats accede to demands for a halt in the recount, in emulation of Al Gore in the 2000 election? Let me get this straight - Mr Bruni admires the decision which resulted in the disenfranchisement of the majority of voters, a war of choice against non existent weapons of mass destruction, and the Patriot Act? Regardless of how well earned our admiration is for Al Gore's work on behalf of the environment, it doesn't offset the disappointment in his decision to remain silent about one of the lowest points in the history of the Supreme Court when they halted the Florida recount. I, for one, am heartened that the Democrats have evolved and are holding fast against the false charges of fraudulent votes and other calumnies of the Trump Whitehouse. Let every vote be counted!
3
Lest not forget Al is a Deadhead--no wonder there is civility in his approach!
7
@TW
Remember the brouhaha about Clinton's "I didn't inhale"? Gore came out and admitted he was a weed smoker. The nation yawned.
1
For trump it is disgrace in victory.
Hillary could run as an effective decoy letting the financiers of hate squander their massive resources on her while Democrats cultivate a message and candidate under their radar screen - otherwise the GOP will simply take over and mis-characterize and create slanderous sound-bites against the Democratic narrative as soon as it comes out.
I wouldn't touch trump with a 10 foot yardstick - yuck! At this point, trump makes Madoff look good for 2020.
Always inconvenient, trump.
In the meantime, Democrats need to gain access to the "lock-box" at the IRS containing trump's tax returns.
As for Rick Scott, the fact that the winning candidate so far claims voter fraud, then there needs to be a do over election - he cannot simply claim fraud and assume office as he has done. That's just so trumpian.
"They’re doing this for short-term gain" No, Mr. Bowler! Republicans are doing it for PERMANENT GAIN. For them the inconvenient truth is a legitimate democracy and they won't stand for it.
The success of the current POTUS means successfully killing the planet, enriching the president, allowing him to be above the law, and much worse. We should wish success for the country, not the POTUS.
3
Present days are different times, except they're a continuation and exaggeration of those "good" (how about "much-less-bad") old days. Now I wish Gore and the Democrats had fought like hell. And Now I wish that grassroots groups had gotten their messages tighter and desired political actions clearly articulated -- remember Occupy Wall Street? We needed OWS to be bigger and better than it was, even though it was revolutionary.
I think we're a lot more prepared now to take on the Corporate Establishment and their political hacks. I hope it's not too late, because the hill we've got to climb as a nation is now a lot higher and steeper.
It is my strong opinion that we don't need a president who can "bring the nation together," so much as we need a visionary, entrepreneurial civic leader who can convince us of a New Way, and is willing to fight very hard for it.
Of all the people you've named, I'm not sure that person is Al Gore. It might be. Could also be Bernie Sanders. It is definitely NOT Hillary Clinton. She's smart, calculating, savvy, super-smart, but she's not the visionary nor entrepreneurial civic leader we desperately need.
2
Magoo,
Yep, that mensch in the rumpled suit would have been a game changer.
Hopefully not a once in a generation candidate.
We missed an opportunity.
1
Proud of the majority of letter writers taking Mr Bruni to task for his misinterpretation of the political, moral and yes, spiritual implications of the SCOTUS disaster that was Bush v Gore! and as for 2020, the best thing we can do is wait to the primaries and pay attention to the current state of sad affairs in Washington DC. no one man or woman is going to change the system. stop dreaming and get back to work.
1
I'm waiting for the hats Al will distribute to his followers:
MAGGA -- Make Al Gore Great Again.
Nah.
3
The weekend before the 2018 election, I chatted with an old friend about our memories of the 2000 election.
She recalled waiting till 5 pm Pacific time that night for the polls on the east coast to close to see whether things were trending for Gore because she could safely vote in Oregon for Nader. She was one of those "Gore isn't that much different from Bush and let's send a message" voters. Oregon went for Gore, of course, so my friend's gamble paid off. But still.
We engaged in some speculative fiction and alternative history: No 9/11 (because Al and his administration would have paid attention to intelligence); no Afghanistan or Iraq wars. No Patriot Act. I said, "If my Bonnie Prince Al had taken the presidency, we'd be so much farther along on protecting the environment and mitigating climate change than we are now!"
My friend said, "No, no! He's been much more effective, traveling the world, speaking as a private citizen in defense of the environment, than he ever could've been as a US President!"
Huh? Is this part of my friend's rationalization for being a Naderite? Who knows?
But this much my friend and I agreed on: We still don't get the choice of Joe Lieberman as Al's running mate.
45
@doodles5
There were many reasons why Gore lost. Sure, Nader voting was one. Then there was Gore's bizarre decision not to campaign in his home state of Tennessee. Plus, Gore declined to have Bill Clinton campaign for him. Supreme court bias. There are others. Reverse any of these and Gore wins. I too voted for Nader, who would still make an exceptional leader. I refuse to feel shamed by that vote.
2
@Richard Swanson sorry but these days when so many elections are won by such a small margin that protest vote is simply a waste. Just look at what the third party vote did in the races being recounted.... Sure maybe in a state with overwhelming numbers for one party or another but when it counts - so should your vote - sometimes that protest vote is a vote for what you don't believe in....
What we should have is Ranked Choice Voting....
10
Sounds lovely, but Gore should have fought tooth and nail. That was not the time to be gracious. Had he not let Bush steal the election, America and the Earth might both be in better shape now.
4
I didn’t vote for him in 2000.
Huge regret.
I would surely vote for him in 2020.
4
Honorable men frequently lose to those who break the law, those who engage in insider trading, those without thoughtful responses about what's best for all, not what's best for them, people without vision. Honorable people are ethical, and perhaps humble.
Americans, since the Revolution, love the rabble-rousers, those who appeal to them on a visceral level, those who stoke their anger. I believe it must be from the high of an adrenaline rush, or the satisfying certitude of self-righteousness.
Americans have evolved--slavery was abolished, women could vote. Racism was no longer publicly acceptable until Trump. Americans have never been perfect or always done the right thing (think Viet Nam, slavery, neo-Nazis, etc.), but there was a steady trend toward acceptance of differences (or at least living with them). Until Trump.
So how to get adrenaline junkies--the American public--to think rationally, to consider long-term consequences, to want intelligence in a presidential candidate? To be aware of both visceral feelings and rationality, and know which to vote with?
In 2020, the Dems will need someone with charisma, a sense of humor, and a keen intellect who can persuade voters toward a progressive agenda. A thinker who can pull people to his/her side, not with fear, but with vision. A person with fire in their belly who can deftly turn aside Trump's insults and nicknames.
HRM definitely not. Biden, no. Gore, maybe. Bernie, Beto, Warren, Joe Kennedy III...yes.
1
Then there are those who argue that Florida wouldn't have been a problem for Al if he had better defended his advantage in Tennessee and West Virginia.
Sigh.
14
Al Gore is not the answer but there are others that are. I for one want to support Michael Bloomberg.
He embodies a stew that includes Gore's mission to save the earth form ourselves, a health perspective to save us from ourselves, a business acumen that saves Trumpers from themselves, and a get-it-done attitude that saves us from our politicians.
Mind you, I don't mind being reminded of the promise of Gore or for that matter Ms. Clinton. I just don't see much coming from focusing on the past and trying to find a nostalgic way of bringing that back. And I am not ready to roll the dice on OUR future for the sake of some newly appointed saint.
Instead, I am focused on saving our democracy and putting forward the best possible non-republican Republican that can thwart a Trump tsunami.
3
@RichardS
I hear you on Gore and Clinton. But not Bloomberg, no way. He's a plutocrat and would govern for the wealthy few, not the struggling many. He would make the growing economic inequality in this country worse and would do so deliberately, if not outright gleefully.
This is so true, thanks for pointing it out. It wasn't that long ago that we had a real patriot; one who put country before selfish interest. How refreshingly quaint!
Being encouraged by the recent election results, I am hopeful that some day again soon we will have a country of true leaders who believe in civility, honesty, integrity and the value of our basic institutions and societal norms.
4
While I doubt, Mr. Bruni, that Al Gore would be the right person to take on Trump in 2020,I thank you for reminding us that there were, and are, honorable persons in politics.
3
Not sure I would number Gore among the Center-Right Democratic dinosaurs. The man's vision and work around contending with climate change are not evidence of being behind the curve of history in any sense. One can argue that he could have been more combative in the face of the Court driven, partisan coup that led to Bush serving two terms. But that doesn't number Gore among the antiquated. Not sure why anyone now would volunteer for what's required to run in is social media poisoned atmosphere. But we need something like Gore's vision and courage rather badly.
4
Nice profile, but as JFK famously said " It's time for a new generation of Americans", like all those fresh new faces headed to Congress this January. I'm 64, but I see that all the enthusiasm in the Mid term came from the newbies. How about Gina Raimondo for one?
4
I was furious at Gore for not fighting the Supreme Court decision to halt the recount. He had no right to give this up; it was the American people's, the Democrat's right to a hearing which Gore gave up; it wasn't his right to do this. You can call him gracious but in my opinion he's a wimp.
9
Interesting that Gore was so disgusted with Bill's behavior. Whereas in the end it's Gore who split up with his wife while Bill and Hillary are still together, most probably happily together. What does that say about morality and principles and all that indignation about Bill's behavior with Monica? At the time I thought it was too much scandal not worthy of anything close to impeachment. I guess Gore got caught up with all of that, while what became questionable is his own marital commitments.
5
@RB
I don't have the links for this, but Gore apparently has some huge skeletons in his own closet relating to sexual assault and "massage parlors." It's hard to avoid the conclusion that one or both of these led to the end of his marriage to Tipper. These issues have gone mostly unreported because Gore has, by and large, stayed out of the public spotlight. But he knows, better than most, that they would surface with a vengeance, esp. in this #MeToo moment, were he to announce a 2020 presidential bid. That, more than anything else, is why he won't.
2
In a recent interview, Hellary Clinton complained that calls for her to go away or at least keep quiet were evidence of misogyny because no one did similar to Romney, McCain, Bush, Kerry, Gore, etc. She ignored that none of these men made themselves the spectacle that she has made of herself since losing.
Her tin ear over what to say in public has not improved.
Let us never forget that her political career includes, by the rules in the Constitution, a Presidential election loss to Donald Trump. To Donald Trump!!
7
We'd all like to see a dose of the integrity that Gore exuded, but Gore himself in 2020, not so much.
Just as in the 1960s, we need to look at younger candidates who are more in tune with younger voters. This is not ageism, but recognition that it is time for a change, and not the sort of change that Trump and his administration brought us.
We have a number of younger Democrats who would make good candidates. Let's talk more about them, please.
7
If nothing else, then and now dramatize that "the integrity of our electoral system" is that every vote counts. Yet, a majority of "citizens" (consumers) vote. So, tell us about that integrity.
1
@gary e. davis Typo! YIKES. ...A majority of "citizens" (consumers) DON'T vote. So, tell me about my keystroking.
Tell me about the example democratic process that America exhibits to other peoples desperate for admirable models of good government.
Tell me about the millions of Americans who applaud a real estate salesman who couldn't care less about the integrity of the presidency.
1
The Press never did its due diligence with Al Gore. Once you peel him back and look at the insidious things he did for privacy laws in California as a lobbyist for DARPA* and Google in the early aughts and the absolute cronies who's Scroogian sustainable development goals under a false green flag intended to reduce the surplus population in an automated age he represents, Gore is a freighting talking head of nonsense. His estate in Tennessee uses more grid power in a day than the average American household does in a year, and when he corrected that by installing a solar panel, he lied about that fixing his green consumption - it was pure tokenism if you ran the numbers. A few marginalized real local newspapers did because the Frank Brunis couldn't be bothered to actually dive into the utter hypocrisy of this man as they methodically cultivated his image.
*Fact checkers: see the Yasha Levine book :Surveillance Valley" to confirm.
6
"But after the Supreme Court halted it, Gore didn’t reject that ruling as partisan, rant about rigged systems, rail about conspiracies or run around telling Americans that he was their rightful leader, foiled by dark forces. "
Except Al Gore would have been within his rights to go back to the Florida Supreme Court and ask for a more explicit ruling on which ballots were to be recounted.
Right, Gore is better than entitled frat boys.
No, Gore couldn't win in 2020. He, like Hillary and Biden, is tied to Wall Street deregulation, which he has never repudiated. But at least he didn't vote for the Iraq invasion.
7
We need someone like Gore to put the country back on track. He could say; I will run for one term to restore order and update the American system of government destroyed by Trump and to give a chance to the younger generation of Democrats to get their act together to take over.
4
Voting for VP Gore was my proudest vote. And he was admirable in defeat. Let’s not forget, however, that he initially requested a recount of 4 democratic counties that likely would have benefited his campaign. Had he advocated for a statewide recount from the start, “letting every vote count,”the final outcome might have been different.
4
Yes, Gore looks good by putting country ahead of party. If only The Times and the Democrats of 2016 did the same. The entire meme of Russian collusion is the anti-Gore.
5
As a supporter of progressive causes (even if not always of progressive self-righteousness), I understand the frustration of those commenters who rail at Gore's acquiescence in the Supreme Court's edict. But my question is this: What would you have had Gore do? I'm not saying Gore's upholding of "country before party" sits easy, even 20 years on, given what we now know to have been the consequences of respecting that catastrophic Court decision. But the alternative is to denigrate and delegitimize the institutions (flawed though they be) that are really all we have. (Think of RBG: God knows, she has questioned the legitimacy of many decisions from which she's dissented, but she would never suggest that the Court's long-term institutional legitimacy should therefore be cast in doubt.) The Court rightly suffered a grievous injury after Bush v Gore, but that judgment was properly reached by academics and other citizens based upon their own conclusions about fairness, justice, and the law; not by presidential candidates/litigants (nor, of course, by presidents themselves) engaged in bomb-throwing for short-term political ends intentionally blinkered to long-term political costs.
3
Dear Mr Bruni
Honor left politics after the Johnson great society programs which drove up the federal budget and suddenly congress had largesse to give away and lobbyists got their act together and their hands held out for clients. In addition politicians in Washington held their hands out for campaign funds to ensure their reelection.The electorate got virtually nothing unless a beneficiary of the new federal programs. Children of course who don’t vote really got the rough end of the stick.
3
9/11 might not have happened if an administration had not ignored the warnings issued years before and by women in the FBI who reported on Arabs who were training to fly planes without takeoffs or landings.
Before invading Afghanistan someone, anyone, should have calculated what it would have cost to simply rebuild the World Trade Center (less than 4.5 trillion, to be sure). Someone should have remembered that Russia was a neighbor of Afghanistan and got kicked out about a decade before.
There was no honor in conceding a 5-4 ruling by a political action committee that is supreme only in name. It was injustice to ignore the voting rights of people who showed up despite the insignificance of their single ballot among millions.
Hillary, I contributed to your campaign. Don't you dare run again. If you couldn't beat D. John Trump....
(If you pay $130,000 to a sex worker for sex you are a "John" and should be identified as such.)
And finally, Trump's 3rd wife should never be titled "first lady". She should be referred to as what she is: D. John Trump's 3rd wife.
Her campaign as a bully in her own right just began.
3
Living in Tn. I think about Gore some times, thankful that he really does not live here and has nothing to do with our state. He had a film that was rigged, biased, and of course has been proven not to be correct in the time frame he indicated. Please run again, this president would be happy to have you as his opponent.
1
I agree that he got the time frame wrong. Because the latest data says that warming’s happening much faster than projected. Might wanna try and keep up....
7
A good and decent man; too good, too decent. As Vice-President he could have refused to certify the election, but was too honorable to do so. Had he not certified the bogus, Republican stolen results, we might have been spared the fiasco of the Bush Administration, eclipsed in incompetence and criminality only by that of Trump
4
Or maybe we could stop relying on septuagenarians to lead us. Seriously, this may sound ageist (and I am a middle aged guy myself) but the presidency is a brutally demanding job that is best left to the younger and more vibrant. We are a nation of more than 300 million; numerous qualified candidates exist.
2
Harris - O'Rourke 2020
Enough with the geriatric crows.
(And I'm one of them!)
2
Wonderful idea, and no this is not a harkening back to any 'good old days'. This is a desperate *need* for all of us, for: civility, maturity, grace, this-is-how-it's-done, and most of all Leadership. Great article Mr. Bruni, thanks so much.
3
I don't know, Frank. Was his NOT questioning the legitimacy of our electoral system that places people in power who lose the popular vote really a good thing? Or did he "taking one for the team" in order to "preserve" "democracy" just allow us to go farther down this road to crisis? This article, right here, is one of the biggest problems with the progressives, this overwhelming need to be civil and polite and look "gracious" while our country crumbles around us, when speeches are made and praised when 45 is "eluded to" BUT NEVER CALLED OUT BY NAME! Just no. People died because of his graciousness. We were attacked, went to a continuing and expanding useless war and suffered one of the largest transfers of wealth in the world since Henry VIII kicked out the Catholic church and claimed all of their hands as our own.....what a guy! I'd totally vote for him if he ran in 2020.
6
The Republicans' rash charges of election fraud follow Karl Rove's playbook: Attack your opponent preemptively on the issue where your own candidate or party is most vulnerable. Great example: Swiftboating John Kerry. What existed of W's "war record" was absenteeism and avoidance of flight physicals for whatever reason. Voila, Kerry's combat record was challenged in a very dirty way.
Florida's voter suppression is a lurid tradition. And in Georgia, the Republican gubernatorial candidate was himself active in suppression in his role as a hyper-partisan secretary of state, a routine GOP approach (see, e.g., Florida 2000, Ohio 2004). So of course the R's are charging "election fraud!"
The Ol' Blossom does have a place in history as a political mind - ran circles around the somnolent Democrats in securing statehouses for gerrymandering. (The R's are simply better political fighters. They're more organized and disciplined, and actually know it's a fight. The D's want to form up in sharing circles on the playground and sing kumbaya. "Hey! Play nice!")
3
Why are all of Mr. Bruni's essays nostalgic, sentimental and superficial? Does it have something to do with his education, or is it his yearning to look at politics as a soap opera?
I find his writing to be in need of realism, facts, and interesting insights.
5
Not a single word of admiration for Richard Nixon, who conceded the razor close presidential election of 1960 rather than call out the corrupt machinery of Chicago politics, which delivered Illinois, and the election, to Kennedy. Many called for him to challenge the election. Nixon is not quite as easy to praise. Gore never had much real power; such individuals are easier to admire at a distance.
7
As a long time fan of Al Gore, I would support his run. However we are seeing his truth of inconvenience becoming a reality.
We need a president who would endorse a "moonshot" program to address Climate Change before we are toast. This would be a massive switch to US made biofuels and an international quest to maximize photosynthesis in the oceans.
We have 10 to 12 years to make these changes, believe the science. Saying we cannot afford, or we can do anything to make a difference is a neanderthal like answer.
6
Al Gore is a profiteer, whose only interest in climate change is as a crony capitalist. He flies a private jet while pontificating about greenhouse gases.
9
I always thought Al Gore should have thought harder in 2000, not for his sake but for the country's sake. I thought even then that a Bush presidency would be a disaster but even I did not expect 9/11, two never-ending wars, a financial crisis that made the S&L crisis look like a faulty gumball machine eating a penny, global warming out of control and voters so disillusioned that they would elect a con man like Trump.
12
@Dave: Gore's campaign motto was "I'll fight for you!".
Some day, someone will have to take the Electoral College by the horns.
4
The Democratic Party reminds me of the French and English in the early days of WW1, fighting with 70 and 80 year old generals who had cut their teeth on cavalry charges. They hadn't the foggiest idea what they were facing, and lost a lot of battle and many men very quickly until they died or were retired to watering holes.
I think the US has a couple more years of huge losses until another party of young leaders comes out of the dust.
6
Why the sideswipe at the Brits in the middle of this article, they didn’t elect Trump, we did. And Brexit might be a bad decision but it was democratically arrived at.
3
I too wish Gore had won the election, as I'm sure we'd have avoided the Iraq disaster. But you old dinosaurs need to get a grip. He lost the election fair and square. You can't blame the refs for everything in life. Obviously none of you ever played competitive sports growing up where outcomes are accepted and people own up for their failures. The big failure of the Democrats was not corralling Ralph Nader who cost them Florida, plain and simple, just like Ross Perot cost GHWB in 1992. Democrats need to rely more on policy and less on legal actions to get what they want. This years 40 new House members is a great start.
5
bill,
Right.
You blame the kicker for missing a 60 yrd. field goal.
But ignore the quarterbacks 4 interceptions, the missing OF line, the plethora of dropped passes, the missed tackles and the failure to stop the run, the non-existent coaching and fans that left at half time.
But, but...that kicker! He cost us the game!!!
1
Al Gore illegally made fundraising calls from the Wite House. Here's how it turned out in the news:
"Amid a flurry of questions about fund-raising calls he made from the White House during the last presidential election, the vice president held a hastily arranged news conference [in 1997] at the White House.
He insisted there was 'no controlling legal authority' preventing his actions." -- Glen Johnson, Associated Press, April 5, 2000. Apparently Mr. Gore doesn't know there IS a "controlling legal authority" for federal laws. It's called the "Department of Justice."
The phrase ''no controlling legal authority'' was spoken four times in row at one subsequent explanation by Vietnam's most protected news reporter about ahy he coud do whatever he wanted.
Obviously, this duds is Ready-Right-NOW to run against Hillary for the 2020 presidential nod.
Just remember, Albert, what tends to happen to people with whom Hillary has an issue.
1
@L'osservatore
"Just remember, Albert, what tends to happen to people with whom Hillary has an issue."
They get elected President?
I'm not sure where you've been Bruni! Al has not gone away quietly, he is still a leading voice in combating climate change. His warings in the 90's were passed off as "nutty", but he was a man ahead of his time & still is. I doubt he would be interested in going up against the "Orange One". I've never been prouder working for a political candidate.
5
Nice article. Al Gore was always and remains a class act.
4
Like all humans, Vice President Gore has his flaws. But he also has his ideals and his courage.
He's shown them in many ways, too. Yes, in Florida in 2000. Also in leading the fight to address climate change. Also in not being afraid to work across the aisle when he was in Congress. Also in moving on with his life and making a difference even in the face of what had to be a huge disappointment after the eponymous Supreme Court decision.
We could do much worse than having Mr. Gore in the Oval Office. Wait, we are doing much worse.
4
Mr. Bruni seems to be a fan of south park. Last weeks episode was basically a love letter to the former vp and a plea for him to get back in the game. If Al Gore ran for the dem nomination he'd have my vote
3
As someone looking for a decent candidate to lead the Dems in 2020 (and finding nothing), the idea of Gore would grab me immediately. He should have won in 2000, and would make a great candidate for 2020. He'd restore honor to the presidency, but wouldn't be swayed by the Antifa wackos threatening to drown the far left. Please keep pushing this idea. America needs him.
3
“But after the Supreme Court halted it, Gore didn’t reject that ruling as partisan, rant about rigged systems, rail about conspiracies or run around telling Americans that he was their rightful leader, foiled by dark forces.”
And this is precisely why he should stay out of politics - he has no fight in him. Let’s face it, Gore would’ve been President if he’d asked for a full recount. We need smart candidates ready to fight for us - not more Dems who just roll over.
5
Gore-Bloomberg 2020. I like the sound of that.
1
Bruni mentions in passing that Trump might not accept the 2020 results, if he is not re-elected. I'm sure he won't go quietly into his new, president-less, life. And unfortunately, he has millions behind him to accept any fake news and create serious troubles for the country. So, this possibility ought to be put in circulation and commented on months before the elections. And importantly, the central point in the comments should be precisely about the troubles for the country - not about Trump's dishonesty and his supporters honest delusions
8
Frank....I'm a democrat but wake up buddy...you are living in 20th Century America!
Trump lost by ONLY 3 million votes and most of those were in California (some say $4.3 million from Ca.) That means a multitude of Americans voted for Trump.
Fact is America is built on self interest and Gore blew it. He's not the 2020 guy !
5
Goodness, I'm still dealing with the loss of Gary Hart's campaign and with Al Gore's defeat. This just brought it all back. And then Hillary. Democrats must get it together to launch a 2020 defeat of himself. I keep thinking of what was lost in 1988, 2000, and 2016! We can't lose anymore time to stupidity!
1
It's time now, already, for Democrats to get as testy as Republicans. It's time to acquire and attitude of winning by any means you can get away with.
Republicans are fascists. They don't know it, for the most part, and resent anyone calling them fascists. But you don't have to know your a fascist to be on.
We must not let America, the world's only superpower, turn to dictatorial fascism. It must not happen. But, we have 100 million Americans who, for whatever reasons, trust this liar they placed in the White House who promotes everything fascistic.
3
@Tracy Rupp
Fascism was founded to be THE voice for a strong, untouchable central state like th socialist Kremlin in the Soviet Union, or Mussolini's socialist state in Italy.
Democrats: A bunch of rich people convincing poor people to vote for rich people by telling them that other rich people are the reason they are poor. —Charlie Kirk
6
I voted for Al Gore. In the last 18 years, I've never stopped thinking how different the world would be today had he been President. And I never stop wondering how bad the next candidate the Republicans offer up for President will be. First Reagan who was really quite terrible. Then Bush-the latter who could have hardly been more dreadfull, to the side show carnival we have today.
Hindsight is 20/20 they say.
Moving on, Al Franken. Let's start looking at him seriously. He's a very intelligent man. Personally, I am incensed by what Kristen Gillibrand did to him. He is young and I'd be happy to see him run the country.
Anyone else?
12
@mj
I am incensed by waht Kristen Gillibrand did to him as well. I thought him to be presidential material. I really like him. But he cannot be president if Kristen Gillibrand can do that to him. He needs to know how to fight, apparently, as this is a critical need for all in leadership positions.
4
What we are missing in our political system is that we have no system for recognizing talent in a newcomer and grooming that talent to take over. There could be competent, emotionally mature, people waiting in the wings for the torch to be passed.
Where are the younger politicians? How do we get to know them without some kind of mentoring program?
3
It's very frustrating to me that discussions of Gore and 2000 these days never mention - shame, Frank Bruni - that Gore won.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/10/democrats-should-remember-al-gore-won-florida-in-2000-but-lost-the-presidency-with-a-preemptive-surrender/
Most people don't know that. The truth was deliberately confused by this paper and the others that paid millions to have every vote in Florida carefully counted one by one, and all assigned as to whether they counted under four systems - hanging vs dimpled chads, country rules vs state - and found that Gore won Florida overall by 60 to 170 votes depending on which of the four you used.
https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/politics/bush-gore-2000-election-results-studies/index.html
This was reported as "Recount shows Bush won" by everybody, because the Gore team inexplicably only asked for recounts of four counties - and counting those four alone did give Bush the win. But that's bizarre to any other polity - these no meaning to "recount" in Canada save recounting every vote cast. Or almost anywhere else. The fact that the results came out on Nov 12, 2002, with troops in Afghanistan, and the nation behind their war president, was probably why the papers buried the real result 9 or 10 paragraphs down.
It blows me away that Comey could worry that Clinton would have been of suspect legitimacy over nondisclosure of a minor investigation, when Bush was always obeyed by the executive branch, after that one.
2
@Roy Brander: James Comey is personally responsible for wrecking the 2016 election. For that, he gets a plum book deal and probably a bunch of no-show board seats.
4
Gore should consider, Sanders and Biden are too old
2
Amiable Al looking better than ever, well who doesn’t in the on going travail of Trump. AS for Hillary II in 2020, well give me a big break please.
If the Dems can’t find really new, credible, and engaging prospects, 2020 will be an ugly variation of 2016 all over again.
How can America possibly bear some variation of Ground Hog Day presidential politics when the stakes are so astronomically high.
4
I'm afraid that Democrats are rather afflicted with unnecessary politeness while Republicans could care less about it. That gives the R's an edge when the going gets the least bit dirty. Gore should have stood and fought in 2000. He needn't have taken the fight to the gutter and forsaken his morals. There are plenty of honorable and polite ways to protest and counter.
Likewise with Trump. The old adage, 'you don't bring candy to a knife fight,' is a false analogy. One does not need a knife if one's armor is sufficient. Let Trump stumble and fall on his own sword.
3
Maybe if Al Gore had fought a little harder to lead the country he loves, we wouldn't have had Bush lie about Iraq taking part in 9-11, having WMDs and wanting to establish a democracy there. Furthermore, we might not have ended up with that traitor Trump in office.
7
1. Gore was at his best here, no doubt
2. his disdain for Clinton’s behavior is beyond reproach except for the most partisan of observers -not like you, Frank !
3. The sad fact is, you imply the still widely bruited meme that Gore won FL and that the SCOTUS decision was unfair , were and remain false narratives (“fake news” by anyone’s standards) . SCOTUS opposed the selective recount Gore campaign sought in jurisdictions/counties that were likely to yield him additional votes, BAker et al argued that ok lets add to the recount jurisdictions that are likely to yield more republican votes. Unsurprisingly, Gores campaign demurred. Certainly there was NO enthusiasm in Gore camp-sign for a complete STATE wide (ie full and fair, not cherry picking) recount taht SCOTUS would undoutbley have approved. Why ? Because they suspected, correctly in retrospect , as shown in multiple nonpartisan post election analyses including the most through/unbiased Miami Herald one hardly a republican mouthpiece, that Bush actually had more votes in Florida. I applaud Gores demeanor and decision, but he also had the advantage, unavailable to most of us voters, of knowledge that this was probably the case. You cant disparage his campiagn for trying, after all he had more total votes nationwide, but he lost the electoral college vote, fair and square as is possible under our system/mechanics. Gore did not heroically concede an election he won;he graciously conceded an election he lost .
4
I think Al Gore would make a fine president. So would Joe Biden, and many other seasoned Democrats. The challenge is getting one of the elected in new age of tribal politics, led by Trump.
Trump decimated, one by one, the traditional Republicans in the primary race in 2016. You have to give him credit for being a really good politician. He tapped into the deep well of resentment that many people had, and still have, against a government that doesn't work for them. His very indecency and willingness to trash-talk all his opponents won the day.
So how does a decent person like Gore or Biden compete with that? Until the electorate changes its mind, they would have a hard time winning.
8
Don’t get my hopes up, Frank.
Had the D base and D politicians fully and actively supported Gore and Obama then this Eisenhower R wandering in the political wilderness since 1980 would have happily considered himself a D.
Maybe all these people driven away from the Rs by Trump can repent of their political sins by acknowledging the need to address climate change and the need for sobriety regarding fiscal affairs and foreign policy and by then doing their part to resurrect the political career of Al Gore.
Don’t get my hopes up, Frank.
1
I still feel as if we are running in an alternate universe scenario that started when Bush was wrongly given Florida. And to imagine a time when we Democrats thought a McCain or Romney Presidency was unthinkable!
1
I believe Gore could have a serious chance to get the Democratic nomination and win against Trump. The contrast between his honesty and Trump's will be striking. And by now the majority of Americans understand that climate change is a very serious matter. He may not be young blood but political experience and maturity should not be breezily dismissed.
3
If I find anything in this world fall-down funny, it’s watching Trumpists bellow about Al Gore’s saying dopey things from time to time and how we all need to behave more decently.
3
In my opinion, Al Gore's policies were primarily sound, especially regarding the climate. Al Gore's tolerance of Republican malfeasance was not sound. He won the popular vote, and I still believe the Supreme Court through the election. But that was then and it cannot be relitigated any longer. We need a new but charismatic Al Gore now, in the right place on the issues and willing to take on Republican malfeasance, to be our standard-bearer in 2020. Who will emerge? And how quickly?
4
Gore should've never conceded . He showed restraint in media spectacle over dissolved marriage but he also had ill-timed restraint forwarding crucial climate change policy. He was in prime position as VP and could've done much more. Trump unhinged has softened hindsight on Gore.
3
Ok. Get gore to run. If he takes a middle ground, moderate stand on immigration which may make the lefties nuts, (too bad) and he can have Michelle Obama as VP so she can get some experience, maybe the democrats can get back to their roots. No more free everything and open borders, the environment, tax reform, labor, education and a sustainable future can replace the craziness of both extremes we're going thru now.
Al Gore chose the sanctimonious war monger Joe Lieberman for his running mate. Gore was the prime supporter of NAFTA. That shows pretty lousy judgement.
Frank Bruno longs for politicians who speak inclusively, but he lashes out at any Democrat with principles. Methinks he’s worried about losing the favorable tax treatment of rich white guys but uncomfortable with the social intolerance of Republicans.
2
I do not appreciate you repeating a worn-out and actually rather untrue idea of foot in mouth problems with Biden. He is a person who says it like it is, but without the rancor and mean-spiritedness of the current White House occupant. Biden is a very formidable candidate, and should run and win. Gore can serve in his administration.
2
Biden would not get the votes of women who remember his patronizing attitude toward Anita Hill and negligence of supporting witnesses that resulted in the confirmation of Thomas.
What could have and should have been! Unfortunately for this country, there has been a paucity of visionaries in the White House. Al Gore had the potential to be one of them simply because he understood that the prerequisite of justice is truth, no matter how inconvenient. Instead, America got 8 years of the most failed president in US history: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, and the Great Recession, all the while leaving his successor with multiple messes on multiple continents. I'd take Gore's different mistakes in a heartbeat.
4
Bring back Gore? Maybe. How about Michael Dukakis? Walter Mondale? No wait, I've got it. Harry Truman! Paragon of honesty, unimpeachable integrity, country-before-self. Even dead he'd govern better than Trump.
1
@Peter Gallay
Dukakis and Mondale would have been good presidents, too. So would Kerry. And Hillary Clinton. The person who wins the Democratic nomination for the presidency is usually not the one I supported initially, but I've never been ashamed of my candidate as I went door-knocking.
Al always put country first.
On a campaign visit to New Orleans ,I was fortunate to meet Vice President Gore. He's a humble and brilliant man, even my 8 year old son noticed that fact.
The only culprits to blame for today's present presidential fiasco is the spineless Republican Party! Time and time again, they have failed the country and its citizens.
5
It is great that revere Gore, truly deserved I believe, and underappreciated. But that intervention by our Supreme Court in limiting ballot counting and long term "Florida Story" on the art of stealing elections is a blaring red flag warning about our voting process. Look at Rubio today, jumping on that liberal bashing train that was pulling away from the station engineered and whistle tooting by Rick Scott. Oh those fraudulent liberals. Look in a mirror guys and see Trump as your reflection. When are conservatives going to stand up and cry "foul". But not blame those liberals. Blame themselves. Why not now. If Nelson wins, so what? Is it all that earth shaking? How about turning to the importance of citizens voting and their voices being counted as more important? Florida is a crucible. Has been for years.
1
Seriously? Better that we are saved FROM Al Gore. I'll leave it at that.
3
I cannot believe that again the pundits at NYT are going to go all out for democrat neo liberals status quo.
I cannot believe you did not learn anything from all the defeats dems have endured since 2010.
I cannot believe that you did not listen to the voters in 2018.
We the people do not want more of the same with democrats. Biden, Clinton and other corporatist in dem party should go away.
So this is what we will get from NYT for the 2020 election cycle which I guess Frank just started.
Not for me.
2
@Julie We, the people, wanted Hillary Clinton, who got over 3 million more votes than trump. As the only Democrat running for president during the primaries, it was natural that we Democrats chose Hillary as our candidate.
If non-Democrats want to run for president, they should do it under the political label they have chosen..like Independent or socialist or Green Party, etc.
3
So Bowler says politicians on the right are questioning question the legitimacy of elections "for short-term gain without thought to long-term erosion.” Wrong. They know exactly where this ruinous path leads and they don't care.
4
Thanks for reminding us of Al Gore. He is a true patriot, one of an increasingly small number who put the good of the country above his own.
5
We need another Obama - young, energetic, smart. Please, no more candidates that are 70+ years old.
5
I had a tee shirt that read:
"Re-elect Gore in 2004!"
Maybe it's still not too late. He lost in 2000 because he was the only decent player in the whole cast.
3
The most recent election results should show Democrats the staying with the geriatric set for 2020 Presidential timber is a recipe for disaster.
As a 65 year old white guy, I can state my belief that the Presidency is a job for younger folks.
Obama and Bush II were not old standby candidates and both won two terms. Biden, Sanders and god help us Hillary have had their time, let's get new, younger faces ready to challenge the current geriatric in the Oval whose removal in 2020 will save the Republic.
5
Grace in defeat - yeah right. In no way did Al Gore accept this thing until the fat lady was singing. This thing got appealed all the way up to the highest court in the land, and Al Gore did not get the outcome he wanted. I suppose he could have thrown a public hissy fit, which would have accomplished nothing other than potentially canceling out any chance of a comeback. Maybe that's what Trump would have done under the circumstances. Who can say. All I know is that once the Supreme Court hands down a ruling, there ain't really a whole lot you can do.
3
Right. Because the Right, and Trump, have really been paragons of acceptance of Court decisions without squawking.
2
You equate politicized injunctions by circuit court judges that apply across the entire country with SCOTUS. Big difference.
2
Your column made me shiver with anger at the current state of affairs....that we have Trumps and Scotts and the like. How far down we've come. Truly tragic.
3
Gore and Kamala. Gormala.
I could get used to that.
2
@Puny Earthling Thanks for the laugh!
1
I think Al Gore would make a good president, but after witnessing the Swiftboating of John Kerry and the smearing of Hillary Clinton I don't think he'd stand a chance. Imagine the chants in Trump rallies about the man they think claimed credit for the Internet and promoted the greatest hoax in human history - global warming. It's time to turn the page to younger, fresher faces.
1
someone had to say it, so thanks.
meanwhile, that was then and this is now. Al Gore has contributed above and beyong the call already, he's the youngest of the group you call out, but he's 70 and deserves a rest ( or to be let off the hook).
it's time for a new, post baby boom generation to step up. we need much younger people with new attitudes and fresher perspectives to take on a world very different from the one that formed the leading contenders. much as I support many of them, I'm sorry to say they're too old. perhaps not so old they couldn't do the job, but too old to actually carry the day.
4
I remember this election well. I was deep into my doctorate and went to see my advisor. Talk turned to the upcoming election and I mentioned not understanding why Gore was vilified as "stiff" and "boring." After all, he had served the country for many years in an honorable way, cared about the environment and was a family man. All the things that people claimed were important in a president. My advisor turned to me and said, "voters may say that they want those things but will always vote for charisma." Think about it.
5
A nation turns it's lonely eyes to Al Gore, is that what you're selling us?
Al Gore is no Joe DiMaggio, and for that matter Joe DiMaggio was no Joe DiMaggio, either.
But really, I would prefer to be water boarded than to have Hilary Clinton run for president again.
You think I'm kidding?
I would gladly take one for the team than to suffer through that all over again.
She needs to show a little "grace" herself and accept the fact that it's over.
7
Al Gore is/was a great man. He was supremely articulate, superbly well-informed on the issues, and capable of great statesmanship and fairness. The country couldn't get past his stiffness, and went for the more affable, "I'd rather have a beer with" guy, in choosing W. We, the American people, are responsible for that decision which might have averted the 9/11 attaks (probably not), turned the Afghan operation into a guerilla or special-ops forces counter-attacks (and not a war), and not lead to the horrific bleeding of the Iraq War, which helped to destabilize the Middle East greatly. Any fair reading of history would have given him that. But the electorate was, shallowly, more concerned with appearances and wanted "a regular guy" to clean up the stained dress of the previous administration.
America: you got what you voted for!
2
If it was sportsmanship that prompted Al Gore to concede in 2000 it was misplaced.It would have been more courageous to fight to the end. By not doing so he set a bad pattern for the Democrats ever since, so that now the Republicans take it for granted their dirty tricks will win out.
The Democrats in Florida, and especially the toxic Georgia should not give in. Those battles may be just the template for a step that has been coming for months, how to get rid of Trump.
5
Keep in mind that the people speaking the loudest about fake voter fraud are the same ones who dismiss the need to investigate the well documented Russian interference with the election of 2016. Rick Scott has not only diminished, what might be, his eventual win in the Senate race, he has diminished his role as Governor by demeaning the state run recount he is, supposedly in charge of. If there is any voter fraud in the state he runs, he allowed it to happen.
4
Hillary will not run again -- but why shouldn't Gore?
2
"He wasn’t always easy to like. He could be patronizing and stiff."
In the late 90's I was in Nashville for a music merchant expo. On the final day my wife thought we should get out and see a local attraction. We picked Andrew Jackson's plantation.
At the entrance was a sign about a Gibson guitar unveiling and we heard that the Secret Service was there. So was Al Gore.
He was to give the key note speech. (Chet Atkins was also there as an honoree which was great for this guitar player.) I was used to the Al Gore on TV and not ready for the really warm and friendly and funny guy who gave the speech.
A couple of years later I thought if he had only given a speech like that once on the campaign he would have won in a landslide and they wouldn't have been able to steal the election.
About 2020...... are there no young people in the Democratic Party?
5
When, if ever, is this country going to deal with the Electoral College and throw it in the trash where it belongs?
Twice in twenty years it has failed to deliver the will of the people. The ability of this country to re-invent and perfect itself is suspect, and if it can't, it will fail. Or, maybe it already has and we are just witnessing its long slow death.
6
A Gore presidency would have been so different and I know that we would be in a different place now if not for the SCOTUS ruling to shut down vote counting. I like Al. I always have. He could connect with western voters on climate change, he's from Tennessee so he could woo southern voters.
2
"Trump is the yardstick by which every president and near president measures larger than before. "
Including W. But let's hope there won't be a yardstick by which Trump measures larger. Tiberius, Caligula, Nero?
1
I would vote for Gore for all the reasons cited here, but I don't think that the rest of the country would embrace this run. Look at what they elected. And the press? Gore was derided and skewered for his smarts and for being a true statesman. The ridicule heaped on him almost justifies the punishment we received for what came after--the wars, the deficit, the destruction from climate change, the nepotism and greed of the Bush's which set the stage for Trump & Co.. If a country can be that stupid the first time around, then why do we think it's going to be any smarter the second? I wouldn't bet any chips on Gore winning.
That moment passed. We had our chance and we blew it. There is no consolation right now in saying Gore was right. It's almost like having someone spit in your eye.
2
I do wish Gore would run in 2020. He would beat the oozing lies out of that Know-Nothing in the White House.
And he should choose Kamala Harris as his vice president.
We need to fix the many messes brought into this world by both W and the current Compulsive Liar and Putin toady.
3
OMG Bruni. Are you kidding?
Let's dig up FDR and maybe he an run again.
OMG, Frank. Save us? You immediately conjured multiple memes of the famous "Stuck in Iraq" dig by Al. Remember?
Gore: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."
Good grief. You didn't remember the endless gag photos of troops, captioned "Halp us Jon Carry We R Stuck Hear in Irak?" afterwards?
So you laud him for climate change advocacy, on the day the ocean warming study is revised? (and yes, I wholeheartedly believe in global warming, but, the timing....)
So then I guess you also didn't know that there are photos of climate researchers with "Halp Us Al Gore We R Stuck Hear in Ice." Too funny.
Gore launched a thousand memes. Biden, why the possibilities are endless!
@Retired and Tired
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."
That was John Kerry, my friend, not Gore. And i think that's what put the coffin nail in his campaign. Shame, but it was what it was.
A lawyer who has worked on both Florida recounts commented on MSNBC that in 2000, even though the two sides were antagonistic toward each other while they were at work, after they were done for the day, they partied together. That would never happen in 2018. Trump is still railing about the alleged unfairness of an election he WON. As for Trump's assertion that the results reported on Election Night should be accepted as conclusive, as I recall, some news outlets initially called Florida for Al Gore. He didn't whine that subsequently counting all of the votes was "unfair."
That said, I'm not sure Al Gore wholeheartedly wanted to be president. I think he wanted to focus on his environmental advocacy as a private citizen, and not be bothered with all of the day-to-day tasks of president, along with the intense and unrelenting media spotlight on every mistake he might make.
1
Thank you Frank for ushering Al Gore back onto the field of play after his injuries inflicted by:
Florida and the Republicans--remember the loyal GOP head of ballot counting in Florida, Katherine Harris?;
the Supreme Court deciding against Gore--or just the Supreme Court hurriedly deciding it could decide the outcome of the 2000 election before waiting for all the ballots to be counted?;
and the media carping away in the 2000 election that Gore is too stiff, too wooden, too smarty pants--oh, how many of us and those in the mainstream "enemy press" would likely welcome stiff, wooden and smart against Trump the Terrible in 2020!?.
Al Gore is such a contrast to Trump: intelligent, mature, civilized, thoughtful judgment, willing to care and apologize, has dedicated himself to protecting the environment, and "gets it" with country over party.
Are the American people ready for that yet? Is the Democratic Party ready--yet? I am pretty sure our world allies and the "enemy press" are. I sure am!
Thanks again, Frank!!
1
Al Gore? No thanks. When he ran for president, he was launching it from being the vice president of Bill Clinton, who gave him that job. First, he picks weirdo Joe Lieberman for his VP, then during the campaign, because of the Lewinsky scandal, he ran away from Clinton and didn't use him in his own campaign. Do you think superb campaigner Bill Clinton could have swung enough votes to put Gore in office? I do.
And it gets to that whole holier than thou trip that he and Tipper were always on. Attacking rock bands for content, etc. Then, he and Tipper become real tight with Grateful dead drummer, Micky Hart. I'm a huge Dead fan, of course, and love them all. But Mr. Phony Gore has no problem hanging with them, a group whose second name could be DRUGS, yet he can't be seen with Bill Clinton, whom he owed for his biggest place in history. Sorry Al, no thanks.
This is no time for confused wimps. We need a sophisticated, tough, fighter.
3
I'm not sure we need new blood. We need good blood, a little wisdom, some experience, and an intellectual rigor that can help position the next generation to be as prepared for the Fourth Industrial Revolution--both its challenges and opportunities--as the Chinese are right now. Frankly, Gore, who has been proactive about technology and the changing globe for much of his career, looks like a pretty sound candidate to me.
1
Al Gore conduct himself as a decent person and true patriot, but it can be argued that it would have been better for our country if he had fought back against the blatant theft of the Presidency. In addition to turning the USA and the world over to the leadership of a man with little intellect or talent, resulting in the catastrophe of the Iraq War and consequent destabilization of the Middle East, it set the stage for corruption to undermine our democracy for the benefit of a financial aristocracy.
1
@John Mardall It would have been better had he done the right thing and conceded the election instead of lawyering up and dragging out the inevitable.
1
True, Al Gore was another breed when honor and integrity among politicians reigned supreme. Country before self, before Party. But that was then and this is now. Gore would'nt stand a chance. Currently the Democrats seem to have only dinosaurs, all in their 70's. They are either boring or not with the times. The only one very different is Joe Biden! He may be the oldest but the only one suited for the current times. He is extremely smart, experienced, adaptive, dexterous and above all a personality, personality, personality. He endears to Americans, all Americans because he is what Americans see themselves as. He is honorable, honest, kind, with integrity, without a slander to his name. And most important he can WIN! I just hope all the other dinosaurs recognize that and put their weight behind him. Country before self, should be their mantra.
1
What Bruni's article should remind us is not so much that Al Gore, the man should be a candidate, but that the belief in the fairness of the system by which our democracy operates is very fragile. There is a fine line between legitimate criticism of the system's faults and the undermining of belief that it is the right way to decide who becomes our leaders and which policies become our laws. There are genuine flaws that result in elections, legislation, and government agency policies being unduly swayed by corporate money. There are real efforts at voter suppression and there is outlandish gerrymandering of districts, which affect election results. But two options are fatal for our democracy as we know it: one is to give up on voting and either withdraw from politics or express all of one's activism in street protests (which are good if they translate into altering voting patterns, but bad if they can only affect policies if they escalate to violence). The second is to distrust the system to the point that no one participates except extreme partisans and moneyed interests. A citizenry that does not believe that its democratic institutions can work or their flaws fixed, is one that eventually chooses other means to redress their grievances. That road leads to chaos.
1
Nostalgia for the road not taken is defeating. Most of us are longing for a more genteel time in politics, but I am afraid we have entered a new era of abhorrent unethical behavior that is permeating the Republican Party. The question is do we rise to the challenge, or do we rise above the fray? Al Gore chose the latter. He put country above Party, but in doing so, tragically the country and world suffered as a result. I am not suggesting unethical behavior, but it would seem to me we need to stiffen our resolve to not just quietly step aside and accept defeat that is in any way questionable.
I am glad to see Abrams in GA and Nelson and Gillum in FL not giving up the fight. They are acting ethically, and they are standing up to the bullies that Republicans have become. They are not rolling over and letting the Republicans walk all over them. How I wish Hillary Clinton had asked for a recount in states critical for electoral college votes, but then again, I am being nostalgic for that road not taken...That has to stop. "The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on, nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." - Omar Khayyam.
2
I lived in Glover Park in 2000, a few blocks from the Naval Observatory that serves as the Vice President's home. I recall seeing groups of protestors outside this residence demanding that Gore "leave Cheney's house" and calling the campaign "Sore Loserman." Immature, but with the chants that accompanied it, at the time it was jolting.
Today it seems almost cute. What wasn't cute were the busloads of Young Republicans who came to Florida to try (and nearly succeeded) to instigate riots outside vote counting locations. I recall seeing them screaming into the cameras, at police (!) and especially Florida officials trying to do the right thing--make every vote count.
2
As far as questioning the legitimacy of a fair election, I think there is no greater example than the Democrats two part strategy to de-legitimize the 2016 election of Trump. First, to go on a wild rant about abolishing the Electoral College, and stress that Hillary won the popular vote, all the while knowing that both candidates knew the result was decided by the EC, not popular vote. Second, a two year investigating into Russian hacking, and claims that Facebook ads reversed a billion dollars that Hillary spent, along with a media that was 90% in favor of her and against Trump. Like it or not, Trump won but the Democrats will not accept the result. This behavior is FAR more damaging to our democracy than questioning the sudden appearance of boxes full of ballots checked off for the Democratic candidate.
5
@paul: The Electoral College arguably nullifies a majority of the votes cast. It utterly belies US claims to be an equitable democracy. There is no national elected office representing all of the people of the US equally.
I have never had a chance to vote in a "battleground state" where voting actually matters in presidential elections.
3
Al Gore was born to politics with a father who served thirty some years in the House and later in the Senate.He revered American institutions and took his job very seriously.It is deeply unfortunate that we did not take Gore’s message seriously. There were so many jokes about Gore “inventing” the internet and so much derision of his ideas on climate change.He was so right about climate change and had we paid attention and changed our behavior then there might have been hope that by now we would have made more progress.Al Gore moved on from his loss of the presidency and went on to do important workWe had our chance to elect Gore and we blew it- it is foolish to look back at what might have been.As for age- no one over 60 should be elected President- it is a grueling job only suitable for men or women still vigorous and at the top of their game.
3
Best fight is one already fought. Re litigating 2000 gets many vicous humors all jostled and the torch lite for a march on the castle. Have to give it to the GOP , best villains Nixon,Cheney and king of evil slapstick his Trumpnish.
Gore is the most interesting of the DEM grey beards given accent on health care and rock solid credentials on the environment. Getting rich in the private sector would help with real world credibility in one way , but, the Bernie wing may reject. After three national campaigns , does he have the desire?
Think 2006 , Hillary a lock , no one daring to run except for some rookie ....stay tuned and wait for the Jefferson Democratic dinner speeches for the earliest sign of a worthy.
2
Such poise, something surely lacking in our present WH occupant and many other politicians. Gore has always struck me as a decent guy, not perfect but decent, when is the last time we saw any decency come out of the GOP. The only recent event I can think of is McCain refusing to vote down Obamacare.
3
Al Gore's concession was easily the most memorable speech of entire campaign (as was John McCain's, for very different reasons). It was marked by all the graces Mr. Bruni has already noted in his fine essay. At the time, I couldn't help but notice that the Vice President seemed ... relieved. He suddenly felt free to speak from the heart. That genuine fervor and heartfelt honesty was what we had all been missing on the campaign trail.
Afterwards, Mr. Gore used to jokingly introduce himself to audiences as "the man who used to be the next president of the States." Both his campaign strategy and his demeanor on the stump had told us here was a guy who was protecting his lead. He was running not so much to win, but to not lose.
Ditto for John Kerry. Ditto for Hillary in both 2008 and 2016.
What was so refreshing about Beto O'Rourke's campaign in Texas for the Senate was that he ran like he had nothing to lose - and, in many respects, he came out a winner. Not all respects, of course, but sometimes in electoral politics we think only in the shortest of terms. In the long run - in terms of solving the most systemic and intractable problems America and the world are facing - the inconvenient truth is that we need a paradigm shift.
I don't know if Mr. Gore could be persuaded to run again, and I'm not sure I'd want him to. If he does, he needs to run a different kind of campaign from 2000.
Al + Beto + ???
2
Usually I agree with Frank but this time he is so wrong. The problem with Democrats is that they do not nurture the next generation and the old folks keep occupying the seats of power. Bernie, Hillary, Biden should not be running in 2020 nor should Gore. Let the next generation of Dem come up the rank. The party has been suffered mightily from the Clintons hogging the prime position for too long thus led to her 2016 defeat. The intern who had sexual relation with Bill Clinton is speaking out now about the affair and how she was ill treated by the Clintons and the press. This should, I hope, forever seal the Clintons' ambition (this includes their glooming of their daughter for future political carer). Look at the result of this mid-term, younger and more diverse new generation are voted in. If the Dem want to capture the youth vote, they should never, ever put people in the 70s running in 2020. Nikki Haley would just crushed them all. Yes, we respect eh elders , their wisdom and their experience, but let the next generation run the country already.
5
Attempting to govern without a genuine and fairly-won mandate will never be a satisfying and fulfilling experience for anyone. Had Gore fought the Florida fiasco though, his presidency would have been an exercise in futility.
Too bad Clinton didn't penitentially resign to set Gore up to run as the incumbent in 2000. "Party last" is the curse of the Democrats.
1
Al Gore and Hillary Clinton as we all know won the popular vote. Both Gore and Clinton should be using their prestige to talk about and work towards eliminating the electoral college. Amendments are made to the constitution, because times and circumstances change. Mr. Bruni politics has always been a rough business and modern presidential candidates are being handicapped by an antiquated system. The majority should rule. If the majority vote is the east and west coasts so be it, because the electoral college has given us Bush and Trump. Gore did act like a gentleman, but things have gotten a lot cruder and as they say the gloves are off.
4
@HRW: The manifest unfairness of the existing slavery accommodating system has destroyed its credibility to me.
1
Thank you Frank. This column is a reminder that history is made by individuals making decisions, liking or disliking other politicians, heads of state or governments, and that normalcy or apocalypse can be the result. For the Republicans to call into question the voting process, to claim cheating and vote rigging as an election strategy in these times is truly repugnant. As for 2000, I wonder how many gold star parents out there in retrospect wish that Al Gore would have won. I think 2020 is going to be terribly partisan and that Trump, if he loses, will cry fix and not relinquish his grip on the throat of US democracy.
1
Al Gore is an important leader. Frank Bruni, thank you for another sparkling piece of writing. I owe a debt to Al Gore. His movie, of his slide show and interviews of scientists, An Inconvenient Truth, was what woke me up on Climate Change. It cleared out the confusion caused by articles in the right wing business press, about how equally scientists were divided. We now know that that idea was disinformation, inserted into politics by a few scientists on the payroll of the oil, gas and coal industry.
I hope Al Gore runs again for president. I will work hard for him. I worked for Hillary Clinton, but I do not support any woman candidate in this next election. We need beyond anything, to win, to get the country back on track with a host of problems. Climate Change and overpopulation are probably the greatest threats to our democracy and way of life. Al Gore's big negative, that he is such an ardent environmentalist, has become a plus, now that the predictions of global warming are coming to pass before our very eyes. Al Gore, please run for the presidency again.
x
David Lindsay Jr. is the author of "The Tay Son Rebellion, Historical Fiction of Eighteenth-century Vietnam," and blogs at TheTaySonRebellion.com and InconvenientNews.wordpress.com
Al Gore is a patriot. He, unlike the entire Republican Party, put country over party. After the Republican Party stole the 2000 election, Democrats worked with Bush to pass his No Child Left Behind, and supported him after 9/11. Contrast that with how the Republicans acted when Obama won in 2008. They refused to help him pull us out of the deep recession their policies caused because they didn't want to give him a win. The Republicans would rather burn down the country than allow popularly elected Democrats run it.
I hope Al Gore runs in 2020. Maybe this time the NYTimes editorial staff won't exaggerate his minor foibles as they did in 2000, paving the way for the disastrous Bush Presidency.
Nostalgia is fun. Everything seems so warm and fuzzy if you put enough years between yourself and reality. I'll politely remind you though, Gore was never exciting and he's been out of the game for years. Remember the Jeb! comeback? I'd expect about the same from a Gore reboot in 2020.
The truly shocking piece though: why are Democrats even considering a pack of septuagenarians? Gore missed his chance and declined a second. Joe Biden missed his chance and declined a second. Clinton missed her chance in 2008. However, she demanded a second one at the expense of both party and country. Sanders chance was lost to this selfishness but he probably wouldn't have been a candidate if Clinton hadn't demanded a second turn.
None of these people are candidates for 2020. The one obvious weapon Democrats can use against Trump is age. He's a mentally deranged old man. Whether his mentally disabilities are degenerative or innate is an open question but you don't even need to point them out. Just put someone younger than Santa Clause on stage and the contrast becomes self-evident.
And yet, Democrats are still musing with septuagenarians. I really don't another four years with Trump. Could you please pull your head out the sand?
Gore: nice guy. Keep working on climate change. Democrats: move on.
2
@Andy: Al Gore doesn't appreciate the cumulative effects of having three generations of schoolchildren affirm every school day that the US is "under God". I know because I asked him about it. This belief seems to have been used to justify cancelling civics education in many school districts of the US, and also to drop evolution from biology classes.
1
@Andy
"why are Democrats even considering a pack of septuagenarians?"
Because when you clog up the top of the pipeline by keeping the same ossified leadership in all of the top spots, and lose 1000+ seats over 8 years, you're kinda bound to have a big hole in the pool of potentials. So it's either the old fossils, or the green youngsters.
Nice idea but, sadly, Americans reject principled and decent men and women.
Look at what Americans did to Jimmy Carter, one of the most courageous and honorable men to ever to occupy the Oval Office. Even his Christian values could not save him from vilification by the right-wingers who found his ardent defense of human rights and humanitarianism just too much to bear. They despised him for "giving away" the Panama Canal because doing so gave the Communists a sure pathway to take over the United States.
The GOP and the extreme right media -- now with mainstream airwaves -- would have a field day with Mr. Gore. They'd bring up his "massages" to undermine his character. And it would work because such accusations stick to decent men while bouncing off of vulgar narcissists.
They would also attack his environmental protection and promotion of sustainable practices as anti-capatalist and proof that he's a socialist.
Until Americans truly embrace truth, science, decency and values over false platitudes like environmentalism = socialism, and more guns = freedom and safety, they will push aside great leaders like Al Gore.
5
@GM
Sadly, I fear that in today's USA you may be right. Any of the men and women actually qualified to be president would have a hard time getting elected, at least in part because Republicans poison the discourse with their vicious, untruthful attacks.
Yet as recently as six years ago, we re-elected the very smart and very decent Barack Obama. How far we have fallen.
You will know that I’ll gore is running when he gets his teeth fixed. He rarely shows it a full smile, because he seems to be embarrassed I his crooked yellow/grey teeth. He could will be a happy warrior, if he could just show his happiness.
Two tragic roads not taken: Al Gore in 2000 and Bernie in 2016. Both should have won and would have taken America in radically different, healthier directions from the disasters of the idiotic neocon proxy war for Israel in Iraq and the total idiocy of Trump across the board (not least "economic suicide," as Jeffrey Gundlach, no socialist, has called Trump's current course for the US). Too bad our voters have been as cluelessly self-destructive as they have been, but what can we say?
Having lived in South Florida for 40 years I will never forget how then Republican Speaker Tom Delay sent thugs to crash their way into ballot counting places to disrupt and intimidate. He later sent many of the same thugs to intimidate speakers a ACA town hall meetings all over Florida. He went to jail, thankfully, but politics has been damaged ever since. Trump and Scott are all part of that same dirty game.
2
Al Gore gave up the fight in Florida in 2000 when he needed to stay and protect our democracy. He did fine afterwards once he got over losing; the rest of us, not so much. If he wants to be involved in politics let him help push through new voting rights and a new paradigm to replace the unfairness of gerrymandering. Let him help people like Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams get elected. He had his chance to be President and he blew it.
3
Kelly Grace Smith says, in the most favored comment, "Thank you Al Gore (and Barack Obama) for being who you are, despite society's lag time."
Ms. Smith would you actually compare Al Gore and President Obama? There is no comparison.
Al Gore gave us the unregulated internet, divorced his wife shortly after he lost the election and went on to found Al Jazeera News. He's a Good Old Tennessee Boy.
President Obama is working tirelessly to preserve true democracy in OUR United States of America as a private citizen.
There is no comparison.
1
Frank Bruni neglected to mention how third party presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan also sealed Al Gore's doom in 2000. Ralph Nader siphoned off the progressive votes that normally would have gone to Al Gore. Thanks to those malfunctioning butterfly ballots elderly Jewish voters were dismayed to learn they voted for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore.
No good comes from third parties.
4
@sharon5101 I think the ballots worked exactly as desired. Some counties were counting a dimple as a vote for Gore. It didn’t even take a hanging chad. Democrats are smart to require paper ballots. They are the easiest form of voting to manipulate.
1
And Jill Stein siphoned off Hillary's votes. Bush gave us Roberts and Alito. Trump gave us Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Good point!
1
@Carol Avrin
What gave you the idea that Stein voters would have otherwise voted for Hillary?
Gore has principles and is unwilling to forsake them in order to join the modern day political swamp. Trump and the GOP on the other hand have decided that integrity, decency, honor, humility, responsibility, accountability and democracy are detriments to their hold on power.
Gore is what those on the right either forgot, or maybe never had. He is a good and decent person who literally puts country before party. The reality is he would not stand a chance in today's political venue where hypocrisy, deceit, lies, hate and unfounded fear are strengths.
Two more years of Trump may be just what we need for America to recognize that civility honor, truth, rule of law and freedom of press are not optional in a democracy.
2
@Michael - I'm sorry, you think Gore is an old-school thinker because he understands that of all the requirements of being a good leader, showing respect for the office and for the process, and not trying to undermine it, is perhaps the MOST important trait (because without that, well, look around you)? That's not "old-school" thinking, it's wisdom.
I'd gladly take either Gore or Biden as President in a heartbeat. I hadn't actually even thought about Gore as a potential, and it sounds like he's still not considering it, but oh, man ... that's a tantalizing thought. Intelligence, wisdom, respect for the office, experience, and an understanding that the President must be the President of all.
The whole "new blood" nonsense is a red herring that will tank the Dems for good if allowed to rule. Most of the new blood is so hyper-focused on earning their "inclusive" gold star that they've forgotten that their constituency actually includes all citizens, even if white, rich, old, and/or male.
There is a way to relate to the people of this country, a way to speak to them, that sees beyond our artifical divisions and recognizes us all as Americans. But ironically, for all the talk about inclusion and equality on the left, a frightening number of people seem overly concerned with a candidate's sex, race, age and sexual orientation. None of these things have anything to do with who will make an effective leader.
5
Either that or Gore will be remembered as climate change's Neville Chamberlain. He surrendered to a judicial coup and failed to fight when the earth was in the balance.
Regarding the Democratic Dinosaurs: Biden, Clinton, Bernie et al - R.I.P. While I love Uncle Joe, he should rest on his laurels and use his many talents to help the more Progressive younger people get elected. Probably the same with Bernie - young people love him, (I'm an old lady and love him too!). And Hillary? I voted for her but please, do not run again!
I'm liking Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon for 2020.....and also Beto O'Rourke.
1
I'd vote for him. Again.
Al Gore has too much integrity to be viable in today's poisonous political climate. I would love to see him as our president, but shudder at the thought of the process of him running - he would be eaten alive by the Trump side, which has absolutely no integrity, or concern for the health, welfare, and future of our country. My dream ticket would be Gore/Klobuchar, but I'm afraid that's just what it is - a dream.
1
Climate change is the issue of greatest importance to our country and to the globe. Al Gore is the only politician who has honestly said so and, like a true leader, tried to make the facts of the issue available to all. I would absolutely vote for him if he ran for president and have wished he, or someone with his intelligence, wit, grace, and decorum, would. Trump is an aberration that must recede into the trashheap of history--not forgotten, but overshadowed by politicians like Gore, who call forth our better natures because of their own.
1
Why should we expect Al Gore to step in and 'save us'? We rejected him at least in the electoral college and paid the consequences.
Al Gore has shown himself interested in the fate of the planet and has only faced scorn from so many that failed to see this attribute as necessary or a vital recommendation. And those same forces would be sure to pounce on him again. Would we serve him any better than we did the last time?
If Al Gore runs again I am sure it would be because he cares about the world more than his own ego. But with the election of Trump it seems that ego trumps everything. Are we ready for someone who truly cares?
1
Stop pushing the same old men, Mr. Bruni.
Mr. Gore gave us the unregulated internet and was a power - just like his Tennessee daddy - in the Tennessee Valley Authority, which used OUR hard-earned taxpayer dollars to enrich them and their cronies.
I'm sure he did some good things. However, he divorced his wife right after he lost the election as part of his "moving on".
WE THE PEOPLE want NEW BLOOD - not the same old recycled people who got us into the mess we are in now. There will be plenty of qualified, socially conscious Women and men stepping up to run. WE must listen to them carefully, research their commitment to democracy in OUR United States, find out where their money is coming from and vote for preservation of OUR United States for 99.9% of us.
1
@njgleaWait, you are actually against his early and pivitol advocacy of the open commercial internet? Why?
1
Three words:
Katherine. Harris. Republican.
Say what you will about gerrymandering, but the actual execution and adjudication of elections cannot be done by partisans on either side.
500 or voters in Florida decided that it was more important to 'send a message' to the Democrats, as so many said, when they pulled the lever for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election, handing the Presidency to Dubya'.
18 years later, and war continues to rage ceaslessly in the Middle East, millions of people still haven't recovered fully from the crash of '08, and our natural world is being ravaged more and more. Citizens United, and the unraveling of the Voter Rights Act.
Yet last year, once again, liberals thought 'sending a message' was more important than winning with a imperfect, yet progressive candidate, who would have picked two Supreme Court justices who will be directing the laws of this country for decades.
When will they learn.
2
Yes, Gore looks great compared to President Bonespurs - anyone would, at least to those of us not poisoned by the Cult of Trump.
But he didn't fight hard enough. He was a bit too 'graceful.' He folded too easily.
It's great he respected the 'rule of law' - but acting in that regard when the other side most definitely does NOT, was a recipe for the beginning of the end - ie, where we are now.
If Dems want to win in 2020, they need to make an internal rule: NO RE-RUNS.
We need someone NEW, and there are a number of excellent possibilities. Leave the past in the past. Run on the future!
Of course, with any luck - or justice - Trump will be in a jail cell by then.
1
If the Democrats offer Clinton, Sanders, or Gore the nomination, they will surely lose. As a Republican, I want the Democrats to retake the White House but I will not vote for anyone other than a moderate such as Joe Biden. Hoping for a political whiplash from far right to far left is a pipe dream. If you want to win the White House, stand someone that can actually defeat Trump in the electoral process. Stop mentioning the popular vote because is it an illegitimate argument. We never had that system and without a constitutional amendment, we hopefully, never will.
1
@dudley thompson Democrats ignore the people that could really move the party forward. Candidates such as Mark Warner, Senator from Virginia, would be perfect for the party. Democrats aren’t interested in a sane path though.
1
Well said. If Gore had been elected, we'd be living in a much better world today, IMHO. The US needs people like Gore, and Biden and Warren in office--Americans who put humanity and the Nation's values and democracy above political self-interest.
I wish I could think of some Republicans who fit this bill. Lincoln?
Bowler says, "They’re doing this for short-term gain without thought to long-term erosion."
There has to be more to it. How can they not see the damage they are doing? I believe the Trump Republicans have concluded that seizing or retaining power is all that counts. I believe they have decided that they will do anything to forestall the loss of unearned and unmerited white and especially white male entitlements and prerogatives. They've trashed the faith and confidence that Americans need to have in the presidency, Supreme Court justices, Congressional oversight, an independent judiciary, the DOJ, the FBI, etc. In hindsight, Gore had by far the easier choice, when he did the right thing for the country. For all that went so terribly wrong in the Bush White House, Gore and Bush do, in fact, hold and share many of the same values, and believe in many of the same principles. If you were to visit the Bush presidential library, you would see that for yourself. I still remember how it felt to watch the Republicans doing what they did in Florida in 2000. I can't quite find the right words to describe what they did, which now in hindsight looks so very much like foreshadowing.
1
Last year, I had the privilege of being trained as a Climate Reality Leader by Mr. Gore and his colleagues in the Climate Reality Project. When I applied for the training, I thought that he would just appear for a few minutes on the first day and then let the climate experts take over for three-day duration of the training. I was wrong. He was on the stage for many hours every day, tirelessly facilitating panel discussions and making presentations. He's been doing this for years, and is one of the most decent public servants of our lifetime. Al Gore's integrity and commitment will forever define my idea of leadership.
6
That Al Gore was a "good sport" and accepted the stealing of his presidency says more about his wanting to keep the balance in a two party system where the fulcrum is Wall Street rather than any higher ideals. What the younger generation wants is a candidate who will make the fulcrum the public good - a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
3
@Tom Miller Lawyering up is now code for good sport. He lost and couldn’t conceptualize that this was possible. In the end he had no choice. He was talked into what little grace he showed.
Who will you lionize next? John Kerry? Hillary?
3
@Bill Even better, they could trot out Al Franken for President.
@Bill
We can, and have, done a lot worse. I'm confident that John Kerry would have made a much better president than GW Bush.
2
Al Gore can thank his lucky stars that he didn't win in 2000. He has made piles of money off "global warming" since then (although, as the Obamas have demonstrated, being a former president is also a path to vast wealth.) In addition, his support for extraordinary rendition even in violation of international law (as documented by Richard Clarke) indicates that he too would have supported "enhanced interrogation" techniques.
So in the end he made lots of money and his reputation wasn't trashed by the hard decisions required of a president.
1
Gore is a terrific thinker/leader but Bruni missed an important point - we need another Obama /JFK/Clinton with the energy of youthfulness along with civility/elegance.......not an elder. Nobody over 55 need apply, in my view. Gore in 2000 was the right age; not now. Biden, Hillary - give it up, please and throw all your electoral power that's left behind a brilliant youthful candidate.
3
If, as you said, "his disgust with Bill Clinton’s conduct" had not eclipsed his need for Clinton’s help, very likely he would have become President and would have saved the world the Iraq war, many other tragedies and eventually probably Trump. So, for all his decency, he's one of the main, if not "the" main culprit of the catastrophe we are all living.
3
A major reason intelligent, well-qualified candidates fail to win elections in this country is how our campaigns are run. Paid TV advertising, robo-calls, an absurdly long campaign season. And a craven corporate media (Les Moonves, I'm looking at you) that profits from 1) selling/trashing candidates based on superficial measures such as personality quirks and sartorial choices, and 2) dealing in false equivalencies while failing to inform the public about the candidates' positions on substantive issues (the economy, jobs, healthcare, education, foreign policy, etc.). Bottom line: it's all about money. Paid political TV ads are banned in the UK and the campaign season is about six weeks long. Until we, the American citizens, demand better, nothing will change.
5
Our nation wasn't ready for a forward thinking president when Jimmy Carter turned down the White House thermostat and governed with an eye to peace in the wider world. We turned away John Kerry who later brokered the Paris Climate accord. I'm all in for Bloomberg 2020 because he is the leader with the vision, experience and temperament best suited for these troubled times.
2
May I remind you that, had Al Gore been able to carry his home state, he would have been president. Run again? No thanks!
2
I'd like to think Gore took the high road and America is better for it. BUT think about what followed: the thousands of Americans killed in Iraq (not to mention 500,000 Iraqis), the budget-busting tax cuts taking us from surplus into deficit, 911, Lehman Bros., the collapse of the auto industry, sanctioned torture, the Great Recession, etc., etc., etc. And now Trump.
Americans have the shortest memories in the world.
3
Gore should have fought harder. The fact he didn't is why we are in this mess. Don't pine for days when democrats rolled over. Bush was appointed President by people who his father and father's boss appointed to the courts. He won both the popular vote and the electoral college. Bush's brother took tens of thousands of the voter rolls in order to win and even that couldn't protect him, in a recount he would have lost. The NYT itself counted the ballots and determined Gore would have won.
2
The Dems and the country could do a lot worse than bringing AG back, but we really need new blood. It would be nice to see AG in a statesman role. We are lacking in adult, patriotic discourse. And I am tired of seeing the media pretend that Trump is a story. He is a damaged man who came up using a racist birth certificate lie. Please let him go on talking to no one. Remove his pulpit. Report on the behind the scenes nefarious behavior of the oligarchs (domestic and otherwise) that put him in power.
4
The year 2000 was a lifetime ago, and the country has since sunk into a slimy mess. Trump has tainted everything presidential, and his stain will remain on the office long after he's gone. Gore had principles and integrity. He respected the office of the presidency and our constitution, but today Trump stomps on both to the cheers of his fans. There's no place in politics for a person like Al Gore today. There may never be again. We are a different people now. Trump has changed us, and not for the better.
3
Thank you for the reminder of what decent behavior looks like. We see so little of it from the Clown Caravan that we forget what it looks like.
3
"A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel." - Robert Frost, Poet
Al Gore - a politician of admirable character in most every other way - fit that definition perfectly. Too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel, and I might add, too high-minded to even acknowledge that he was in a quarrel. No Mr. Bruni, this is not the kind of leader that is needed in times when the very foundations of our democracy are under attack from within, by forces that have no honesty, nor decency, nor any recognition of civilized limits on what they can/will do to achieve their nefarious ends.
Rather we must seek leaders of equally high character, but who have the confidence, resolve, and vision to acknowledge when clinging to "regular order" in the face of distinctly irregular foes, is a fools game. Let us think instead of Lincoln, Churchill, and FDR.
3
A major problem confronting all of us is the emotional immaturity of much of our electorate. I can’t help wondering how Abraham Lincoln would have fared in an age that admires rhetoric like “Lyin’ Ted,” or “Little Marco,” or “Pocahontas,” “Fake News,” and so on. No better than Gore, I surmise. And what a loss our country suffers as a result! While working the phones for Indivisible, I encountered a voter who said she bought everything Trump says!
1
Good column - but you should have mentioned even Nixon in 1960!
Just a reminder that even Richard Nixon, after losing a very close election on the basis of what might have been viewed as challengeable if not suspicious votes in Illinois and Texas, refused to take steps that might undermine the perceived legitimacy of JFK's election. That's how far we have come in the era of Trump, Scott and today's GOP.
1
Agreed, Trump would have been disruptive if he had lost the
presidency, to say the least. It's arguable that he -- and
Russia -- would have been so disruptive that we'd be experiencing
*exactly* the same bitter partisan rancor we are now, almost as
if there were a hidden script directing us to this point by one
path or another.
1
"[Gore] wasn’t always easy to like. He could be patronizing and stiff."
But he talked about policy and made realistic proposals. That seemed to have turned off reporters with little expertise in public policy who wanted to talk about personalities. Remember when G.W. Bush was "the guy you wanted to have a beer with?"
In fairness, since around October 25, 2016, the press has started doing better. Too bad it took so long.
3
Al Gore made an activist out of me. Besides voting for him, I did nothing to advance his election, and when he lost, and Dick Cheney started pressing war with Iraq, I saw the folly of my lethargy. I've worked in every election since, twice moving to other states where the results were more easily influenced. I'd like to think we can put our voting apparatus in order before 2020 and that the Democrats can unite around a candidate who is both inspiring and motivated to address climate change. So much hangs in the balance. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Bruni.
5
In 2000 Frank Bruni was in love with Bush, the charming folksy good-natured candidate; and couldn't stop denigrating the boring, nerdy "wooden" Gore.
See, for example:
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/general/news/2011/05/26/9654/think-again-the-times-frank-bruni-or-how-to-succeed-in-journalism-without-really-caring-about-issues/
1
Like Hillary, Gore looks better as time goes by. It is easy to forget how insufferable the "inventor of the internet" could be.
@RobertActually, Hillary continues to look just as bad as always. Gore has managed to repair some of his image by walking away from politics. Hillary could use some of this absence makes the heart grow fonder magic.
5
@Robert Al Gore acutally did play the biggest role of any politician in the development of the internet, starting in the 70s! His early grasp of the potential was extraordinary. Here is what the guys (Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn) who invented the two pivitol technologies that enabled the internet have to say about Al Gore: http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~fessler/misc/funny/gore,net.txt
Amy Klobuchar/Tammy Duckworth 2020! :)
al gore quit too soon. democrats will not make that mistake again
1
Al Gore? What about Chance the Gardener? "Life is a state of mind."
I have such strong visceral feeling of disgust for republican party, who are doing everything possible to undermine our shaky democracy with their racist comments like "public hanging" in Mississippi, "monkeying around" in Florida, their rejection to count every vote by Florida governor, just in case it would not go their way, and so many other hateful thing, they do like endless gerrymandering, voter suppression, redistricting, racial slurs, etc...
To imagine that this "so called party" mentally lives in a time of slavery, racial injustice, public lynching, lawlessness and countless crimes committed in a past against humanity, how in world this is still possible!!!
Wipe them all out with the clean slate, reform the government, or go back to the darkest time in our history, where no one wants to live.
4
Why did the New York Times publish an old picture of Al Gore? Why not a more recent one? Why a picture with his former wife Tipper, who divorced him over behavior unfit for a marriage? I'm sure she appreciates being pictured with the man that soiled their marriage. that. She is not Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Al Gore is one of the reasons I stopped voting for Democrats. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he proved to be such a phony and a fool, doing the Macarena at campaign rallies and paying feminist Naomi Wolfe $15,000 per month for advice on earth-tone shirts. How superficial is that?
Like HRC he "won" the popular vote, but lost the election because he did not win the Electoral College. Thank God, the Founding Fathers had enough foresight to create the EC so that flaky candidates like Al Gore and evil candidates like HRC would not win the presidency!
3
try acting like a man and saving others first and then yourself.
To every thing there is a season and for Al Gore, his time may have come and gone. He would make a very good President and he is just what the world and the country needs after the wrath of Trump. Trump has opened a porthole into a universe of insanity where any lying maniac can be President, brains and ability don't matter, it's all an illusion and the President is the ring master of the circus of chaos. Pulling the country back into reality too fast may be too much of a shock to the system. The country may have to go further down the Trump rabbit hole until we find our way out of its wonderland, a point of total and absolute contrition.
2
I can't believe that anyone would be nostalgic for the tainted Florida presidential election of 2000. Ah I remember it well--those bizarre stories of hanging chads and those malfunctioning butterfly ballots where many elderly Jewish retirees accidently voted the notoriously anti-Semitic Pat Buchanan instead of their hero Al Gore. My late mother joked that she voted for Hitler by mistake.
However it was also the time of a different Democratic party and how the mainstream media covered the news. Al Gore was gracious in defeat and the Democrats accepted the loss without being malicious toward President-elect Bush. The pundits didn't write rude, disrespectful columns about George W Bush. The talking heads on TV were more subdued whenever they discussed President-elect Bush. No one acted like a crybaby or a sore in print or on the air.
Now I feel wistfully nostalgic for those more innocent times.
Al Gore represents everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party. After a group of screaming, paid Republican hacks stopped the vote recount in Miami, SCOTUS went along. It was completely lawless, yet Gore meekly accepted it.
When the GOP smeared Purple Heart winner John Kerry and George W. Bush echoed that during a debate, Kerry should have replied "I was fighting for my country while you were a male cheerleader. How dare you!." Instead, he let the moment pass and meekly went on the defensive.
Why do Republicans rule this century? Some say it's because the Democrats always bring a knife to a gunfight.
If only. They bring a pillow.
www.newyorkgritty.net
1
It was kind of you to use an old photographs, Frank.
1
I've got his slogan: Make Gore President Again!
AlGore took a pass on running in 2004 because he was making too much money with his phony-baloney climate change activities.
3
"I accept the finality of this outcome,” he said. “This is America, and we put country before party.”
We do? Maybe we did. I thank Gore for the reminder."
Statesman. True Patriot. Those are the words that define Al Gore.
Narcissist. White nationalist. Those are the words that define Donald Trump.
And if you want to define any particular citizen of the United States, simply ask which one of these two men they admire.
IOW, are you a person who believes in the benefits of living in welcoming society...or are you a sociopath.
2
It would have been a different and better world if Al Gore had been awarded the presidency that he actually won. The electoral college system is a stupid way to select a president. It has given us George Bush and Donald Trump. Enough said.
4
Thank you, Frank Bruni ~ I had the same thought out of the blue earlier today:
Save us, Al Gore! Where are are you, Al? Where are you??? Please, please come back...
The USA---no country for gentlemen or gentlewoman.
Could there ever be a person of intelligence in the White House again?
2
Let us recall that no less an authority than the New York Times, in its extensive study, found that Bush, maybe the dumbest president of all time, won the election fair and square.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/us/examining-vote-overview-study-disputed-florida-ballots-finds-justices-did-not.html
1
Oh, please! Al Gore's acceptance of an unconstitutional Supreme Court ruling in 2000 wasn't an example of grace in defeat, it was a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE BAD IDEA! It was the first high-profile instance of the Democratic Party rolling over in submission, and the Republicans have been gleefully tearing at that soft, exposed underbelly ever since.
1
Being that we are in the hypothetical, can you imagine if Trump had lost in 2016? Especially in a state where a tiny recount margin confirmed that he had lost?
I can imagine it. You would have had an armed ultra right wing insurrection. Back the I was listening and reading the crazy blogs out there. They were just waiting for a call to arms by a thwarted Trump, and if he had lost he would have issued it... especially if he even sniffed at a decision by Democrats to go after his Russian ties and illegal campaign and business practices.
I would love to see Gore take Trump on in 2020. An honest man who can be trusted to heal this country, a momentous and gigantic task these days, versus the source of the country's daily, noisy argument with itself. I think the American people would overwhelmingly elect Gore (throw in a strong female vice president candidate and promise 50% female cabinet members and judicial appointments for added incentives).
After the election Trump would be dragged kicking and screaming back to the Times's sixth page... except for the occasional news of criminal indictment.
Wouldn't that be nice?
2
I had not thought of Al Gore as a potential candidate until this article!
If people are looking for a "good" white male to save us--afraid to run another woman or person of color that would give the toxic backlashing patriarchy another hit of their crack cocaine of hatred--I think we could not do better than Al Gore.
By now, he has "outsider" status to give him a fresh perspective AND the massive relevant experience that makes him superbly qualified to govern well AND the clear integrity, wisdom, and maturity to guide the extraction of our country from the Trump Toilet.
In the wake of the recent UN report on climate showing that we have WAY less time than we thought to put massive brakes on human contribution to climate change--Al would be a superb and timely choice.
As a genuine "new south" white southerner who is wise to all the subtle ins and outs of hard core southern racism (most of which in my experience are opaque to the typical mid-westerner), he may be able to buy the country some time for Trump's base to settle down, absorb the realities of the modern world, and re-ground themselves in our country's deepest purpose of "We the People" and "Liberty and Justice for All."
In my heart of hearts, I would rather have very well qualified woman and/or person of color as President. But if the great divide we now suffer from can start to be healed, it might be worth the wait.
2
It was truly shocking at the time how the whole journalist community seemed to abandon Gore and the pursuit of the true winner. Not unlike the situation with Madame Clinton.
The world, especially the Middle East would be a very different place. Cheney would be a shadowy figure reaping billions off of ill gotten gains but he wouldn't have had the power to destabilize an entire region.
Gore would have flatten Tora Bora to get bin Laden and then called it a day. Technology would have been better regulated and available to the masses at a more reasonable price and the environment/the earth would be in better shape. A tall order? Yes, but Gore was the man to see it through. Remember the brown shirts? The young men screaming outside the election office in Florida? There were about ten of them!
1
Honorable men lose all the time...the men who refuse to break the law, those who don't engage in insider trading, those with thoughtful responses about what's best for all, not what's best for them. These people are model citizens, and humble.
Americans, since the Revolution, love the rabble-rousers, those who appeal to them on a visceral level, those who stoke their anger. I believe it must be from the high of an adrenaline rush, or the satisfying certitude of self-righteousness.
Americans did evolve. Slavery was abolished, women could vote. Racism was no longer publicly acceptable until Trump. Americans have never been perfect or always done the right thing (think Viet Nam, slavery, neo-Nazis, etc.), but there was a steady trend toward acceptance of differences (or at least living with them).
So how to get adrenaline junkies--the American public--to think rationally, to consider long-term consequences, to want humility in a presidential candidate? To be aware of both visceral feelings and rationality, and know which to vote with?
In 2020, the Dems will need someone with charisma, a sense of humor, and a keen intellect who can persuade voters toward a progressive agenda. A thinker who can pull people to his/her side, not with fear, but with vision. A person with fire in their belly who can deftly turn aside Trump's insults and nicknames.
HRM definitely not. Biden, no. Gore, maybe. Bernie, Beto, Warren, Joe Kennedy III...yes.
1
Al Gore and the 2000 election is the greatest political myth in American politics today. Gore would still have lost even had the recount continued. He was put up on a pedestal for refusing to accept defeat.
“This is America, and we put country before party.”
Words that no Republican today in Congress or in the Executive branch can utter. Think about that America.
2
What about Al Gore? That's a great idea for the Democrats. I'd vote for him. But the Democrats will not run Al Gore. they will run someone who is either too mainstream or too liberal. Guarantee it. Wait and see.
1
“I accept the finality of this outcome,” he said. “This is America, and we put country before party.”
Quite a contrast to those smashing windows, burning cars, and chanting "NOT MY PRESIDENT!" during the 2017 inauguration.
Al Gore has been my hero since I read a section of his book "Earth in Balance" decades ago. The only negative thing I can say about him is that he had no business giving up in Florida before all the votes were counted, FOR THE SAKE OF THE COUNTRY!!!!
How different the planet would be if he hadn't. I can't blame him for being slightly naive in believing Bush/Cheney cared about the good of the country, so did many of us. I shudder to think of the endgame of insanity we live in today.
2
Al Gore is a serious, smart and decent man. There's plenty of room for a calm and thoughtful voice like his in the Democratic party, but he'd make a terrible candidate for President. He would be a wonderful Secretary of State or national security advisor.
The democrats need a new generation of leaders. Al gore is a decent mane but I would argue that his time has passed.
I like Al Gore, too, but a little more fight would have been in order. Instead, what did we get? Bush, a disastrous, destabilizing war in Iraq, and many thousands dead. The legalization of torture. Extreme rendition, and many other
horrors. Compared with Trump, W. seems civilized, and yet
this is what he gave us. Hard to justify what led up to that.
1
May be if Ralph Nader and Jill Greene hadn't run in 2000 and 2016 we wouldn't have had Bush or Trump.
1
Al Gore is so very decent.
How I wish he could have been our president rather than George Bush. It was not to be because the Supreme Court in its great unwisdom chose Bush and Colin Powell who would ultimately lie our country into an interminable war.
However, it is not too late for Al Gore to run again!
George W. Bush was the last "consensual" POTUS. He was a republican, but he was also a WASP, born in Connecticut and raised in Yale. No matter how the Americans like to call themselves a classless society, fact is he was born and raised to rule.
Besides, the USA had just come from a two-term democrat POTUS, so the people was, in general, ok with the alternation of parties, an essential ingredient if you want to keep the illusion of democracy. That's why the Florida scandal was not such a scandal at the time, and Bush was easily reelected in 2004.
The economy was also ok by the time the 2000 election happened, so the scandal received an extra layer of accident or technicality.
During the Clinton impeachment proceedings Gore was supportive of his President. If LBJ had been VP he'd have stuffed his schedule with backroom meetings to discuss how to grease the skids to Clinton's presidency. Yeah, Gore looks compared to today's president. Imagine Trump in that role. He'd make Frank Underwood look moral.
Like Hillary, Gore has been demonized and would be a deer in the headlights, failing to estimate how low Trump would go. And who can who can forget Tipper's commission investigating song lyrics. Still, Jerry (Moonbeam) Brown has proven you can overcome being demonized by the Republicans. But it ain't easy.
Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis have proven what we knew weeks ago that they are unfit for any office much less a US Senator or a Governor of one of the most populated states. Shame on the two of them. FL you must do better in 2020.
2
Go back to the spoiler Nader in Florida and NH. Then we got 8 years of bad stuff. Hopefully 4 or less years of really bad stuff with Trump.
If Florida goes under water due to the sea level rise brought on by global warming, it will be tragic karma of the 2000 election.
That said, Democrats would do well to do a much better job of reminding everyone of how guilty trump’s ‘presidency’ is totally illegitimate due to the popular vote.
And although I am an Al Gore fan, I strongly and enthusiastically support Beto O’Rourke for President!
1
Al Gore is a quitter, and he tried to sell us some 'I'm a gentleman' baloney to cover it. He owed it to the country to fight the travesty in the courts tooth and nail. Think of the price we paid, the phony Bush-Cheney war in Iraq. In past American history it has taken months to decide an election, and the republic didn't fall. The fraudulent Florida election behavior should have been exposed and opposed. I'm so glad to see the current crop of Democrats are willing to go to the mat to fight for an honest vote count.
3
Yes I would vote for him but Trump would attack him mercilessly and we need someone younger, better looking, and definitely more aggressive. You have to fake the electorate, with good looks, carry a gun in public more than once, have good hair, and above all know how to fight back. No more swift boating, too early for a woman and please no more great candidates that won’t fight back.
Instead of crying the blues about losing a far more controversial election in 2000; Gore dedicated himself to a cause that he firmly believed in and probably has had a more positive impact on the nation than he would have as president. Unlike Hillary who continues to cry the blues without looking in the mirror to reflect on her own culpability and in contrast to your assessment her total lack of accomplishments ; Gore assessed where he could best fit in and make a positive impact
1
Oh, jeez, what an article. Sorry, didn't read all the comments, so I might be regurgitating here. Al Gore. The man whose wife did more for cultural censorship in the US than Trump will ever hope to achieve. The man who reinvented the wheel by making a 2006 (!) documentary on global warming. That's a long way away from after-the-fact. The man who didn't ask for a vote recount on account of political grace, allowing one of the worst presidents in US history to dupe the American people into several wars, Guantanamo, financial crisis, etc. etc. If that's not valor... Not to mention Georgie Porgie's love of all things oil; how does that factor in to the inconvenient truth about climate change? And now someone is poignantly rehashing, a time when politics had grace? A time of Al Gore? Wow. Trump got someone nostalgic for Al Gore. We have fallen on black days, indeed.
1
Boy oh boy. Can't the Democrats find a 2020 proto-president that is under 60? How about Adam Schiff? Ethical. Competent. Trained in politics and DC.
Someone with brains, moxie and magnanimity on the Dem side of the equation needs to start nosing toward the gates -- it's high time for the Social Security generation to step aside.
2
@Rabble
Sir, I am of the Social Security generation and I am with you! We need fresh, young, intelligent candidates in 2020. Folks in their 80s and 90s should not be running our government! Term limits!!!
1
Yes! Mr Gore, if there has ever been a time for you this is it. You are the one viable candidate committed to the health of our beautiful planet. You are needed. Now. Absolutely.
1
You can say that it's noble, or you can say that it's just weakness. Imagine a President Gore not invading Iraq. That alone would have changed the course of recent history so much for the better. Imagine also that President Gore would have been serious about climate change. Maybe even more important.
Instead you got a few more years of most people trusting in the institutions - a trust that was completely misplaced, anyway. What is good about people thinking that the Supreme Court is not just another partisan tool when it is, in fact, just another partisan tool?
1
Just imagine where America would be on the issue of Climate Change if Gore had become President instead of Bush.
Let us not forget that Al Gore conceded, as Prof. Foley says in another article in this paper: “It was Gore’s concession the night after Bush v. Gore that ended the controversy in Florida,” Mr. Foley said. “There were mechanisms by which Gore, if he’d wanted to fight on, could have.”
Similarly, Hillary Clinton conceded, reportedly because Obama urged her to, so that she never demanded a recount in the three midwestern states that cost her the election. Then there is John Kerry who never asked for recounts. And, more recently, Mr. Gillum in Florida conceded, though he recanted a few days later, in stark contrast to Ms. Abrams in Georgia.
Despite decades of problems with voting machines, voter suppression, and so on, Democrats have chosen not to contest results, so as not to rock the boat of democracy. We can only speculate what history would have looked like if they'd bravely chosen to exercise all of their legal rights as political candidates.
Finally, I can't help point out that the New York Times and other mainstream newspapers in the past have hardly been helpful in pushing for a presidential candidate's right to full legal recounts. Only "sore losers" do so, used to be their mantra and "let's get this over with"...
1
When I read the headline, "Save Us Al Gore", I thought Frank's piece would be about the fires in northern California.
Frank Bruni, this article will not in any way diminish the role you played in defeating Gore in 2000. Feeling guilty about what you did?
1
I remember that, during the campaign for President, Gore made an appearance on the Tonite Show. He was often ridiculed for being formal and aloof; to spoof himself he was wheeled out onstage on a two-wheeler, like a crate.
Self-deprecating good humor - what a concept in a politician!
Al Gore was a class act in 2000. He was also boring enough that Rob Reiner was hired to breathe a little life into Gore’s style on the stump.
The stiffness of Al Gore gave the impression of someone who is very afraid of making a mistake – in sharp contrast to George W. Bush, whose malaprops and casual frat-boy style was enjoyed by many voters and journalists.
Bush also had the advantage of Laura Bush, whom everyone liked, in comparison to Tipper Gore, who seemed a bit of a nag and a prude.
Al Gore’s decision to distance himself from Bill Clinton may have been a mistake, although the nation was experiencing Clinton fatigue. A far, far worse mistake came when Gore chose Joe Lieberman as his running mate.
To those of us Democrats convinced that Al Gore was much more capable and honest than Bush, the hope was that the looming visage of the self-important Dick Cheney would turn voters off.
If Al Gore ran in 2020, the country would be lucky to have him. Unless a charming, younger candidate with solid credentials emerges for the Democrats, Gore would be a great contrast to the sleazy incompetence of Donald Trump.
If the Florida recount is raising Democrat hopes for another Gore candidacy they're in worse shape than we thought. Besides, why are we worried about the Florida election, anyway? Under Democrat rules of climate change isn't Florida soon to be submerged?
Would have been better had Gore fought the good fight. Under the cocky, smarmy Bush we got 9-11, two unfunded, deadly and unnecessary trillion-dollar wars, a spent-down budget surplus, a recession and high unemployment, Dick Cheney, a childish boycott of French wine and French fries, and a flyover of Katrina and its drowning victims. Today, Bush is portrayed as a statesman type when compared to the wretched Trump. The bar is that low. How shameful that we forget what he did to our Democracy.
1
An inconvenient fact: Al Gore, son of a famous Tennessean, former Representative and Senator from Tennessee, could not carry Tennessee in 2000.
Tells you all you need to know about Gore, the Democratic party, and this article.
If only Gore had won...repeated to myself countess times for eighteen years, no endless war, a real plan implemented to deal with climate change...all fantasy now.
Nope, I don't buy this. Gore's high-mindedness and gentlemanly accession are quaint and wasted on the Machiavellian Republicans.
The election was ultimately stolen --- made all the more appalling by the subsequent lies of Bush and Cheney to gin up the war in Iraq.
The blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people is on the hands of the Bush administration and ultimately, us. Not to mention the trauma caused to our own troops. And the destabilization of the Middle East, unlikely to heal anytime soon.
I m sure that a president Gore would not have lied about WMDs, funneled cash to greedy U.S. mercenaries like Blackwater, backed torture, or bullied the innocent.
As odious as Trump is, though, he has not gotten us into a full-on undeclared shooting war --- yet Bush and Cheney are apparently insulated from war crimes accountability.
To me, the ultimate measure of a president is how many innocents die under his watch. If we can manage to stay out of war, despite Trump's projectile vomit-worthiness and IQ of an axolotl, then we are in a good place.
However, Trump is accountable for his despicable emboldening of Netanyahu. As a Jew, I view with horror the hypocrisy, bellicosity, goofy religiosity, and crooked land grabs galore that Trump and Kushner enable.
1
Frank, you claim one reason Al Gore was difficult to like was that, "He let his disgust with Bill Clinton’s conduct eclipse his need for Clinton’s help."
Take a look at the calendar. It's 2018. Al's disgust with Bill's dalliance with a 21 year old intern makes Gore more, not less, likable. Refreshing even.
It's ironic that the traits that Gore showed in accepting his loss are exactly those that would have served him well in the White House.
What a loss!
1
Thank you for the tribute to Al Gore, a true patriot, back before the word “patriot” was defamed by right-wing tea party separatists.
Of course Rick Scott is king of fraud after his double-dealing six-million dollar fraudulent Medicare scam in Texas. Fraud is his best friend, no wonder he keeps calling on it to help him out.
Democracy is in peril in the US because so many Republicans do not believe in it, but rather believe that the country would be a better place if it were controlled by white oligarchs. The latter will stop at nothing to keep a democratic majority from governing. Democrats need to develop a tough skin and realize that the future of the country as a rules-based, fact-based and truth-based polity is at stake.
Everything looks better in the rear-view mirror.
I remember the 2000 campaign well......Gore's problem was that he can look wooden and stiff. His words sounded prepared and memorized, robot-like and not very emotional. In 2000, the internet media frenzy was still just getting organized. In today's atmosphere of memes, video bites and spontaneous cell phone video grabs, he will come across even worse than last time.
And that's a shame, because Gore is a man of proven action, who's thoughts, Ideas, and accomplishments SHOULD put him at the head of the pack.
1
Al Gore did the nation proud but his loss was also the fuel for party appartchicks, lawyers and partisans to begin a generation long battle for party over country at all cost. We've been victims of our two party system and their continuous disregard for country. The parties are now in lock step with each other. "We must win, we must dominate and then the deeply selfish and partisan policies of the other side will finally be tossed aside for the divinely inspired good that we represent". Maybe a Bloomberg+ Republican VP could bring things back to the center ....
With all due respect Mr. Bruni, I wish that somewhere in your tribute to Al Gore that you would acknowledge the critical, negative role that you, Maureen Dowd and others in the media played in derailing Gore's election with your dreadful coverage of his campaign.
We were treated to endless discussions by you about such relatively trivial matters as wearing earth toned clothes, "inventing the Internet", the Buddhist Temple, and his aloof personality, etc.
Certainly if the roles were reversed and Gore were the reporter and you the candidate, that is how he would have written this column.
3
Gore was weak; he couldn't save himself.
This isn’t a story about Al Gore wanting to be president. It’s a story about wanting a president to be like Al Gore.
1
I loath the so called "Green Party" (it's anything but "green"!) and what it did to this country in 2000 and 2016. The personal ambitions of two very mediocre demagogues hijacked the world's future.
A man nothing like Trump? Yes, in his competence, intelligence, and pro-environmental position. But he and Trump have one wretched thing in common. They are both adulterers.
The theft of the presidency from Al Gore made me sad in 2000, and in retrospect it's even more sad. The juxtaposition of the intelligent, thoughtful Gore with incurious, anti-intellectual George Bush Jr. was disparate enough, but compared to the current occupant of the White House, Bush Jr. is positively scholarly.
It makes me sad for our country that Democrats put forward intelligent candidates like Obama and Gore, while the GOP promotes increasingly ludicrous buffoons like Bush Jr., Palin and now (ugh) Trump. And a large segment of the country chooses the idiot every time. Twice now -- twice! -- in the last two decades the loser of the popular vote has won the presidency. And twice, those popular vote losers have wreaked havoc on our nation.
Seriously, someone like Trump should never get within a mile of the White House. He lacks the intellect, temperament and, frankly, interest to manage the government. If Trump were a character in a movie, we would describe him as being too much of a caricature. He degrades the dignity of the presidency and the White House daily.
Gore wasn't my ideal candidate; he is too far into the corporatist wing of the Democrats for my taste. And yet, for all his flaws, he is an intelligent and informed person. And for that, he was disparaged and sneered at. Will we ever respect knowledge and intelligence again in our leaders? Or is Trump the harbinger of a new, imbecilic presidential archetype?
1
Get a grip, Frank. Just look at the new class of Democratic Representatives. That is the future. It is rather stunning that
20 years later, nothing has changed in FL elections. Besides,
have you seen Gore lately?
Ah, Frank – waxing nostalgic for the good old days when candidates were honorable and the system had integrity. Except, in 2000 the Republicans were not honorable and the system clearly lacked integrity. And you praise Gore for not pointing that out? That is the spirit you are suggesting we need in 2018?
A democracy does not run on the honor system, Frank. To ignore flagrant violations of the democratic process is not chivalry; it is a fool’s game. Quietly accepting stolen outcomes is not a statement of faith in the system, but an act of cynicism. You may call Gore a hero, but I think he lacked spine.
And speaking of that: Biden, Clinton, Gore – dinosaurs all. The center-right Democratic Party has an aging stockpile of old-school thinkers. They are not what we need in 2018 or 2020. They are all wealthy and aligned with Wall Street. And they represent the spineless tradition of the Democratic party for the last thirty years.
We need new blood Frank, not old ideas that got us into the mess we find ourselves today. We need someone with a spine.
283
@Michael Tough stance. But you are correct. I live in the 19th Congressional District of New York. I am a life long Democrat. I was not an early supporter of Antonio Delgado because, frankly, I was scared that someone named Delgado could not win here. Wow, was I wrong.
You are right about all you say. I am 74......I was skeptical even about Hilliary because of her age....of course I supported her 100% !
15
Who are the likely prospects you have in mind?
8
@Michael Bingo! Couldn't have said it any better than you. When I hear about HRC thinking about running again I just cringe. The same from Biden et al. No more neoliberal Third Way Democrats, please.
21
So consider the following excerpt from this column and compare it with the craven decision by Republicans in 2008 through 2012 to obstruct in every way possible the agenda of a duly elected Democratic President regardless of the needs of the country and its citizens in order to position themselves to retake power.
[Gore noted that he could have “launched a four-year rear-guard guerrilla campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush presidency, and to mobilize for a rematch.” Some people urged that. But, Gore added, “There’s so much riding on the success of any American president and taking the reins of power and holding them firmly, I just didn’t feel like it was in the best interest of the United States, or that it was a responsible course of action.”]
In Florida, we witness yet another example of Republicans selecting a point in the process where they have a lead in the vote tally and then hollering to stop the vote count. And if you believe their raw desire for power includes their concern for the average citizen, then you have not been paying attention.
The famous statement (attributed to various sources) "In a democracy, people get the government they deserve", is compelling. And if the US were truly respectful of and thus practicing democracy I would agree. But when the anachronistic electoral college, extremely disproportional representation in the senate, and extreme gerrymandering are allowed to create a situation in which the popular vote, even when margins are substantial, becomes irrelevant, it is difficult to accept that we deserve this government. And clearly we do not, more than half of us anyway. In another time Al Gore would have been elected, and so would Clinton. But this is no longer that time, and this is not currently a functioning democracy. Hopefully last Tuesday is a harbinger of change.
2
Trump and his cohort established the fraud angle early in the 2016 campaign just in case they needed it.
It is now obvious that Trump won only because of fraud: social media's swift spreading of lies and fake news; the outside influence of Russia and Wikileaks with Roger Stone and friends assisting; most likely cheating by some right leaning Secretary's of State and, last but not least, unfortunately, James Comey's untimely and ill thought out announcement about emails that lead to this historic crisis of a presidency we are now enduring.
Yes, Donald J Trump, there is fraud in elections but it is invariably generated by people like you who don't know how to win fairly or lose graciously so you do your best to steal or skew the voting rights of so many Americans.
198
@HBD They didn't *establish* the fraud angle - they just pulled it to the forefront. Routine charges of "election fraud" have been a consistent theme played by Republicans (as an ALEC ploy?) to serve as a rationale for their string of voter-suppression legislation at the state level.
10
@Donald Duncan
Voter suppression v’s picture I. D
Why is production of identification prior to voting such a bug a boo to the left, who automatically presume its voter suppression.Or is that one of the knee jerk talking points.
@Donald Duncan
I'm not saying they invented the voter fraud angle, Donald; just that Trump used it as a talking point from Day 1 so he had a rationalization in case he lost...heaven forbid...
That the country would have been better off if Al Gore had won is a vast understatement. Still, he wasn't electable then and isn't now. I've lost all faith in our electorate's ability to discern -- no care about -- truth and doing what's right.
1
Democrats have to understand what the republicans already do: it doesn't matter who the nominee is. We will fight like mad and vote for him or her. Yet all too often, and Gore is a great example of this, we start in with the particulars about the lifeboats. We don't like the fabric on the seat cushions. We don't like the wood the boat is made from. We have to learn to get in the lifeboats. If you're looking for pure once-in-a-generation charisma, Beto O'Rourke is the one to beat. Bernie Sanders cannot and will not ever win either the primary or the general. Biden can win the primary on Obama's coattails. I'm down for Gore. I'm down for anyone. I will support and vote for anyone and I hope that anyone who wants to save this country will follow suit.
1
@Socrates (below)"These were horrific acts in American history and reflect the need for a peaceful, orchestrated revolution by the citizenry against the rapacious, right-wing that demands power at all costs and cannot stand democracy or the will of the American people."
Yes indeed. Viva La USA! Without storming the Bastille. This election shows the way. And, step by step, Democracy will prevail.
gore did us a terrible dis-service by not challenging the 2000 results.
gov. jeb bush, brother of the candidate, stripped the voter rolls of more than 94,000 citizens, nearly all black & hispanic.
meanwhile electronic voting machines in volusia county & elsewhere flipped tallies at crucial moments.
as vp gore crushed legitimate attempts by the black caucus to challenge the florida electoral college delegation on the floor of the congress.
he has since done nothing to abolish the electoral college, which has now given us donald trump.
and, of course, the corporate democrats have spent the last 18 years trashing ralph nader, who had absolutely nothing to do with gore's loss. no matter how the votes were cast, jeb was going to find a way to put his brother in the white house.
it's all well and good to talk about al being a "good loser." but by so doing the electoral system went unreformed. and now look at what we've got!
3
Yes, just what we need: a centrist authoritarian. Thanks a lot, Frank.
There is much irony in the fact that when Gore decided to save the country from self-destruction by conceding, he actually hastened it, because he didn't see (or belive) that the Republicans would continue their nascent trajectory of party over country and win at all costs to its current extent.
I can understand (with my head) his level-headed and concilliatory reasoning. By even back then, I sense (with both my breain and my gut) that the post-Gingrich Republicans would forevermore fight dirty. So, while my head understands, my heart may never be able to forgive Gore.
2
I still have PTSD from the Florida recount. The world would be an entirely different place if Al Gore had won. I’m convinced he would never have invaded Iraq, and we would well be on our way to dealing with climate change. My ex-husband loves alt-history, I never was into it myself, but if there ever was an alt-history book that needs to be written, it’s the pivotal and tragic outcome of Bush vs. Gore.
I’m afraid it is all too late now. The human race will destroy the biodiversity on which it depends, and even if we manage to engineer ourselves out of this, it will be a dark and soulless world with only human cockroaches left to feed on what is left. Why do Sapiens set ourselves apart from all the other living things on this earth? Heartbreaking.
315
@Beattlejuice
First off - it's NEVER too late,
All the havoc Trump is wreaking on society and the world can be reversed with someone sane in the WH.
Finally - HOW do we convince Al Gore to run in 2020?
The contrast between him and Trump is like the difference between a child and a man. Literally, that is the difference.
And while we are at it the country will be rid of the mannequin Melania. Be best - Be THE Best is what it should be. She's pointless and useless though that's better than the destructiveness of Trump.
God save us all in 2020! Persuade Al Gore to run. He'd win.
18
@Beattlejuice When you think about it, there isn't a single species on this planet that wouldn't benefit if humans weren't here.
That's a pretty sad indictment.
17
@Jim In Tucson
Don't misanthropically paint us all with the same broad brush. "We're all terrible" is precisely the kind of propaganda that lets people vote for the Bushes and Trumps of the world over the Gores and Clintons (or to stay home) to spite them for being more popular than the Naders and Sanders, not to mention the Obamas.
The point of grasping that Al Gore was and remains the better man in 2000 and again in 2020—from a policy standpoint alone—is that he represented those of us who want to be more ecologically responsible as a species and know it won't happen without political leadership setting and enforcing changes and doing so in a way that is pro-business and pro-infrastructure and pro-jobs so the Republicans can't just pull out their playbook of lies and fear-mongering that it's all going to bring about another Great Recession.
This has already succeeded with the EPA, with CFCs and acid rain, it can happen again if we can ensure that our metaphorical dinosaurs are not defined by whether their age is over 70 but by whether their IQ—and, just as importantly, their EQ—are.
The truth is exactly the opposite from what you state. The past is past. At this point, the only beings already on this planet who can save it are humans.
So let's get on with it.
10
Thank you for reminding us Frank how our country used to be. We used to be a pinnacle representing law and order for the world to aspire to. Of course everything was not perfect back then, but oh how far we have fallen in those 18 years. Lies, greed, money, power have consumed those in power without a thought of what it actually means to our standing as a great nation. Twenty years ago Gore was warning us of the dangers of climate change and 20 years later we are witnessing the effects. He should feel vindicated, but now lies, and greed and distortions and fake news has taken center stage as we watch Rome burn.
And it reminds us also that it was one of many reasons that contemporary attempts (increasingly successful, it seems) at revisionist history vis a vis George W. Bush are odious. To see him depicted as some Churchill or Eisenhower doing watercolors - and of veterans, no less - the same whose lives he and Cheney treated like cheap fodder - to hear him praised and embraced lovingly by the Obamas (Michelle recently saying how she loves him) and the Clintons and to again be reminded that Nancy Pelosi said "impeachment is off the table" and Obama saying he wanted to look forward, not back, when it came to investigating Bush-Cheney for evidence of war crimes, among other offenses, is also to remind us that Bill and Hillary Clinton's role in Gore's loss gave us Bush-Cheney. Ripple effects have led us to this horrific Trump era that we can only hope is coming to an end soon with Trump's inglorious end to his monarchical mania and despotic, dictatorial dreams.
2
I'd like to see him retake a leadership role within the Democratic party's biosphere. Smarter than ever and a more relaxed speaker, Gore communicates with an authenticity that our current discourse sorely needs.
Come back Al Gore. America needs you to deliver your message once again.
1
For several weeks now, I have been saying Gore should run in 2020; I hope he does!
2
In his concession speech Al Gore quoted a line spoken by his father thirty years earlier when conceding defeat in his bid for re-election to the United States Senate: “No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out.” Whatever one thinks of Al Gore, Jr.’s time as a politician, his life since 2000 has shown the truth of his father’s words just as his own concession and the grace with which he retired from public life have shown him to be one of our best former politicians.
2
Mr Gore would certainly be a better President than Mr T. Not terribly difficult, give me a minute and I could provide a list of five people who would realistically fit that description.
What makes Mr Gore different is that he has spent a lot of time and money doing things which have nothing to do with his political aims (if indeed he still has any). As far as I know he rarely (if ever) shoots his mouth off even about matters on which he could safely claim to be an expert.
Anyone who knows him well could do worse than to talk to him about whether he has the strength and the will to take a shot at the next presidential vote. Many people would be glad if he did.
Gore did leave us models of decent and constitutional behavior, but no one person can "save us," Al or anyone else. The 2000 election threw up all sorts of low-life creatures: the Gucci Riot, John Bolton, and Roger Stone, for example. They seemed like discrete eruptions on the body politic. Now we have a sitting governor competing for a senate seat. Not only does he lack the grace to reuse himself, but he accuses his opponent of fraud. This is a meme that has gone through the GOP like a wildfire. Isn't it time to test the law on such calumnies? Trump's constant: Lock her up? Now, Christie may be in the running to replace Sessions. Why is he even mentioned in that context, having led a rabid crowd in declaring Hillary "Guilty" on a long list of "charges?" This tolerance of calumny has gone way too far.
5
The Democrats are indeed desperate if they turn to Al Gore for anything, much less for inspiration. Preachy, wooden, driven by polling (remember how he hired a clothing consultant to choose his suit colors), to say nothing of his politicizing, and then profiting immensely from the fears of, climate warming. Dream on, and lose the presidency again in 2020.
I went to hear Al Gore speak about the urgency of climate change. Afterwards it was reported that he flew away on a private airplane. It made many wonder what his carbon footprint looks like compared to all the “regular people” who care deeply about this issue. I saw both Gerald Ford and George Bush Sr. on commercial flights after their presidencies were over. Al Gore looked hypocritical.
1
Gore could have saved us by winning the 2000 election and not running an inept campaign that failed to utilize a sitting president with a 65% approval rating and carrying his home strategy. Gore has done admiral work since but let the country down.
1
What about democrats not calling out Russian meddling in 2016? Are they still trying to keep the trust in our voting system? Has anybody credibly discredited 2016 hacking of our unsecured unmodernized descentralizad voting systems?
Russian hacking was denied initially. But credible commentators don't go there any more. In the last year, all they say is ambitious.
Trump won by 78,000 in three states. Those margins are smaller Scott's. Did they recount votes in those states?
2
In 2000 our country experienced a coup d'état. it is as simple as that. We have never grasped the full horror of that fact.
1
Mr. Bruni, Thank you for this tribute to an honorable man.
I voted for Gore in 2000 and lamented his defeat. I thought he should have won but ran a poor campaign. He was always better behind a desk than on the stump.
Now I think of his defeat as a tragedy given the trajectory of the last 18 years. I love his statement about just making different mistakes as he would have but I think he had it in him to be great President. He still has much to say to us.
Gore's time is passed as he knows. He will never hold another public office unless an appointive one. But, he will be remembered as your column does as a truly decent man who did his best by his country.
1
When all is said and done, if Al Gore had been able to put his home state of Tennessee in his electoral college column, the Florida recount would not have mattered. I voted for Gore, but I was very disappointed that he could not carry even his own state.
1
An excellent article about a competent and decent, gracious person, an exampoe of civility.
John McCain also made a fine concession speech, in Phoenix, in 2008. We need such people in leadership positions.
Before one can become POTUS one has to be elected. I'm not sure that Gore would pass Obama's test: Is he likeable enough?
Much as I admire Gore as a man and think he would be no less than a credit to our nation, I wonder how he would hold up against Trump in what would be an "in the mud" campaign.
As we know, nice guys don't always win.
Lots of people would welcome him as he’s the only politician who has made environment front and center, where it belongs. It’s all I hear from kids in their late teens and twenties. They’re terrified for their future. We’ve had two deadly hurricanes, several deadly fires, one monstrosity of a fire. Drought, flooding, bug collapse, extinctions, and now the Brazilian President declaring wealth is more important than the Amazon Forest. Not sure how this planet will make it to 2040 without strong leadership from the US on the environmental front. Everything else matters, of course, but if we don’t take care of this planet, what then?
2
Al Gore was no hero. He was the originator of the current sore loser in American elections. He was the author of a new chapter of self-aggrandizing politics. He is still part of the greatest political myth of our time. Al Gore was going to lose even if his recount had come to full fruition, which has been proven. This isn’t a result of the Supreme Court but one of reality. Now, a new generation of Democrats are following in these footsteps. They believe that they have won and the vote totals are wrong because they are righteous in their progressive beliefs. They spin fairytales of voter suppression and uncounted ballots to explain away their loses. There is nothing more dangerous than the unabashed belief that the only way that one's-self can lose is through manipulation.
The last two Democratic presidents have been young and charming. I like Al Gore, but he is neither of those things. Time to move onto someone under retirement age.
I can't imagine anyone better to lead us through this time of climate destruction. There's no more pressing problem that we and the rest of the world face. Who better to lead us than someone who actually gets it and has the intelligence, experience, and wisdom to make a difference? Where can I get my lawn sign??
1
I would love to see Al Gore nominated. He could lead the democratic party and the country into a greener future. It's time climate action became a bigger topic – one that could even unify a divided country. In the end, we all want our planet to thrive.
3
Al Gore was operating under a different moral code than the Karl Rove-driven Republican party in 2000. We have reaped the results of the amoral, corporate-controlled, race-baiting, fear-mongering, Lee Atwater founded, lying campaign methods that the Republicans have developed, and it’s Trump. The Bushes must be so proud of what their “winning” their elections have cost us.
Al Gore was out-maneuvered, but he gave in way too easily. The 2000 election was when our democracy was taken from us. I’ve always wondered what they had on him. I really liked Gore, campaigned for him, but he gave up when he should have fought harder. Republican dirty tricks won then and continue to prevail. I for one have no faith in the integrity of our elections anymore. Al Gore, once a fine leader, is just a sad coulda-shoulda-woulda side story now.
2
No mention by anyone that the middleman with all the world dealings and economies are corporations
The margin in every product bought or sold determines the road for skills and technologies to travel.
Adding extras taxes to every product sold and bought by global corporations will result in a depression.
In the end my garage will not be filled.What a shame?
Like Mitt Romney later, my strong suspicion is that Al Gore did not truly want to be President; he has mentioned a few times how hard the 2000 campaign was on him. That whole episode then brings up a further problem: how can our Presidential election system elevate people not fully committed to be their Party's representative for Commander-in-Chief? If that glitch didn't exist, we certainly would never have gotten Bush or Trump in the White House - think about it. The country needs a full renovation of its Election policies (like we did with our military following the Vietnam War). We can do this.
Gore conceded. And America went on to elect a president whose ruinous wars killed tens of thousands of people. But civility was maintained, so I suppose something good came out of it after all....
2
I second the motion.
1
Gore and Hillary lost in part for the same reason: they were hectored by hordes of highly paid "experts" and stage managed into dull, spastic animatronic versions of themselves. I still have not caught a glimpse of the "real" Hillary which is supposed to exist, like Nessie, but after the 2000 election Gore, demonstrated in interviews and his films that he is an actual human being. Too late unfortunately.
4
Gore was wrong then and Bruni is wrong now. The hundreds of thousands dead in the Middle East will attest to that.
Witnessing today's inexorable recounts of the Mid-Term races for Senator and Governor in Florida is a throwback to 2000, when Al Gore coulda, shoulda saved us by being our 43rd president. Instead, G.W. Bush and his Texas/Florida cabal laid their disastrous ideological agenda on America and the world for 8 years.
Had the man who warned us of "An Inconvenient Truth: the Planetary Emergency of Global Warming" won that Presidency, we would not have been mired in the empire-building Bush efforts ("Mission Accomplished!") in the Middle East for the past 18 years. We wouldn't have had Cheney, Rove and Bush to blame for the thousands of American soldiers dying for their lost cause in far away places with strange-sounding names. Al Gore's concession speech in 2000 hurt all Americans, though by conceding that election, he honored the integrity of our electoral system and our democracy.
Al Gore has aged well. He is 70 years of age now. A man of good character, great intelligence, respected by Americans, a son of Tennessee. An American Vice-President who -- to his credit always -- put country before party. It's not "Too late, Baby Now" (as Carole King sang in 1971) for Al Gore to run for our Presidency, and be our 46th President in 2020.
How about, when speaking of Al Gore in 2000 and Hilary Clinton in 2016, instead of saying “they lost the popular vote,” saying, “they were the people’s choice”? Same meaning, but it puts the anomaly into sharper focus.
Climate Change was mentioned in the article so here goes—When Roger Revelle, the father of the anthropogenic (man made) global warming (now climate change) hypothesis, in later years suggested his theory might have been exaggerated and would need further study, one of his students, Al Gore, brushed it aside saying Ravelle was senile in his old age. Mr Gore did not do any research to ascertain whether his former professor was sane of not. If he would have, he would have found out he was sane and purely scientific in his method. Shouldn’t we be careful who we put up on a pedestal nowadays? The inconvenient truth is that Mr Gore was interested in his desire more than he was any science. Isn’t that equally as dangerous and shallow as the man we now have in the White House firing off negative tweets at anything and everything—for no reason? The IPCC and the New York Times for that matter have placed “Climate Change” into the category of global warming being our fault. Maybe it is. However, the meaning is also morphing before our eyes. It now also means pollution and habitat destruction if you ask anyone on the street. The only people who don’t believe in Climate Change under those circumstances believe in the flat earth! How convenient for the IPCC. They didn’t say a word. We did. The words “Climate Change” is loved by attorneys because you the jury fill in items they never told you but what you wanted to see. How convenient.
How about an Al Gore/Elizabeth Warren ticket in 2020? Together, they could win.
1
I thought you were talking about Al Gore who created the internet, Al Gore who wants us to stop our energy use while he consumes copious amounts more than his share or is it the Al Gore accused of inappropriate behavior by a masseuse.
What Al Gore are we speaking of ?
2
Required reading for Donald Trump. Oh, wait, I forgot this includes words. Never mind.
2
Re: "Bowler, an expert in comparative electoral systems and voting behavior, said that many Americans and some politicians, **especially on the right**, “are drawing into question the legitimacy of the system as an election-winning tactic."
I question "especially on the right". I am pretty sure that complaints about Dark Money and Citizens United corrupting our system, voter ID equaling voter suppression, and the hinky Electoral College and the "one state, two votes" Senate undermining the popular will of the people all come from the left.
There is a large majority of lazy, preaching-to-the-choir, captain-obvious Op-Eds these days.
This was an original, insightful, charming Op-Ed.
Thanks Frank Bruni!
We are paying now for not electing Al Gore. As we are paying now for not electing Hillary.
There is no real justice, so American voters can live very very dangerously. I.e., they know that the person they vote for produces no direct or immediate bad consequences for them, but does so for others. So, Naomi Wolf inspired earth tone wearing effeminate Al was rejected over a chainsaw wielding, cowboy hat wearing guy because we thought we could have a beer (or lemonade) with him.
Imagine Al Gore presidency. We would have bombed Afghanistan, but left Iraq alone. No Syria, no refugees. Stable united Europe, no Brexit. Fixed infrastructure and education in America. A moderate supreme court. Electric cars, recycling, globally coordinated effort to counter climate change. May, just maybe, peace and prosperity.
None of the Orange and Red alerts from Bush-Cheney, little of the paranoia.
And look at us now with eight years of Bush-Cheney, and two years of Trump (with six more coming). Has a country, ever, knowingly elected unqualified people because it made us feel better, that produced this much damage - as have we?
1
Excellent idea. Not only for the many "he's not" that can be said about him, but he also is a man, as Frank Bruni writes, of intelligence, vision, and sensibility. When I heard him speak in the 2000 campaign, I was inspired. He's a heavyweight. I would vote for him!
1
One of your best, Mr. Bruni. Bearing all this in mind, I applaud the willingness of Stacey Abrams and Bill Nelson to contest their contests, especially in view of the blatant voter suppression, especially in Georgia. Gillum probably should contest his situation as well.
1
I maintain that there are highly qualified candidates who would better serve the nation if they lent their expertise to our country behind the scenes.
Some people by nature make better bureaucrats than standard bearers for a party. Gore's expertise would have made him invaluable as head of Environmental Protection, for example. His personality is rather formal and people don't warm to him. He ran against a dim-witted man and did not win by a landslide. He failed to win his native Tennessee.
Today, he continues to look very uncomfortable even when be interviewed by the friendly and courteous Chris Hayes.
Character, expertise and above all authenticity are critical, of course, but so are what party leaders have considered less definable characteristics such as charisma. I would say it is not shallow to consider this a very important factor.
It was ignored in the last election and we paid a heavy price.
1
The key question is whether the US as a people will ever return to the state of decency supposedly exemplified by Al Gore. To be clear, there has always been bitter and deep divide over political issues and that is good but the level of tribalism, factionalism and personal attacks that we have today is almost unprecedented. I doubt it would change for the better under a President Gore. The asocial media such as Twitter or Facebook give too many people a platform to vent and divide and be manipulated. Where are we headed?
1
How could a recount ever be bad ?
If officials from all interested parties are present to witness, and everything is done by the book, then the only result can be a correct count.
The only process that failed in Florida was the physical mechanism for recording votes on punched paper cards.
Anything with that sort of ambiguity should not be used, but that is somethiing for the people of Florida to fix.
Still, all voters using this method were informed that anything other than a completely detached "chad" meant an invalid vote, and, had the opportunity to fix/detach the chad - or - get a new card.
The boys from Chicago showed up in Florida - uninvited - to "help the Democrats ensure everything would be honest", and then, it was game on.
In the end, justice prevailed over Chicago style voting.
The Supreme Court did an admirable job, and all the criticism leveled at it is unfounded - but expected - from those who lose.
Given that we have only a few years left to radically reverse carbon emissions, and the world will need strong leadership in enabling the rapid growth of the new energy economy, and we will need an optimistic imaginative leader to lead us in this transition, Al Gore is a pretty good choice!
3
It is time for a new and younger Democratic Party to emerge. "Go West young man" Colorado's Gov. Hickenlooper for one, with an unforgettable name,
1
Gore's failure to use Bill Clinton as much as possible to help him win the Presidency in 2000 has always puzzled me. Gore was an effective Vice President who supported Mr. Clinton. Gore had always seemed to be a thoughtful and practical man. Much of the country had put the impeachment behind them (some never will) and by 2000 President Clinton has very high approval ratings and would likely have been able to give the Gore candidacy a bigger boost if welcomed by Gore to do so. When it was really important to put your ideals first Mr. Gore did so in his concession. No one should ever mistake him for having had Mike Pence-like fealty or a Pence-like conscience. I digress a bit.
1
Thinking where we'd be as a country - and world - in the reduction of carbon in the atmosphere and Climate Change, makes me just want to cry.
Because it's too late now. Everything else is secondary. With Gore we would have a shot at success and saving the human species and millions of other species that share this beautiful world with us.
And, yes, Mr. Gore's patriotism, putting country over party or self does sound like something out of a fairy tale. Now we have The Beast - and there is no Beauty.
9
@sophia
It's not too late. As long as you're on the earth instead of under it, it's never too late. We have wasted important decades, but there's still much that can be done to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. But we MUST begin to change course now.
I watch the Florida (and Georgia?) recounts with their echo of the contests 18 years ago with great sadness. The 2000 election saw the last flicker of what we have now abandoned in America: statesmanship.
The idea of subordinating one's position to the responsibility for the country is now and forever anathema to our current presidential office holder.
Mr. Scott and Mr. Desantis echo and even trumpet this as if the divine right of kings, screaming "Fraud!" where none exists.
What will they have left to govern after the wells have been poisoned and the fields strewn with salt?
Our polity has delivered us a bitter harvest, indeed.
6
What might have been? For those who claim to be weary of recounts of particular midterm elections, the events of the 2000 presidential contest are reminders of what happens when Republican election thwarting succeeds. Gore's "defeat" set the stage for 9/11, the tragically misguided Iraqi invasion and the near collapse of our economy.
His elevated status as a visionary statesman makes him very attractive as a worthy candidate. While it is increasingly unlikely that Trump can last much longer, Pence can. What a glorious contest: Gore against Pence.
1
I’m a big fan of Al Gore, but this column belies a problem in American politics: the misguided belief that any individual President can “save” us from anything. Yes, we all know the role of the Executive Branch, but we also know where the policy-making power resides. At this point, I’d be focussing on the national and local leadership of the Democratic Party and saying to them: how can we voters help save you from yourselves?
1
In many ways a Gore presidency would have changed America for the better. Gore was smart, believed in efficiency in government (he championed a program that recognized government employees for rooting out waste), and could see the dangers of climate change before most. Many of his values were appealing to Democrats and Republicans alike. I fear his time is past. Today, reach across the aisle for anything but small-bore initiatives and you’ll get your hands cut off for your efforts. Sadly we are only now realizing what our founders well knew: our Republic was not designed to function with political parties which inevitably revert to ideological polarity. We have all the faults of a European multi-party system without the benefits of a parliamentary system which at least allow parties a turn at control of government to effectively implement their ideas. No, Gore could have been the antidote in 2000. Today I fear the patient is too far gone and requires radical surgery if it is to survive.
6
Frank-
If you are suggesting that Gore throw his hat into the crowded 2020 ring, please don't pursue it. Gore is a good and decent man but does excite, does not give people a sense of hope that will certainly be needed by 2020 if Trump is still with us. All of these older politicians must move over and let a new generation come forth. The older politicians can mentor, guide and share their experience but we cannot keep going back to same tired well. If anything the midterms have shown us, there is a new energy embodied by the newly elected. Let's give them an unfettered opportunity. Al Gore would have much to offer these new congresspeople.
4
Mr.Bruni is driving looking in the rear view mirror. Al Gore has moved on to do other positive things for the world and the environment.
Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and the states people of the over seventy age group has made valuable contributions. They had their chance and time in the spotlight. Even George Bush is now regarded with nostalgia as we endure the madness of the current political situation in this country.
We now need to go forward with a new generation of leadership in the Democratic party. Old timers, help this to happen by mentoring and supporting younger people with new ideas.
George Washington was the father of our country but he was not of an age to be the grandfather of this country.
4
While Gore v. Bush (or Gore v. Trump) is the equivalent of night v. day or intellect v. incurious (to name just two of many examples of difference), it’s knowing when to say when, and doing so with dignity that’s the truly priceless attribute which Gore (and Kerry) both possessed. Putting country before party should also mean putting country before person, which both Gore and Kerry also did. Instead of blunting their ambitions, these two ‘defeated’ presidential candidates went on to channel those ambitions into serving the greater good for themselves and for mankind. Such characteristics are in preciously short supply today yet still far from lost, thanks to an impressive list of this country’s next generation of Democratic leaders. As qualified as Biden, Sanders and Clinton are and can continue to be in strengthening our democracy’s future, they should also know when to step aside with the same measure of dignity and wisdom as Gore and Kerry have so admirably done.
2
This reminder is timely.
One should also note the many predecessors to Al Gore, including Nixon in 1960 conceding despite the fraud in Illinois which benefited Kennedy, and all the way back to the second US president Adams, forfeiting his chances at re-election in 1800, in order protect the country from an ill-advised war with France which his political party was urging.
2
How in the world could Gore have not accepted the Supreme Court decision ? There is no higher court to appeal and not accepting the decision was just not an option; and if you can't fight the decision, why not be gracious about it? The world would be such a different place if Gore had been elected. Not sure if he is not too old right now.
2
However one remembers this, Gore’s acquiescence only emboldened Republicans to continue along the path of Winning by Any Cost and Democracy is for the weak. It will take a stronger stance by Democrats to save our American Democracy as we know it. We cannot and should not let Republicans steal seats any longer. Our democracy truly depends on it!
9
When two congested roads merge in America most cars take turns. Most cars. There are always a few who don't cooperate. They treat the situation like a Darwinian survival test. The rest of us shrug them off and stick with the program. Left-right-left-right. No law governs these situations, we just do it. We impose a governing principle onto a mostly lawless situation. This traffic-merging cooperation is a social construction. Our government is a similar social construction. It works because we let it work. There is no intrinsic power to government beyond belief. God didn't say, "Let there be government." People created government. People like Al Gore know this. If too many people quit cooperating, government will fail.
8
I have to say that my lack in faith in the election system comes more from the way we assign districts, the way the electoral college skews the importance of a few votes in a state like Michigan over the rest of the votes in other states.
My lack of faith comes from gamesmanship which leaves me able to vote in less than 10 minutes, and leaves people in busy places stuck in line for hours.
My lack of faith does NOT come from the long process of counting votes, recounting votes because of contests that are essentially 50/50. I am not put off by normal error, and even as I think Florida and Texas shot themselves in the foot, I don't feel the election has been undermined.
I lose faith, however, when Ted Cruz gets to DC again, and feels he has a mandate; as will Rick Scott, and as will Kemp and DeSantis when the votes come in margin thin for them.
They will take the faulty and divisive line of winner take all and forget that half the voters loathe them. **That** is what undermines my faith in Democracy. You can lose an election in the popular vote and act as if there is a mandate.
I'd have faith when we remember to represent all Americans, protecting even those who did not vote for you.
11
Please stop going to the good old days that never was, I beg of you, Mr Bruni!
When President Obama finally got you same sex marriage, you were still upset with Clinton's DOMA. Now, you want to revive Gore? No, I have no qualm with former VP Gore. Like John Kerry after him, too bad he followed the political consultants' script and lost the authenticity, but the past has passed.
The Dems didn't learn the Nader lesson and now we are stuck with Trump. Even before 2016, had Kendrick Meek withdrawn from the three way race, Charlie Crist might have had a chance to beat Marco Rubio for the senate seat. Have people thought about that?
The GOP may be corrupt but the Dems are clueless. That is the saddest of it all
5
While I admire the heck out of Al Gore, this piece presents the downside dilemma that the GOP has presented since Reagan and that Dems have had no answer for. To be succinct, Dems have played by the rules, Conservatives have broken every rule that would bend, all in the pursuit of raw power. The exercise of that power in their self interest by those who won doesn’t justify the damage done.
12
This column made me weep in frustration and rage. Gore's decision to react to the 2000 election decision as he did--particularly the unconstitutional ruling of the Supreme Court--may seem graceful in retrospect, but given what has transpired as a result of that ruling, I wonder if Gore now rues his decision. Because that's when it all went wrong--that's when partisanship of the most naked kind took the fore, and was rewarded. Gore may have put country before party, but the Supreme Court did not. It never recovered its legitimacy after that ruling, which was the first in a cascade of events that have undermined my (and many others') faith in our country and its institutions, though Kenneth Starr's turn as Inspector Javert (with assistance from Brett Kavanaugh) was a worthy prologue. Gore's basic decency now seems almost quaint and the fact that that is true says it all.
23
Were Americans, even Democratic Americans, really ready to accept Gore's vision that saving the earth needed to be, had to be, the central organizing principle of government?
My hunch is that Americans were and still are way too shallow in their depth of concern for the earth to really accept humility over hubris.
Gore's vision would have been and continues to be deeply compromised and fated to burn. The American Way of living big will not be contained.
6
@Lou Nelms "Fated to burn..." I see what you did there.
i vote democrat but in voting for president that vote has been getting harder to justify. with no military background it is hard for me to see a candidate's true leadership abilities. but that is me. with my nose pinched i voted last time for the democrat because the opposite was and still is anathema to my way of thinking. i don't dislike mr gore but the last time he ran i pinched my nose because i was not buying the second bush and his running mate. mr gore showed class in 2000. the leaders hanging around the edges from last century all leave me rather luke warm. mr gore talks a good talk, but he should be an elder statesman who in retirement finds a true voice. maybe secretary of state but boss? my nose still hasn't healed from the last election in 2016.
1
I agree that Gore deserves credit and praise for putting the nation's interests ahead of his own. But, to suggest he, or Hllary or any of those old-timers, should run for President is preposterous unless you want to suffer disastrous, ignominious defeat. The Dems need to create a new party. The Boomers need to accept that they're elder statesmen/women now and they should be doing their best to promote a new generation that will capture the hearts and minds of the new, diverse and younger Democratic coalition. The future is ahead of us, not behind.
7
@ChasRip I completely agree with you and I'm a Boomer.
There isn't anyone on the horizon at present (please correct me if I've missed someone) with the environmental credentials that Gore has, and which we will need, in abundance, to clean up the tragic disasters being created by the current "We don't believe in science" administration.
Democrats would be wise to develop a strong pro-environment policy in good time for 2020, and to have Gore take it on the road, or even take charge of it from the start. Imagine him as the head of the EPA or Secretary of the Interior. Are you listening, Dems?
10
@A Yank in the UK
Yes, yes yes to Gore heading the EPA or DOI!!
@A Yank in the UK Brilliant Idea!!!!!
Gore was conducting a gentleman's war in 2000 and the other side was conducting a real war. The other side won and Gore came off as principled but weak and unwilling to fight.
Other Republicans conducted a gentleman's war against Trump. They lost, too.
A large percentage of our country respects those who are willing to fight and win, and does not show much concern for what they are fighting for or against. They side with the fighter, because the fighter wins.
Al Gore should have fought, buoyed by the indisputable fact that he got more of the popular vote than dubya did, and therefore deserved to win a contest where who won depended on who won in Florida and that depended on the methodology with which the votes were counted -- and so our election system had in effect broken down. The proper fix, in accordance with contemporary values, was that the person with the most votes should win, but the Supreme Court hid from this and emitted a cloud of legal split hairs instead that covered a partisan decision.
8
Is this the official kickoff of the ABT movement?
- ABT being, of course, Anyone But Trump
Of course Al Gore is not just anyone. He should have fought harder in 2000. That Supreme Court decision will forever tarnish its reputation.
10
If Gore decided to run, he might actually be my first choice, even though I would like a president younger than 70. Before reading this article I haven't given it serious thought that he might, and I doubt he has either.
6
Looking back, it's apparent that Al Gore's actions were taken well after twilight had begun to set on chivalry and integrity in American politics, beginning with the appearance of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and Newt Gingrich's ill-conceived Contract with America. With Mitch McConnell's and the Tea Party's short-sighted, self-serving 2009 declaration that limiting President Obama to a single term was not only their top but their sole priority, full dark mode set in.
The 2016 elections were the deep midnight of that vicious period of American history. Many optimistically see the first hint of a new dawn with the 2018 elections and hope that it will parlay into the first rays of new sunlight with the 2020 elections. The slowly gathering momentum of a predicted Blue Wave throughout the past week offers encouragement that will transpire, but we cannot expect the hordes of night-dwelling naysayers simply to crawl back into their dens when daylight materializes into a bright new morning.
A new day is ours to capture or forfeit. No farmer reaps the harvest of a crop whose seeds have not been nurtured after having been planted. We've installed a young, diverse, energetic, and capable generation in the House. We need to turn them loose and show what they can do. We need to repeat the process in the Senate, expand our progress in the House and take control of the Presidency, installing a real President who is committed to representing and working with all our stakeholders in 2020.
7
I would go further than Professor Bowler's notation that irresponsible leaders “are drawing into question the legitimacy of the system as an election-winning tactic. They’re doing this for short-term gain without thought to long-term erosion.”
This is an outcome of the reckless bomb-throwing tactics of Reagan, Thatcher, Gingrich, DeLay, Rove et. al. Perhaps it was unconscious, perhaps just irresponsibly not thought-out - certainly it was manipulated for petty ego and avarice - but those who work to corrode our governments and the public's confidence in them thoughtlessly pull at threads that can easily unravel. I'm reminded what a long-time resident from Nigeria said, reflecting on American political intemperance, "You Americans treat your politics like a football."
7
If Al Gore had not rolled over in an act of presumed "grace", we may not have had George W. Bush, the Iraq War, ISIS, the destabilization of the Middle East leading to massive immigration and the enormous rise in European and US anti-immigrant nationalism.
We all know that the 2000 election was stolen from Gore by Floridian charlatans including Jeb Bush. Stacey Abrams of Georgia is the model that we should encourage, not "grace", as a response to electoral hooliganism.
23
@jefflz In this light, it's instructive that in addition to Jeb Bush being Florida Governor in 2000, Katharine Harris, Florida Secretary of State in 2000, was also Bush's Florida campaign chair that year. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State in 2004, was Bush Ohio campaign chair that year - when there were election shenanigans in THE critical state of Ohio. Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State this year until last week, ran for Governor of Georgia this year. (Also, Rick Scott, Governor of Florida this year, ran for US Senator for Florida this year.) There's a strong pattern here - all of these people had direct or indirect influence on election oversight in the election seasons noted, and all had a glaringly direct conflict of interest. There oughta be a law...
26
@jefflz - the Dems should also look back on the recount for Al Franken's Senate seat, a ballot recount Minnesota tv broadcast and was watched by many. Stacey Abrams is doing exactly the right thing in assuring us all that every vote counts.
2
@Rocky
Roger Stone was also involved the the Florida shenanigans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers_riot
Maybe, if Gore had fought we could have been spared 9/11, WMD, the Katrina aftermath disaster, Global Warming Denial and Trump. Sometimes, We need a revolution.
15
What a horrible time that was, and the worst was that we could not have guessed what a tragedy the George W Bush presidency would become. Afghanistan, Iraq, torture, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, a bloodbath that continues to this day.
I understand the decisions that we’re made then, but I wish the Democrats and the American people (if not Gore himself) had fought harder and longer.
14
What I remember about the Florida recount is that Jeb and George conspired to throw out 20,000 votes of people of color in South Florida stealing the election and then having it all validated by the corrupt Supreme Court lead by Renquist and Scalia with the odious Thomas in tow. Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton advised Gore that there should be massive protests in Miami to prevent the theft but Gore demurred. Should Gore run? Interesting. This account of history? False.
And by the way, Gore and Tipper are no longer together and Al has had a couple of accusations of harassment against him so ha-ha for giving Clinton the cold shoulder and then of course there was the horrible pick of Lieberman as VP. Lieberman who actively campaigned against Obama.
Beto for President!
11
@ekdnyc-Agreed. I think there are other statesmen roles for Gore; but his capitulation was neither graceful or sound.
3
One of the wisest things a leader has ever said, unfortunately in many ways the progressive left has done the exact opposite since the current administration took office:
In an interview with The Washington Post in 2002, Gore noted that he could have “launched a four-year rear-guard guerrilla campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush presidency, and to mobilize for a rematch.” Some people urged that. But, Gore added, “There’s so much riding on the success of any American president and taking the reins of power and holding them firmly, I just didn’t feel like it was in the best interest of the United States, or that it was a responsible course of action.”
@ElectionEd It's very strange you overlook Mitch McConnell's very effective "rear-guard guerrilla campaign" against the Obama administration.
1
Al Gore was surely the best president this country never had but I, for one, am absolutely hoping that Joe Biden makes another run of it in 2020. The fact that he didn't fare well in his previous attempts to win the White House take nothing away from his superb performance as Barack Obama's VP. In certain areas relating to foreign affairs as well as to the acceptance of same-sex marriage his differences with the President marked him as the more enlightened of the two. Like Mr. Gore, he's an eminently decent man, and one who knows how to identify with and speak to the concerns of America's workers. If he chooses to run again, I won't have to think twice about supporting him. Unless, of course, the previous Democratic VP were to challenge him.
8
@stu freeman Please, no blind hagiography. Joe's got some liabilities and flaws, not the least of which are his ties to corporate banksters and his tendency to have "busy hands" with the ladies. In this era, the latter is fatal to a presidential run, in my opinion. Plus, there IS the age factor...
When you write, "rail about conspiracies or run around telling Americans that he was their rightful leader, foiled by dark forces," you are not describing only Trump or Republicans. That is all we've heard from or about Hillary for two long years. And you're right, it is ugly and defies democracy.
4
@Mark Thomason Re. 2016, tell us which completely unfounded conspiracies you're referring to.
2
@NA -- Hillary's excuses for her loss.
1
I am a scientist and heard Gore speak at the American Geophysical Union meeting. Since I teach climate science and policy, I read the science (IPCC, USGCRP, National Academy of Science etc) and follow the self-proclaimed skeptics. I discuss climate with petroleum engineers and entrepreneurs here in Colorado. I do this so I can be well-informed and objective when presenting material to students in classes that treat both science and policy. So, an understanding of climate denial is required.
That community has brilliantly made climate denial a central requirement for membership in the GOP Tribe. Many GOP voters support renewable energy and yet still deny the role of climate change in the floods and fires that destroy their property. Climate denial is an incoherent Trumpster fire run by expert propagandists.
Gore is certainly one of the adults in the discussion. He shrugs off personal attacks and returns to the data and facts. That is also true of the climate science community in general.
It may turn out that the missed electoral chances in 2000 and 2016 will haunt our posterity. As IPCC SR15 from this year points out, we do not have much time to stop emissions of greenhouse gases if we wish to avoid the worst effects of anthropogenic climate change. Instead of working the problem, the country turned the White House over to the carbon interests for at least 12 years. The Russians, Saudis and Trump are allied in the destruction of climate.
God help our children.
42
@James Wilson Agree. It's bad enough when sworn enemies of progress are effective. It's even worse when ostensible friends are incompetent in electioneering and/or duplicitous in policy. That has been the story of the D's since the advent of the Reagan Restoration (partly because in my view, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama - competent campaigners but Rockefeller Republican corporatist to the core - were very effective stealth acolytes of Reaganism in the financial arena, and Clinton also in other areas too numerous to count, such as draconian welfare reform, mass incarceration, DOMA, deregulation, "free trade" capitulation to corporate globalism, etc.).
Al Gore glitter. What a great lede. Thank you Mr. Bruni.
3
My God, Gore would be such a relief. What will it take to make him run?
Here is an idea: if he loves campaigning against global warming, what better platform than a US Presidency? And with this one (read Trump) not on it?
2
The way Al Gore is framed as a candidate against Trump underscores the point that neither Democrats nor Republicans know how to defeat Donald Trump.
6
Gore is a decent man in every sense of the word. Sadly this is all the more obvious when contrasted with the present occupant of the White House. But there was a reason Gore didn't quite make it over the finish line. In fact I vividly recall being on vacation with my then boyfriend at a guesthouse in Vermont that October and watching the presidential debate with half a dozen or so of the other guys who were staying there. Confronted by Gore with his total command of the facts and able to answer any question, Bush looked like a not-very-bright cornered rodent, yet all of us who watched that night came away shaking our heads at Gore's exasperated, eye-rolling, 4th grade teacher demeanor. Unfortunately, he has every gift but charisma.
10
@Frank Bruni, please...no more baby boomers. They have caused enough damage to America. Wars, the second gilded age, deficits, Trump, international character. Do you want more?
Where are the next gen candidates not wedded to the establishment of either political party? We need new younger blood, the people who will actually pay the nation's bills when they come due, get us out of nation building when those nations don't want it. Rebuild our own country first.
Afghanistan and Iraq are classic example, we broke both countries, don't know how to fix it, spent a lot of lives and borrowed money doing it. What are we doing there?
Its not the septuagenarians and the soon to be oldsters, they are set in their ways, too tired. They should be part of history, not the future.
5
What a silly idea! A candidates worth is based on his age?
1
Gore asked the country to look forward, to face the challenges of the future rather than the past, as have other Democratic Presidents and candidates.
But that is just not us, we prefer driving full speed in reverse... into the future... with the windows fogged up.
5
Nice essay about a very old story: The good guys often lose because they are more concerned with being good than with winning.
10
There are, I believe, enough of the voting public that can still rise to the moral level needed to sustain "the USA" that Gore implored us to protect. Given the squirrelly sort of state that the last ~30 years have left the electoral delineations in however, we may need a few more of the never-trumpers and independents to help kick out, with alacrity, the low-lifes that have sought an entirely different type of country.
It is clearly not enough to be 'great', as the current Republicans imagine it; we want to also be proud of our work. We want a good country.
5
Frank, how many white, male, 70 year olds flipped House seats? Hmmm.
The Millennial Generation is larger than the Baby Boom generation. The Millennial Generation has been royally and enthusiastically screwed over by the corporatists. When Millennials gain voice and complain, they’ve been called lazy; called whiners; called the participation trophy generation (just who gave them the trophies, genius?)
They were peddled lies about how managers would hire them with gen ed degrees and train them into managers. Corporatists weren’t training anybody. Millions were taunted with an ACA healthcare plan they couldn’t afford because their states refused to expand Medicaid and employers kept wages depressed. With corporate-depressed wages, they haven’t been able to buy houses; haven’t able to marry; haven’t been able to engage in the economy. They’ve watched the NRA gangsters bribe and threaten lawmakers to thwart effective gun control. They’ve watched hate institutionalized as the path to social success. They’ve watched climate change in front of their eyes proclaimed a fraud.
What we saw in they past election was the deeply, relentlessly, unwavering, committed reservoirs of energy they are bringing to correct the insane injustices done to them to exploit them. Their aspirations for a decent life are broadly inclusive; are everyone’s aspirations.
Your white, 70 something wannabes and never-were are too clueless to lead this fight.
10
You seem like you are too young to know who Al Gore is. Please show some respect. What does age have to do with it?
“This is America, and we put country before party.”
Unfortunately, only one party took this position.
The other decided that stacking the Supreme Court was the road to overcoming popular democracy (plus gerrymandering and voter suppression).
It worked in 2000, and under Trump, it's working even better today. It will take decades to reverse the Republicans' stranglehold on the judiciary unless all Republican appointments since their refusal to even conduct hearings on Obama's nominee Garland are declared illegitimate.
15
Thank you for this reminder about Mr. Gore's strengths. He should be the standard bearer in 2020, because he has standards.
7
Thanks for this Frank. Gore can perhaps be the perfect transition to a new generation of Democratic leaders. He never stopped being pertinent even out of the limelight for 20 years. That's saying something.
8
Wonderful to spotlight Gore. I only wish that Bruni had gone further, advancing Gore as candidate and stating why.
Gore has all the merits cited here, and something more: far better appreciation than any other of our greatest issue, the greatest we've faced in human history: Shall we ignite self-sustaining forces of climate change to eliminate conditions of human life on Earth?
It may be too late. But a Gore presidency would give us our best chance to continue survival of our human civilization and species.
14
Earlier in the day before reading Mr. Bruni's column I sent a link to some friends of Al Gore's concession speech. What prompted me to do that were the speeches by Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona - each an example of decorum and respect. Their radical departure - or was it a return from radicalism? - made me ask when was the last time I witnessed two men providing a healing moment like that.
I suggested to my friends - all members of a men-only blog that is segregated because it is restricted to classmates from about half a century ago at a military school that was segregated by gender at that time - that at the risk of sounding sexist, perhaps we need more women in government. (We have long ago opened the doors of our alma mater to women, however belatedly.)
There may be plenty of examples of men behaving as well as McSally and Sinema, but I couldn't come up with any in such a high profile race in recent decades - except for Bush and Gore in 2000 and obviously the greater credit goes to Gore who won the popular vote nationally that year and was accepting the Supreme Court's decision to abort a recount in Florida.
Watching that speech today nearly 18 years later it is still a model of patriotism, grace and style - all the more so given the white-hot rhetoric and political maneuvering lasting more than a month that preceded it.
15
@tomreel I'm from Arizona and the only reason McSally, whom most of us in the Blue Island of Tucson in the Red State of Arizona call Martha McTrump, conceded so politely is because she knows she is going to the U.S. Senate one way or another. Recently re-elected Governor Ducey is almost certain to appoint her to fulfill the remainder of John McCain's seat since Jon Kyl indicated that he does not wish to serve past the end of this year. She will have to run again for re-election in 2020 and we will work even harder to make sure "Bootlicker McSally" does not win, but she is almost certainly in for the time being. That's why she conceded so nicely. She is not a nice person in general; I know, I reside in her former congressional district which Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat, just won by a very large margin.
1
"A close adviser to Vice President Al Gore said he had received an anonymously mailed package today that involved material designed to prepare Gov. George W. Bush for his debates with Mr. Gore.
The adviser, former Representative Tom Downey of Long Island, N.Y., said he examined the materials briefly before giving them to his lawyer, who turned them over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation this afternoon. Mr. Downey, who has been helping Mr. Gore prepare for the Bush debates and was standing in for Mr. Bush in mock debates, also said he would recuse himself from any further debate preparation."
That's from the Times, September 14, 2000
What a class act.
The question is...
Does the USA deserves him ?
As far as government experience goes, the only other presidential candidate of the past 40 years to rival Gore was George Bush the elder.
9
@Matt Olson
Gee, reading this reminds me of Donna Brazile giving Hillary Clinton confidential debate questions so that she could practice her answers before squaring off against Bernie Sanders.
Not exactly Gore-like.
@Matt Olson
My 60+ brain remembers Lee Atwater, a George Bush operative, creating the Willie Horton scandal to derail the Dukakis campaign. How classy was that?
We desperately need the Democratic Elders to discard their egos, stop contemplating a run for President, and mentor younger Democrats who will lead our country into the future.
Bush v Gore is where this country went off the rails. You praise him for not protesting when his victory was stolen from him. I remember thinking at the time, Why aren't we protesting in the streets? Well, we should have. A Gore presidency would have changed the course of history. Possibly no 9/11. Definitely no Iraq War. The world would be a different place.
31
2000 began a new century. The election that year and all that followed were the beginning of the end for our nation.
1
There are times I’m convinced we’re living in a parallel reality. In universe-prime (the real one) Al Gore won the 2000 election. There was no Iraq war perpetrated by his Vice President, so 6000 Americans didn’t die; there was no 9/11 because his intelligence people heeded the warnings and foiled the plot, and 2800 people didn’t die; there was no subsequent war in Afghanistan, and 2000 soldiers didn’t die.
His economists headed off the financial meltdown before it could be called “Great,” and he handed his successor a mild downtown.
He kept the US on the downward slope in the proliferation of fossil fuels and left the environment in better shape than he found it.
But that’s someone else’s universe. We live in an alternate dimension that’’s skewed, where events since Y2K have gone haywire. A dimension in which it’s possible for a lying degen draft-dodger to be president.
I miss reality.
26
Al Gore has actually become a much better speaker with a warmer, more humorous and emphatic on-camera manner his 2000 electoral race days. I am not saying he should run, but that he has grown a lot in this respect.
And perhaps Al Gore has become too wise to wish to become President. Maybe he is not afflicted with a voracious ego, and does not wish to debase himself and his friends and family in order to get to the Oval Office. He has a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar. He is loved and respected by many. A reasonable man might say to himself that that is enough.
15
The obviously political and partisan ruling in Bush v Gore which halted the Florida recount to award the Presidency to George W. Bush poisoned our body politic in a way which remains with us still.
As Justice Stevens said, the true winner of the Presidential Election of 2000 may never be known, but the identity of the loser is clear: the people's confidence in the judge as a fair arbiter.
That confidence has yet to be restored.
34
I'd like to see some real adults running for the presidency in 2020. I don't want the Toddler in Chief re-elected. I definitely don't want to see Pence running. And the third time will not be the charm for Hilary Clinton no matter what she might think. I want to see some new people who aren't as divisive as Trump, Cruz, or, sad to say, Clinton. She was much more qualified than Trump and won the popular vote but she needs to let someone new try. She has too many issues.
Gore was smart to move on. He has a life and isn't replaying his losses in public. It might be a good idea for him to give it go in the primaries. I'd like to see another woman in the mix. I'm fed up with the way this country has been malfunctioning because the men can't get along. I'm especially fed up with the Grossly Overpaid Patriarchy Party who can't seem to keep their politics separated from their alleged religious and moral beliefs about women's bodies and reproductive lives.
I don't expect a perfect president. But I don't want four more years of Trump. I'd like to think we are better than him and that we deserve better.
16
Gore would actually be a perfect candidate. His even temperament would be a salve right now. More importantly, we need someone who can tackle the biggest problem not only America, but the world has ever faced: catastrophic human-caused climate change.
Any candidate able to inspire us to action on this issue would have my vote.
9
I would go further than Professor Bowler when he avers that irresponsible leaders “are drawing into question the legitimacy of the system as an election-winning tactic. They’re doing this for short-term gain without thought to long-term erosion.”
I say this is an outcome of the bomb-throwing tactics of Reagan, Thatcher, Gingrich, DeLay, Rove et. al. In the dissolution of the UK and the devolution of American politics we are seeing the logical denouement of Reagan/Thatcherism. Perhaps it was unconscious, perhaps just irresponsibly not thought-out - certainly it was manipulated for petty ego and avarice - but those who worked to corrode our governments and the public's confidence in them pulled at threads that can easily unravel without stopping. The fabric of civilization is thin and at times even threadbare. I would argue this is one of those times. It doesn't take much for it to be torn and rent.
History has shown many times that matters can relatively quickly devolve, and much toil and dedication lost in a flash. It's also been shown that it takes great time and trouble to rebuild again, and meanwhile horrendous disorder, trauma and terror can ensue. I'm reminded what a long-time resident from Nigeria said, reflecting on American political recklessness, "You Americans treat your politics like a football."
When our politics can be transformed from a game of selfish pursuits into an honorable endeavor, so can our nation and the world. Where is the Exceptional Nationism?
14
That Al Gore did not trash the Supreme Court’s election decision and also seek to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush Administration. underscores how very fragile our representative democracy can be when presented with perilous situations where the outcome can be determined only by the patriotism, judgement, and integrity, or the lack thereof, of a main participant. Gore’s choices in the matter were undoubtably shaped by his long background and experience in elective politics and governing, including the many positive influences of his family. Trump’s family and business backgrounds, of course, are the mirror opposites of Gore’s, almost a Hobbesian world of unethical behaviors and chronic mendacity. These are the qualities that he has dangerously, recklessly imported into our political realm. Character matters.
1059
@John Grillo Euripides: character is destiny
48
@John Grillo
When Al was growing up in luxury in a hotel in D.C. his Daddy was on the Senate floor defending Jim Crow and segregation. The Gore family background is different but not indisputably better.
13
@KBronson. And I grew up in a conservative republican family and I rejected it all. We do not have to take on the beliefs of our upbringing.
133
One does have to wonder, if Al Gore was in the race, what kind of chance he'd have.
My guess is a fairly decent one. A lot of younger people would consider him given his bringing the issue of climate change to the fore, and I bet a lot of others might be willing to give him a shot to redress what many have come to see as an unfair decision back in 2000--a decision, as Frank points out, that Gore handled with considerable grace.
And, it should be pointed out, Gore has seemingly become less wooden and more easygoing with age, compared to many of his compatriots who with age become more rigid and shrill.
(AND--Americans love an underdog comeback story.)
454
@Glenn Ribotsky Does the USA really need another private schooler at the helm of our government?
@HLB Engineering
Who grew up as a Washington insider in a hotel?
5
@KBronson
yet I would vote for him, depending on the competition. He's a good guy imo.
46
The notion that Gore acceding and surrendering to the SCOTUS ruling was grace in defeat is ludicrous and completely disregards the circumstances of that ruling. Bush v Gore was an unconstitutional ruling that violated the state sovereignty of Florida through halting a state constitutionally mandated recount. SCOTUS even admitted as much in acknowledging the decision did not reflect a precedent and should not be considered as such going forward.
Not only was the ruling unconstitutional, but interfering in a state election and for partisan reasons permanently tarnished SCOTUS's place in the federal government in what amounted to an unconstitutional act on the part of the majority who ruled in Bush v Gore.
That recount was supposed to happen and and in not happening changed the direction of this country for the worse and in a way from which we have yet to recover.
882
@Josh
It was not a “state constitutionally mandated recount”. It was a court ordered recount in selected democratic stronghold counties without adequate time for a statewide recount that would treat all voters equally.
Regarding the constitutionality of the ruling, the court elected to rest it in the “equal protection” clause of the 14th amendment but any other outcome would have created a constitutional crises for the following reason: The US Constitution does not assign the selection of the Electors to the people or to government of the State of Florida. It assigns it specifically to the legislature. The legislature ( now of all 50 states) chose to assign it to the people by an election and specified a method of determining a winner. That method gave the outcome to Bush and he was certified. While the public was watching the Florida judiciary attempt to hijack the process from the legislature, that body voted to certify the Bush electors in accord with the election outcome and the vote tabulation that the law they passed specified.
It was easier and less controversial for the court to address the equal protection issue than to remind an ignorant public that they only get to vote for president because their state legislature lets them, but what other outcome was constitutionally possible?
18
@KBronson, obviously, the Supreme Court could constitutionally have refused to interfere in the legislatively ordered state election. Your partisanship is more than showing, it's blatant.
82
@Josh- After Bush was declared the winner by 537 votes, it came to light that before the election, over 12,000 people had been wrongly eliminated from the voting rolls, many of them because they were misidentified as former felons. Though African-Americans made up 11 percent of registered voters in the state, they accounted for a reported 44 percent of the people who were purged. Given the strong support of black voters for Democrats in Florida, if they had remained on the rolls, the election would most certainly been decided in Gore's favor.
139
This is such a sad and horrible reminder of what we have become, and it is completely self-inflicted. i have lived in the US for more than 50 years, but chose never to become a citizen (go for it, guys) because I early on thought the US would never, ever overcome its massive regional differences, and that wonderful experiment may never succeed. It took me a long time to understand what I am seeing today, which is lack of care for parts of the country, lack of care for the poor, part of which started and legislated in the era of Jim Crow and earlier, together with redlining, poor schools, lack of equity in school funding - there are too many to list here.
And then, we blame poverty on the poor, disregarding how the USA has consistently kept minorities in "their place" through redlining, which has kept quality education away from poor neighbors, because their school funding is based on property values, which of course goes right back to redlining.
No, Al Gore, you are too late to the table, and you will never be part of the new generation of voters that understand what you and your generation never did, although you did try. And I do feel bad for you about that - as a Norwegian, I wanted you to get a Nobel Prize, but nobody listened...
221
@Merete Cunnngham Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
16
@Merete Cunnngham I am confused by your last comment: Gore DID win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (along with the IPCC).
13
@Merete Cunnngham
He split a Nobel Prize with the IPCC in 2007.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2007/summary/
5
Gore did have some admirable features, but what Bruni is most impressed by actually revealed the very worst about Al Gore and the mushy left.
Bruni salutes Gore for accepting the Supreme Court's intentionally flawed decision stopping the recount.
If Democracy dies in this country, it will be because liberals fight with one hand tied behind their back.
Anyone who knows anything about the Law, recognizes how perverse the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v Gore was. The decision demonstrated that the Court was completely severed from any sense of justice or morals. I will briefly explain TWO damning flaws of the decision:
1)The Court ruled that the case would have no "precedential affect." In other words, the case, and its legal doctrines, were not to be followed in the future. This is contrary to the notion that since we are all equal we are all bound by the same laws. The Court was admitting that it was using a different gauge of right and wrong for princes.
2) Bush won a preliminary injunction to halt the recount. A preliminary injunction is legal relief that is awarded before the Court hears witnesses or examines the facts. It can only be awarded if a dire emergency is imminent. The Bush team essentially was saying that a grave ill would befall us if we counted all the votes.
By conceding defeat, Gore acceded to a coup d etat
465
@David Gottfried
The US Constitution gives the choosing of the electors to the Florida legislature—not the State government as a whole and not to the people , but the legislature. It is the legislature that decides to hold an election and let the people decide and sets the rules for that vote and for determining its results. Those rules were followed and Bush certified as the winner. While the Florida Judiciary was attempting to hijack that process with a recount that treated votes in different parts of the state differently, the legislature voted to certify the results and send the Bush electors to the Electoral College. The unconstitutional process was what the Supreme Court stopped.
5
@KBronson, as I wrote elsewhere, your bias is showing.
45
@David Gottfried-Indeed, the conservative Supremes showed their utter contempt for democracy and the will of the American people. At least 2 of the 5 justices had conflicts of interest and should have recused themselves. Scalia's son worked for the law firm representing the Bushes in Bush v Gore, and Thomas’ wife worked for the Heritage Foundation; vetting applicants seeking jobs in the Bush administration. Despite the fact that Al Gore was leading in the popular vote, and that the efforts by Jeb Bush to suppress black and brown votes in Florida were a national scandal, the Supremes voted to end the counting of the ballots at a point where Bush was leading in Florida by 59 votes. Even the Court recognized the absurdity of its decision and made it a point to say that the decision should not be considered a precedent.
92
Most Democrats seem to dislike the idea of Gore, Sanders, Hillary, Biden - or any long-time (older) household name Democrats running for the nomination in 2020. They want a charismatic, young, progressive candidate to run against Trump. The problem is who? It is almost 2019.
We are waiting for the Lone Ranger to ride in and save the town. He/she better hurry up.
9
Beto O’Rourke is that guy ...
Gore v. Bush was a contest between two sons of famous, successful politicians. Both of them were very aware of the realpolitik, the unsavory underbelly that is essential to success in elected office, the pose that elected officials take: I am better, tougher, and smarter than the ordinary person who put me in office.
Bush prevailed in 2000 and 2004 because he presented himself as a straightforward, simple man, more action oriented than his rivals, Gore and Kerry...and one who would take whatever action was necessary to win.
2016 is past, and no one knows who will be running in 2020. All we citizen voters can do is vote for our choice to run the country. And it won't be Gore, because he knows better than to run again, a simple fact that seems to elude Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders. Let's not forget that Howard Dean decided that he didn't want to do what was necessary to defeat Kerry and Edwards.
The winner in 2020 will be the candidate who is willing to do anything...ANYTHING...to win the race. Personally, I think that Trump will be too exhausted to win, and won't run, if indeed he is still in office two years from now.
We live in interesting times.
98
Trump has to run in 2020; the alternative is almost certainly prison.
10
@Nat Ehrlich WADR, Mr. Ehrlich, but No. No, Gore Sr was not the same as Bush’s father. Elected officials are not all the same. Some politicians are ordinary people. Some, like the late Paul Wellstone and William Proxmire and Shirley Chisholm and the very present Patty Murray and John Lewis, are honorable elected officials. Not everyone hates expertise and norms and higher standards for the POTUS. Consequences from the 2016 election make it not in the past.
These are not interesting times—changing times, yes, when your cynicism is recommended by 67 NYT subscribers.
2
@Daniel as Johnny Carson would say "You are correct Sir!". It's what I call the Assad dilemma. When you do stuff that crosses a certain badness threshold, you choices going forward are either do more of the same, or perish.
Gore's deferential persona is his strength as a person, but he may seem weak to many voters.
We have a widely diverse electorate. One size does not fit all. Unfortunately, critical thinking takes a back seat to rebel-rousing. Our elections seems more like a Bowl Games.
I submit to you, that the great self promoter we elected is proof.
6
"How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?"
- Hunter S Thompson
'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972'
6
Gore was the most important person we have nominated from any party since FDR. I hope we find a way to put him in the White House following the 2020 election.
7
I applaud Gore for the commitment to the maintenance of integrity within our federal system. Very nice. His commitment to his sense of integrity, it should be pointed out, has led the country into the toilet: the Bush administration which got everything wrong, the Obama administration which had 2 years to advance sensible remedies before the nitwits returned to power, and now, well, you know.
Bruni makes the ludicrous claim that Gore separated himself from Clinton. He did no such thing. He took the third way and doubled down by selecting a virtual Republican as his running mate. I had voted against Clinton in 96 after he made clear he had little interest in being a Democrat. With Gore, I never had the slightest interest in giving him my vote.
3
No. Look forward, not behind. Gore, Biden, Sanders, Clinton, Warren, all too much baggage at this point. New faces win elections.
5
@Michael
So you’re saying Trump has no chance of winning then?
1
Frank Bruni was one of the journalists who gave George W. Bush a pass in 2000 because they liked him better than Al Gore. It's rich that Bruni now recognizes Gore's value. I wish it had happened 18 years ago.
15
Could well have thrown a few hundred Florida votes to Bush. Nice going, Frank.
Wow. In a few years, Hillary would have been given a similar review for her handling of the 2016 debacle, albeit if her name were Harry. Ah, that we could, at some point, take off the blue-collared glasses through which we see and judge men and women by such different, unacknowledged, and even unrealized (by ourselves) standards.
6
Al Gore was altogether too gracious in defeat. He should have railed about the Supreme Court’s decision as partisan; he should have ranted about the rigged system: it all was. And we didn’t just “move on.” Imagine the county — the world — we’d be living in today if the princely, principled Al Gore had not surrendered so gracefully. What possible mistakes could he have made as president that weren’t as catastrophic as the “mistakes” that Bush went on to make, in ignoring the warnings on 9/11, in leading us into a war that still isn’t over, in upending our moral authority in Abu Ghraib and Gitmo? No thanks to you, Al Gore. No. Thanks.
7
@PL Must agree, the gracious withdrawal was a major error.
3
@PL Me, too. I was furious that he didn't fight back. It was so incongruous I thought maybe he had gotten threats to knock off his family. Or some kind of blackmail raised its head. It made no sense to be "gracious" in the face of such a miscarriage of justice. I have had no respect for the Supreme Court since, nor, I suspect, have a lot of people.
6
@PL
Sorry, I don't get it. How exactly would Gore have become president by ranting and railing? Would ranting and railing have gotten the Supreme Court to reverse its decision, caused an armed popular uprising, or what?
2
Woulda, coulda shoulda. If that darn Ralph Nader had droppod out, putting the country before his own grandstanding needs and if Gore had stopped with the sighing and eye-rolling during his debates with Bush, the world would look completely different at this point. Politics is such an ugly game these days; it’s going to take a very special person to lead us out of the fix we’re in. I’d vote for Gore but why would he do that to himself? The Dems are going to have to find somebody with the intestinal fortitude to be a target of hatred from Trump and his supporters. Death threats and pipe bombs. Who needs that?
10
When it comes to love of country Gore is a giant. History will judge him favorably. When it comes to love of self Trump is a giant. When it comes to love of country Trump is pygmy. History will judge him harshly.
22
Gore, Hillary, Biden and Sanders had their chances. They, like Trump, are too old now and two of them have made terrible, life-costing mistakes: Gore's concession put Bush in the White House and Hillary voted in favor of the Iraq War. Hillary still doesn't have an exit plan. If she were to run against Trump, I just wouldn't vote, though I held my nose and voted for her in 2016 because no one would be worse than Trump. I won't do that again.
2
@Sweetbetsy
I will never understand the thinking of people who, while acknowledging that no one would be worse than Trump, just will not vote for a less bad alternative. After Trump. I would welcome the lesser of 2 evils with a celebration!
3
No one knows how events would have played out with a President Gore, but I'm 100% certain that he would not have ignored intelligence indicating that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike in the US. 9/11/01 changed the course of American and world history for the worse. Imagine what it would be like if that had never happened – and weep.
15
@John B 911 was a handy event. And the Project for a New American Century begged for another Pearl Harbor. Interesting coincidence...
1
@John B
Or even if it had, he would not have made the idiotic decision to go into Iraq.
Gore allowed the election to be stolen by an incompetent aided by his brother and the gutless Supremes. bush then handed the government to Cheney and Rumsfeld. But he was the decider that went into Iraq and opened the horror and Pandora box of the Middle East.
So much for the noble intentions of Gore.
Holder is right. That is politics. Now God help us.
7
@Suzalet Holder has no moral standing to offer any commentary, after his Wall Street errand boy routine.
About 8 years ago, Gore was accused by a massage therapist of sexual harassment of some sort. I remember reading about it in the NY Times. Whatever happened? What was the outcome? Why didn't we hear more? Was he guilty or not? This was years before Me Too. Was it swept under the rug? If Gore were to ever run for President, I'm sure all this would come out. Odd though that we just didn't hear anything more after the accusations.
7
@jay
do a search - he was cleared.
1
"Gore noted that he could have “launched a four-year rear-guard guerrilla campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush presidency, and to mobilize for a rematch.” Some people urged that. But, Gore added, “There’s so much riding on the success of any American president and taking the reins of power and holding them firmly, I just didn’t feel like it was in the best interest of the United States, or that it was a responsible course of action.”
Too bad Hillary and the pundits on the left (yes, that would be most NYT opinion columnists) didn't heed Gore's advice after Hillary's defeat in 2016.
2
My issue with Gore and his Nobel Peace Prize -- an honor that has been bestowed on such wonderful people as Yasser Arafat -- is his hypocrisy.
When it comes to climate change, he talks the talk but lives in extravagant disregard for energy consumption, while the much maligned G. W. Bush walks the walk, quietly. Check out https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tale-two-houses/
Nope, not for me. Well, opposite Trump, yeah, I'd vote for him. That he'd be better than Trump . . . who wouldn't be?
4
@Texas Liberal
This too is one of my main issues with Gore. He is basically a good person but a raging hypocrite elite entitled to energy luxury while demanding austerity by the mud people, and I suspect just not really particularly bright.
2
Read 'Welcoming Homer the tree hugger' by George Meyers.
@Texas Liberal
I don’t suppose you actually read the Snopes article? It points out that the Gore house is now LEED certified, and W now lives in an 8000 sq ft house.
Besides, running an international organization takes more energy than oil painting.
3
That's why Gore lost and Trump won.
When Trump loses in 2020 it will be up to the leaders of the senate and house to explain to him and Ivanka we are not a banana republic and he has to go. Take the silverware if you must but just go quietly or millions will take to the streets. New York state has an orange jumpsuit in your size xxx awaiting his highness.
13
There are many pundits that helped their candidates lose their bid for the presidency, and Mark Penn is one of several talking heads that helped Hillary sank her first try. Just because Hillary cannot bring herself to say no, she may not be able to say yes either.
Just because Mark Penn want to regain his 5 minute of fame, there is no need to take his prognostication seriously as he is now a pundit for the Republicans.
Al Gore was the good son whose goal in life is to run for the presidency. He found his place in the World after he lost. We should leave him alone and let him enjoy his life away from the political World.
4
Gore, Obama, Biden, McCain...somewhere in the recesses of the mind of Donald Trump, is the recognition that he will never be the man that these (and others) were and are. His desperation and self-defeating views are apparent every day. Lie more. Double down. Threaten more. Tweet more. Then they’ll respect me. No, Donald, each effort you make to be a real man, a leader, a mensch, only throw you farther from that place. How awful that this “man” has so much power and so many followers, who cannot tell the difference. As so many have said, he is a poor man’s idea of a rich man, a weak man’s idea of a string man, a du,b man’s idea of a smart man. A loser.
11
@Dagwood Somewhere in the dark recesses of Trump's mind the Minotaur lurks.
3
@Dagwood Some rise sin, and some by virtue fall: --Measure For Measure, Act 2, Scene 1.
2
After the Supreme Court expropriated the 2000 election, Justice Scalia told Americans who were upset with the decision to "get over it". As soon as I heard that, I knew I would never forget or forgive such an outrage.
Little did I know that Scalia's death would set in motion another decision (by the GOP majority to keep his vacant seat unfilled for the remainder of Obama's second term) that would make me even angrier.
The thought that nominees of the caliber of Al Gore and Merrick Garland are subject to the whim and discretion of agents of disservice such as Scalia and McConnell is an eternal blood boiler.
59
"Gore is looking good — virtuous, visionary — in many ways."?
While Gore may look good in comparison to Trump (who doesn't?), Gore has spent the last 10 years or so making *himself* rich as a "venture capitalist".
I voted for Gore and believe that the world would be believe place if he, not Bush, had been elected. But who needs another fatcat guy allied with investment banks and the criminal types on Wall Street?
[from Wikipedia]
In 2004, he co-launched Generation Investment Management, a company for which he serves as Chair... Gore also became a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers..."
3
The problem for Gore, then as now, is that there is a global industry that makes $1 trillion in profit each year, that really, really needs Al Gore to be painted, by every means at its disposal, as a feckless, cowardly communist. Shortly, because of his climate advocacy, he comes politically with some major baggage.
I like Gore. Americans who like Gore can expect this character assassination to continue, on all channels, looonng after he's dead. He's the 'face of climate change', and there is a $1 trillion a year industry that needs that face painted in the worst possible colors.
12
I think Joe Biden and Beto O'Rourke would be a good ticket. And if Joe runs for one term as he says, Beto could get the next 2 terms on his own. That would pretty much take care of me for the rest of my life. I am 74. LOL!!!!
11
@GARRY Fabulous idea!!
3
Grace in defeat?
A defeat you should never have agreed to!
It was not yours to give away--but ours.
It seems from the news articles that new laws in closely contested states do not allow that again.
But should we trust you this time?? Unclear!
6
Since we're talking about Trump making other politicians look great, and Democrats can't seem to find anyone who is relatively young to run for President who is not a too radical "Progressive," how about Democrats look to former Florida governor Jeb Bush as their 2020 Presidential nominee? After all, if Trump, who previously was a Democrat, can be the leader of the now right-wing, nationalist (and outright crazy) Republican Party, why can't the moderate Jeb Bush lead the Democrats?
3
@Jay Orchard
Jeb! and Bloomberg can duke it out in the Democratic primaries for the nomination. (And let the progressive run as the Indie that he is. First Indie president?)
It seems that most politicians before Trumpism could pretend to be class acts, and a few actually were, like Al Gore. The GOP has figured out for awhile now that it can't win without cheating, so voter suppression, gerrymandering, and all sorts of trickery have gotten into our election system. Republicans, using the latest technology, have far outpaced what Democrats had done once upon a time. I think it's shameful that a president who barely does any work tries so hard to hold on to his office; he treats it with such disdain. I listen to his followers in Broward County, Florida say they think that Trump needs to intervene in what they perceive as voter fraud. Do they know that all that Trump wants to do is whine on Twitter from the White House? He doesn't care one iota for any of these people.
23
Good men grow, become wiser and that's been the case with Al Gore. He won't run, like many of us he doesn't recognize what's happened to our politics since the days of his own Florida recount.
Thanks to Citizens United bribery is legal,the Supreme Court is nothing more than a Republican caucus and bigotry and ignorance are celebrated.
Democrats need Gore's help in messaging, a senior advisory role. Democrats need his help to speak truth, not run for office.
23
@Nick Adams
Thanks to Citizen’s United, it is legal to distribute a book or video critical of politicians like Hillary Clinton or Al Gore.
2
I think Al Gore can do the most good by continuing to warn Americans about the dangers of climate change.
14
@Chris Rasmussen
I think he is a negative. I don’t listen to hypocrites telling me to give up what they will not.
2
Perhaps if Gore had been elected, there wouldn't be three, history making, out of control fires burning in California destroying houses and burning up people.
24
Gore should definitely throw his hat in the ring. The field threatens to be twice as large as the Republicans' weak 15. One more player of Gore's quality can only help the Democratic Party. After Trump he looks almost like a god.
6
Vice President Gore wouldn't stoop to conquer and America was spared a feckless president. Thanks, Al.
1
Well the planet being too small for the pillaging human population IS the root of all this strife and misery and if we continue the way we are going the planet will wipe us off the globe like so much detritus and we well deserve it. Gore understands this with the passion of one dedicated to working on this climate crisis and it might be not quite beyond some mitigation over time. Gore could and would do this. May be after a few more over the top hurricanes and floods and tornados and fires and,yes, volcano eruptions and heat waves beyond belief we will all realize that everything we are and everything we have or can have depends on the health of the planet. Gore knows this like few people know this. He could help for sure. But it require our willingness to change and that takes being scared out of your wits, apparently. But that, too, is coming soon. Maybe there is hope. Otherwise more of the same, much more.
9
@joyce Al Gore understands more about his income stream than he does the jet stream.
3
Gore, Kerry, HR Clinton: all highly qualified candidates who would have made excellent presidents.
Another thing they share: they are boring. As much as I loved and supported Hillary - and came to her defense repeatedly against the more-Mao-than-thou haters on these boards - this was painfully clear in both her attempts at the top spot.
If Americans want anything from a candidate they want to entertained. Forget about about policy, issues, left-vs-centrist, economic vs cultural, all of it. Nominate a person with charisma and we are there.
16
@Marty A man who windsurfed to seek votes doesn't deserve the respect of the voter. See: Mikey in the tank (Dukakis).
1
@HLB Engineering
See: Kerry on the goose hunt.
Exaggerate? Not so much.
Most famously, he was accused of claiming to invent the internet.
What he said was "I took the initiative in creating the internet."
What he did was sponsor and lead the fight to pass the High Performance Computing Act of 1991, aka the Gore Bill per Wikipedia, the bill that created the internet, called at the time the "information Superhighway", from ArpaNet and academic precursors.
20
@Albanius
I was on the internet in the 1980’s and CompuServe was offering public non-academic access to the internet by 1989 at least. And it WAS called the internet. Sorry but you get the red pencil.
So what is Bruni suggesting? That, in spite of the GOP's track record of interfering with legitimate voter registration, Democratic candidates should now roll over and accept suspect results like perfect ladies and gentlemen? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice.....
11
To his credit he did not want to question the election results but then went along his advisors. A 500 million dollar sale of his media empire to Al Jazeera. Not me but some people belive it was a front for terrorist. At least Trump will play it that way. His politicizing of climate change including ridiculous predictions makes him a joke. Point is he put himself in the position of being ridiculed. Ridicule does not get one elected. Same for his movie stardom.
Bush had an ultra energy efficient home in Texas. Gore's ancestral home wasn't. Not that I could blame him. It's a beautiful estate. Bush comes off as more of a believer except he put his esthetic sense aside because of political and economic realities. Some thing the present crop of Democrats can't do. Which leaves us with Cuomo. Maybe by then people will be so fed up with Trump by then he could win. If you look at Beto's loss against Cruz maybe not. He does fits the mortician like pattern of Gore and Kerrey doesn't he?
1
These days, when I watch tv coverage of the terrifying fires in California and hear Jerry Brown say they are caused by climate change - I mourn again that democratically elected Al Gore was not the 43rd president.
34
@fast/furious
It was already too late. The opportunity to change the trajectory has passed ten years earlier.
Has to be the funniest headline to appear in the NYT in 20 years.
4
No to Biden; no to Clinton; no to Sanders and no to Gore. Gore's concession was a huge mistake. He didn't do the right thing. He did the easiest thing.
9
@A. Hominid And no to you. He did the responsible and yes, the honorable thing. Country before party. I'd like to see him run again. I'd like to hear what he has to say now, especially with reference to the insanity we are dealing with.
4
Gore betrayed the trust of the millions who voted for him. The decision wasn't up to him. Or Joe Lieberman. Or Donna Brazile, thinking of her future TV appearances. He had an obligation to the public, and he walked away from it. Had he actually fought, as the Republicans did, there might have been a different outcome. Scalia et al knew he'd roll over.
But of course Frank Bruni thinks it was a great moment. Eight years, the disastrous invasion of Iraq, Katrina and an disastrous financial crisis later, Mr. Bruni still thinks of it fondly.
And why not? If only the general public were as immune to national policy as the pundit classes.
20
@jrd - "Might have been?" Scalia "knew"?
So Gore is responsible for the actions of Bush 43?
Speculation as proof?
Katrina?
"Pundit classes"?
Blaming the messenger, and yet, somehow, perfect.
As a retrospective.
Both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton have too much baggage to survive another run. As we are still seeing, the carnivorous Trumpian One-Third is never going to forget whatever it is that keeps them salivating every time a True Believer rings the bell. And that doesn't not have to be, and hopefully won't be, Trump himself.
Dems need to put up someone who hasn't been caricatured to death for the past 25 years, and that, sadly, includes Elizabeth Warren. I would love to see Christine Gillibrand step up, and Beto O'Rourke (though probably too soon) could be the Bernie that might have been (too late).
What I can't get out of my mind right now, though, is that shot of Trump in Europe, standing with Macron and Merkle, with Putin approaching. The Donald was the only one smiling. but it was Melania's sightline on Putin that I found, I don't know . . . maybe I spent too much time hanging around fern bars in the 70s . . .
. . . intriguing?
And now she's getting kind of snippy about the help.
I don't know . . . someone please tell me I'm wrong about this . . .
2
Gore can’t run. He’s in a lock box.
1
This second-guessing of Al Gore is profoundly irritating. I, too, wished that he had pushed back, but he was under intense pressure to concede, particularly from the news media who were so cringingly anxious to appear unbiased they ignored GOP outrages-- including paid 'protestors' brought in by Roger Stone-- just as they would later give Bush/Cheney a free pass after 9/11, I might add. Would Gore have heeded the warnings of Rudman/Hart? Of course. More than civility has been lost.
34
Thank you for the reminder of some of the positive aspects of Al Gore's presence in our political life. Personally, at this point, I would prefer him to any of the other possible candidates for president mentioned here. At least we know he would be serious about dealing with the climate crisis. Biden would be good in a supporting role, but I just don't see him as having the kind of "push" necessary for the top job. As for Hillary Clinton, while I admire many things about her and appreciate the depth of her experience and qualifications, the thought of all the history she carries with her makes me dread the prospect of another campaign centered on all the negative images of her (however false they may be) that have been so relentlessly worked on by her right-wing opponents for literally decades. Bernie Sanders? For heaven's sake, he would be 79 years old by the time of the election! And whether or not his ardent supporters want to admit it, while many of his positions are undeniably appealing, he has never been very strong in terms of detail or implementation. I might be induced to go for Elizabeth Warren should she decide to run. But the best thing would be for someone in the younger generation to rise up and demonstrate the qualities we need in a president. That is what I'm actually hoping to see.
32
Gore's loss of Florida, and thus the Presidency, is one of the great tragedies of our age. In 50 years, as climate change is wreaking havoc across the planet, our grandchildren can look back and appreciate the full extent of this tragedy. If only...
46
@will-colorado He didn't lose. The votes were not counted properly. Even Pat Buchanan knew that. If the count had not been closed prematurely by Katherine Harris, well, it would be a much different and much better world.
11
@Ellen Tabor
Harris did what the law instructed her to do.
1
@KBronson-she did what the law allowed her to do.
The subject of past presidential hopefuls makes me long for Howard Dean. I had the honor of meeting him around the time of the election and was very impressed by the mans intellect and unflappable poise. It's so ironic that "yee haw" derailed his campaign when compared to the loutish embarrassment now in office.
29
Al Gore without Tipper by his side in this me-too era when liberal women are aggressively standing for better treatment for women? I think that would be problematic. I would love to support Gore for President again. I was disappointed that he passed on making a run in 2008. But that was his best shot at the White House.
3
@Howard Gregory
So we are back to treating divorce as a disqualification. Will the Puritans never die?
President Obama's photographer, Pete Souza, has said on many occasions that the fundamental core of who Obama was as a man never changed from when he was a fledgling junior senator all the way through the presidency. The same can be said of Gore. Although he was not a razzle dazzle candidate and came off as a bit of a prig about his disdain for Bill Clinton's behavior, it was and is who he is: a bright, principled man who isn't one person in private and another in public. A couple of weeks ago he was interviewed on PBS--while remaining emotionally mature, he spoke with passion and intelligence about what the current administration is doing to contribute to the devastation of our climate. He has been speaking about the environment for decades. He has always been right about the subject and how different our world would literally be had he been rightfully elevated to the presidency. My father always told me we get the government we deserve. What the current administration's full scale destruction of decades-long alliances and the mean-spiritedness of the folks currently in charge says about us is both frightening and depressing. I too wish our government better reflected who we believe we are, but Gore did not become president, we're still mired in Bush's wars, an ignoramus is at the helm and our climate is being destroyed all for the sake of the mighty dollar. Thanks for a fine piece about a fine man. I don't blame him for staying out of the circus.
147
I am of two minds re: Gore: He was the 2nd coming of the best of the Democrats sans the smoke-filled backroom; he enraged me by not fighting tooth and nail against the GOP election theft. He was the epitome of liberals who rage against injustice but lacked the stomach for the fight.
I think about Ted Kennedy's muddled interview with Roger Mudd, unable to rouse the Kennedy courage and charisma to claim his place as pretender to the Presidency. I think about Gary Hart, the ultimate policy wonk and political nerd, stung by Lee Atwater's Monkey Business, the Miami Herald and a blonde Mata Hari. And I think of Al Gore, empowered by political DNA unmatched by any Presidential aspirant in history, because Super lawyer David Boies was over-matched by GOP legal operatives and Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement plans timed for a Republican appointed by Bush.
Gore's choice of civility over conflict was the fork in the road that led to the Republican nightmare we now endure. His sense of patriotism and principle came with a catastrophic cost: over 35,000 American military casualties, 4,000 Americans and an estimated 500,000 Iraqi dead, plus $2 trillion and counting wasted in criminal futility.
Like Carter and Habitat for Humanity, Gore has his redemption with the inconvenient truth of the greatest threat to both habitat and humanity. He's also made $300 million as the man who "invented the world wide web."
He failed to save America. Maybe he can help save the planet instead.
49
@Yuri Asian
Nice comment. One thing, and it’s not directly related, but Jimmy Carter did not found, nor does he have direct involvement in Habitat for Humanity. It was founded by a friend of his and the Carter’s participated as volunteers and were able to help raise awareness and funds as a result.
President Carter’s legacy is he CARTER CENTER, which does amazing work in small and largely uncelebrated ways. I wish more people understood this distinction and would do more to support the Carter Center, as well as Habitat for Humanity.
37
@Yuri
I don't mind him helping other candidates rise up, but only from the background. There is flesh blood and fresh minds, and fresh vigor afoot (shown in the mid terms), whereas we are on the cusp of truly making America Progressive.
11
@FunkyIrishman
I've not been to the Blarney Stone so I can't wax poetic about a progressive America when Caligula and his followers have set fire to the commons and millions of Americans wield Tiki torches and rabidly cheer.
America's a giant oil supertanker with Captain Queeg at the wheel and mutiny in the air. Super-tankers with a crew of 350 million don't turn on a dime (engines are cut 6 hours from port) and take 30+ minutes to stop. Compared to China with 5 times our population, we're not that big. But for a democracy, we're big, messy and clumsy. (India's democracy is an Imperial English prank designed to keep it weak and quarreling.)
Apropos India, the US is an elephant described by a dozen blind people sure the part they feel is the whole when any demographer knows we are in fact a collection of very different countries pitted against each other.
America's strength, a wealth of real diversity, is also our weakness.
America's legacy and promise hold all the values and benefits of "progressive" without a tag. Pundits insist political labels are bogus but we keep falling into the same trap and dividing ourselves into meaningless boxes first coined by English thinkers in the 17th Century.
America needs to value freedom balanced by responsibility, fairness and dignity on the way to equality, opportunity that isn't taken from others, and bounty that's shared and not hoarded by a few.
It's called America and needs no other label.
8
Clueless in America. Get a clue America. Some are all in with the Trump stuff. Like lemmings, willing to rush to the edge with "Fearless Leader". Only thing is, when it comes to jumping, he won't be there with you. He'll be off to wherever his brand still holds value, the House of Saud or a reasonable facsimile.
Who will be the next president? Please make it someone who has a knowledge of science, law and a undying love of those less fortunate.
71
@richard wiesner I think we all agree the next president must be a Democrat. No republican has a single one of those essential traits you mention.
11
When I hear vote "recount" in Florida I think of Bernie Sanders. Anyone else?
3
@aeronaut The spectre of Bernie Sanders doesn't arise at this horrendous time; if we're considering serious candidates for 2020, those who are older than say 60 need not apply. Not old, not saddled with baggage, maybe not male, maybe not white. We have hard work to do in fewer than 24 months. We must field candidates who are younger, smarter, less obligated to old ideas and fragmented issues. Not Bernie. Not Hillary. Not Al. For God's sake, not Joe. Their time is past, their view limited. Please, let's move into this campaign with energy like Beto's and strategy like Amy's or Kamala's and even flair like Cory's.
10
Absolutely. Gore is the Anti-Trump. And if he runs in 2020, and loses, the U.S. will disintegrate.
8
@Hamid Varzi
An event which has been predicted many many times in the last 220 years. Was supposed to happen when Washington left office. How many governments in Persia have risen and fallen since then?
1
Trump is mainly successful in making everyone who ran for the office before look good!
But seriously, the Democrats have got to start focusing on younger potential candidates. There were problems with Reagan’s second term, and Trump’s behavior may be a sign of decline. (I am trying to view them as history would and not through my visceral dislike of both.)
I wish Hillary had won in 2008 and Obama in 2016. We need our 50 & 60 year old Senators and governors to start announcing exploratory committees in early 2019.
Thank you sincerely, Hillary, Joe, Bernie et al. Now please enjoy your retirement.
27
I wrote him in in the 2016 election.
7
@Woman, if you and others had voted for Hillary maybe Trump wouldn't have won.
9
@Woman ... then you helped Trump get elected. Too bad.
7
@Ave
I'm in New York State; don't blame me.
5
The mere mention of a Hillary 2020 in this column inspired me to write to say NO! Make that
NOOO!!!! No more Hillary. No more gifts to Trump. This is the first time I’ve read that she might actually be thinking of it, although given Hillary’s voracious ego, it makes sense that she would put self before country.
The winning ticket is Biden-Stacy Abrams or Biden-O’Rourke IMHO. Biden is the most electable Democrat and the best to win back working-class whites. Warren is unelectable, Booker lacks substance and is a showboat, Harris lacks recognition and hasn’t done anything, and Bernie is too left.
14
@Damien O’Driscoll Warren is highly electable.
1
@Sweetbetsy Highly electable if she's running for head of the Yale Progressive Book Club.
Beto in 2020, with Kamala Harris as running mate.
16
@Jonathan
I would prefer the reverse.
8
@FunkyIrishman,
I will take either. But Worry about blue collar, that a Biden type would resonate with. Penn, Ohio, Michigan. We need to talk to the moderates, working class, youth, and non-whites. We need a big tent. Everyone except the greedy corporatists, Trump white evangelicals and the racists/misogynists/militia nuts.
1
Not as bad as your idea that Melania will save the day, but still a bad idea. Despite Al Gore talents, it is time for something else, not the back to inconvenient candidates.
6
So the old folks are past sell by and the youngsters still too green. Unfortunately, Warren probably blew it. If Sherrod Brown, who will be younger than Gore, follows up and tosses his hat in, he'd probably get this Indy's vote.
13
@rtj
YES. Ohio Native here. He is the real thing.
Seriously.
14
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Lean on him! That was a pleasant surprise, that he's willing to consider it. And i'm a Bernie or Buster.
4
@rtj Saying Warren blew it is overdoing it, if you’re talking about her DNA stunt. Not enough to kill off a candidacy, and in this era nothing short of shooting a supporter on Fifth Avenue should matter to Democrats.
2
After the debacle of the 2000 presidential election (an outcome decided in part by the brother of the GOP candidate!) - the US media said yes, it was messy, but that "the rest of the world envies our democracy".
No we don't.
51
Nice guys/gals finish last even if they finish first.
2
I don't doubt that Al Gore has a few bones in his closet, but I am absolutely certain that he's cleaner, far cleaner, than Trump. Trump has armies of skeletons in his closet, and many of them are wrapped in Russian flags. Gore's morals stand out when compared to "grab them by the..." videos and lied-about payoffs to porn starlets 'fooled around' while married. Strange how all Trump's 'born-again' evangelical "Christian" supporters look hard in other directions rather than see Trump's moral shortcomings. Then there's the whole 'serving the public' rather than serving yourself thing. Trump is the most self-dealing, cheating, con man to ever occupy the presidency, and possibly the biggest grifter ever elected to any office (OK, maybe next to Huey Long?). But, while Trump comes from a family steeped in bigotry and racism, Al Gore's family actually has a tradition of 'public service' where there was a passable attempt at actually serving the public instead of fattening yourself at the public's expense. I'm sure Al Gore, and his father before him did very well while in government, but they also did some good for the public. Trump? No doubt whatsoever that 'public service' is a distant accident for him.
13
@Jim Brokaw
There were a few sexual harassment/abuse claims against Gore by some massuses. (Google it.) Just sayin.
1
Gore accepted -- and acted upon -- some very poor campaign strategy from highly-paid advisors. Ditto for Kerry four years later. Ditto for Clinton in '16.
Who is to blame for the failed campaigns -- the advisors or the candidates? I'm still trying to sort that out.
5
@LarryAt27N And what precedent does that set if they are taking bad advice from the start! Not much to sort???
"He let his disgust with Bill Clinton’s conduct eclipse his need for Clinton’s help."
Instead of that action being a detriment, perhaps you should include it under the "virtuous, visionary" column - the MeToo movement will continue to change a lot of the landscape between now and 2020.
9
@Jim Kondek
That's one way of looking at it, but Frank Bruni's description is really more accurate. Gore distanced himself from Bill Clinton, who remained popular (and very charismatic) despite the Lewinsky affair. Socially liberal voters who were turned off and disgusted by Bill Clinton were not about to defect to Bush/Cheney just because Bill Clinton stumped for Gore.
3
Maybe we did not deserve Gore
With Bush/Cheney we chose the floor,
And a real sellout SCOTUS
That O'Connor showed us,
With Trump we got way way way more.
14
“There’s so much riding on the success of any American president...taking the reins of power and holding them firmly, I just didn’t feel like it was in the best interest of the United States, or that it was a responsible course of action.”
This was a Democrat who lost the 2000 presidential election. Donald Trump, the winner of the 2016 presidential election, trashes Democrats routinely as "enemies of the people." His base now wears tee shirts that read "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat." This is proof that patriotism is the rare ability to accept an outcome far less than decisive, to consider the cost of contesting it, and relinquishing rancor for the betterment of the country.
“I accept the finality of this outcome,” [Al Gore] said. “This is America, and we put country before party.” And this is something that Republicans, long before Gore dueled W. for the White House, had abandoned as political expediency and political capital. They were content to see Democrats as evil, as enemies, not as fellow (or sister) countrymen (and countrywomen), all under one large sky, blessed by a providence with a great expanse of land with a rich and wonderful mixture of natural resources. It was almost as though there was much more than everybody could comfortably and happily accept.
But in America, as in Eden, there's always a serpent in the garden. It whispers "you can be like God if only you will take a bite."
The serpent now strangles the body politic with his poisons.
37
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, '18-
Al Gore won the 2000 election. The electoral college makes a mockery of the People's Choice, which he was. Plus, Katherine Harris and the travesty that Florida was and remains. It should not have hung on Florida, the election should not have been so close, but the electoral college, well, that dinosaur needs to be made extinct. Al Gore won. So did Hillary Clinton.
9
The 2000 election was a joke - the Republicans stole it, please what a coincidence that the recount happened in the state where W's brother was governor, the very definition of a conflict of interest! True that Gore was a gracious loser, but by my recollection he also got very weird, grew a beard and a potbelly, got a divorce, and started winning Emmys. He is a patriot based on the actions you remind us of here, but let's stop looking to 70-something recycled politicians. The Democrats need someone from a younger generation who will motivate voters in swing states.
12
Well, like Gore, the majority of us put Country before Party, but we're now being ruled by a minority that will do and say absolutely anything to win, even if it ruins lives, costs billions, and undermines our Democracy. Strange coincidence? I think not.
38
I voted for Al Gore. Same man different time, I'd vote for him again. He could lead us out of this environmental quagmire.
14
I'd love to see Gore as President, but how can he win? He's obsessed with fighting climate change; Republicans have successfully equated that with killing jobs. He could win if our country was less short-sighted and selfish; but it isn't.
9
"But after the Supreme Court halted it, Gore didn’t reject that ruling as partisan, rant about rigged systems, rail about conspiracies or run around telling Americans that he was their rightful leader, foiled by dark forces. He felt that the stability of the country hinged on the calmness of his withdrawal. So he told Americans to move on... He doesn’t let his anger take priority over his policy obsessions, where he still believes he can make a difference.”
At the end of the day, I am surprised that few readers seem to be seeing the not-so-veiled (and frankly, well deserved) swipe that Mr. Bruni is taking at the candidate who lost the 2016 election.
2
I still remember with dismay how "purists" in the San Antonio Peace Coalition refused to vote for an "imperfect" Gore, wasting their votes instead on no-hopers like Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich. In vain, I warned about Supreme Court appointments. It was their ilk, once again, who helped usher in Trump by casting votes for Jill Stein.
113
@TXreader I voted for Nader in 2000 when I lived in Texas and have no regrets. There was no way Bush would lose Texas. My vote did not matter, thanks to the Electoral College.
5
I agree. I'm more angry with the purists than the people who voted for Trump.
7
TXreader,
Dismay is Democratic's continuing to scapegoat their Left, rather than look to their Right.
Once again...Nader won 97,000 Fla. votes. Of which 1/3 reg. as D. Bush won 308,000 Fla. Dem. votes. Tens of millions of reg. Fla. Dem's stayed home.
Yet you and your ilk still blame the few that voted their conscience for Nader. Never the 3:1 Dino's, always the minority Left. Never the disenfranchised. Not the SCOTUS. Never the 12 other 3rd parties...only Nader.
Stein received 1 million votes.
Trump won over 10 million Dem. votes.
Yet this scapegoating continues. Blame your Left, rather than the 10:1 difference. Never mind the once again tens of millions of stay at home Dems.
You want to cast blame upon those "ilk"? How about looking to your own party that cant mobilize, nor generate enthusiasm for establishment, corp. Dino's they force upon the public. Lesser evil isn't a choice. It is hostage taking.
Your ilk wants to cast blame. Well check that mirror Kettle. This scapegoating of minor %, well ignoring the major % is disingenuous and election defeating. Continuing 18yrs later, isn't winning you any new voters.
G'luck in 2020.
2
As much as I admire him, Gore’s time has come and gone a long time ago. He’s been out of politics too long. It’s time to hand the gauntlet to someone younger than 70. I’m not being ageist, but everyone else you mentioned in your piece has tried and failed. As the recent election has clearly demonstrated we want new blood, new ideas, new dynamism. The same old same old will no longer work.
29
For goodness sake, move over +70 y/o baby boomers, it's time for a new generation to lead!
20
@Brad: which member of the younger
generation do you have in mind?
the democratic bench as far as I can
see: Elizabeth Warren pushing 68
in 2020. Bernie Sanders 79 in 2020.
Hilary Clinton 73 in 2020 and on and
on,not even mentioning Joe Biden,
close to 80. maybe we could change
the constitution and let the new
darling, Ocasio-Cortez run at 30.
I am a lifelong Democrat and I just
don't see where all these young
leaders are coming from.the one
name which strikes me as feasible:
Christopher Murphy of Connecticut.
he stands up to the NRA, he is a
moderate progressive and is young
enough to appeal to a younger
generation. too bad no one knows
his name.maybe he should try to
get a little more national exposure
as for Gillibrand, Harris and Booker,
Trump would clobber them and their
politically correct,pompous,self
righteous indignation. they were
responsible for the shabby treatment
of Kavanaugh, who h cost the Dems
a couple of Senate seats.
6
@Frank BETO!
2
I wrote to Al Gore about a month ago urging him to run. no reply. I still have hope.
Al Gore is too soft. Trump would bite Gore's head off. No to Joe Biden. Too old and too much baggage. No to Bernie Sanders. In 2020 the Democratic presidential nominee must be a male at least 6'2" tall with no baggage, a genius IQ and the killer instincts of Dirty Harry Callahan. All identity politics must be put aside. Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ and #MeToo must stand down. There will be no talk of impeaching Trump. Let him stew in his own demented juices. Kamala Harris for VP? Yes. She's a fighter.
23
@poodlefree
I would only add: with a platform that speaks to the issues that really matter in people's lives. Health care, jobs, the economy, reasonable gun regulations, protecting a woman's right to choose. These are the things that polls show Americans overwhelmingly support but which always get shouted down by the right-wing oligarch money behind the GOP.
20
@poodlefree
While I'd prefer a younger player, Biden would spank trump in the insult wars. Big time. What "baggage"? He's a blue collar champion.
10
@J Darby Biden? Never. He has never gotten past second base and frankly many women - and am one- would actively work against him for his unforgivable treatment of Anita Hill. And he is too old.
8
Gore was/is a class act. Next to trump, even Bush 43 could be considered such to a much lesser extent.
11
How about when Al Gore, as VP, ran in a charity marathon on Halloween, then came home, opened up the Vice President’s estate to trick our treaters, and passed out candy dressed as Frankenstein’s monster? What a mensch.
111
“One day, into the house of this nation, ...a stranger had come, without knowledge, without culture, without tact or taste, possessed only by the dark hatred...and gifted only with the talents of the demagogue, oratorical, unprincipled, merciless, practiced in all the gestures with which fools and children are deceived, an amateur in all the sciences and arts except the art of evil, a market crier without shame or moderation, secretly planning for the future and openly protesting his innocence, a liar and a breaker of promises, and hourly growing into a madman and a criminal.”
These words describe Trump thoroughly, they were actually written by Ernst Wiechert in his “Address to the Youth of Germany” describing Hitler.
How have we as a nation been reduced to having such a man run our country? He showed his disdain towards those Americans who died in WWI in his absence from Aise Marne American Cemetery and then made up lies about Macron to hide his own moral cowardice. History has already shown us the results of unbridled nationalism. Macron alluded to this in his speech to explain that patriotism is the polar opposite of nationalism.
Al Gore is a patriot. Trump is a nefarious ignominious prevaricator.
183
Gore is a gutless wonder who legitimized not having a backbone by not standing up against forces in this country ho executed a plan to steal an election. Gore is no hero. He's a coward.
5
Yes. Gore is the man for the job.
Bruni is right.
7
Here's what's wrong with Al Gore. Recently, PBS aired a interaction with Gore and the public about global warming. In the audience, a fisherman stood up and stated that sea levels were not rising, because he couldn't see any difference and that the beaches on his little island were being washed away because of erosion, not sea level rise. Gore immediately caved and said he would not challenge the fisherman's perceptions.
This was an opportune time to try to educate the people in the room, all locals from the island, about the seriousness of their predicament. Instead, he mollified them.
The island was experiencing rapid beach erosion because the sea levels were rapidly rising. The higher the sea levels, the farther inland the waves reach and the greater and more rapid the erosion. The fisherman stated that there has always been erosion so erosion could not be the problem. It must be something else other than sea level rise. This, of course, is a contradiction.
Furthermore, it is not possible to sail out into the sea and determine how deep the water is without measuring it. It always looks the same. We have advanced technology that does this all over the world.
If Al Gore cannot think quickly enough and deeply enough to even try to educate someone who couldn't pass a third grade science test, then he doesn't possess the intellectual acuity to be president. Sorry, but Gore lost my support that night.
19
@Bruce Rozenblit
To me this anecdote encapsulates perfectly the unwillingness to engage and defend that probably cost him the Presidency. I don't care how principled you are or how well-intentioned your beliefs are, if you won't stand up on your hind legs you don't belong in politics today.
24
@Bruce Rozenblit
Why didn’t you stand up and be counted as one in the know to challenge the fisherman’s perceptions? You could have helped him to comprehend?
9
@Bruce Rozenblit or maybe, having his own experience with public humiliation, he didn't want to do that to someone else, on camera, for posterity.
8
Keep counting in Florida, maybe we will discover that Gore actually won in 2000! Joking aside, Gore's decorum and deference to country over party and self is sorely missed. Oh, and No Clinton, No Sanders, No Gore, No Warren, No Biden in 2020. Please no, no, no! It is past time to turn the Democratic Party leadership over to a younger generation, smarter people than me will have to decide who that is.
67
Given that older and experienced Democrats keep getting added to the list of possible 2020 Presidential candidates, I don't think we should be so quick to dismiss a Clinton Presidential run in 2020. Not Hilliary of course; I'm talking about Bill.
2
@Jay Orchard
In this MeToo day and age you still think so?
2
@Jay Orchard. Oh my god no!
1
@Jay Orchard
BILL Clinton? Are you serious? For what office? Are you not aware that his 2 terms as President make him ineligible for that office?
3
The Republicans make false claims about voter fraud and the defense against it is to totally obscure voter suppression that is real and pervasive. It is a brilliant tactic. Frank falls for it hook, line and sinker.
9
I wondered why he did try to get the nomination for the run in 2016.
I regret he did not try.
I still have a lot of animosity in my heart for Ralph Nader and even more when I hear him say he has no regrets for his 3rd party campaign in 2000.
Gore may have made mistakes, may have missed the warning signs of 9/11 but he would not have gone to war in Iraq, he would have started our country and world on better course against climate change and would have kept civility in politics.
57
Frank, let’s really talk. The reason “ Florida Man “ is a thing is because it’s absolutely true. Florida is a separate Universe. If not for Tourists, it would absolutely be a Third World State, with a roughly equal population of Scammers and Gators. Florida was BUILT on Fraud and deceit, and Rick Scott is exhibit “ A “. Good Governance is the last priority, a nice talking point in public, but really frowned on. My Parents retired to Florida over 10 years ago, we visit very often. There’s a reason it’s called “ Gods Waiting Room”, because a large percentage of the population ARE just waiting to Die. There’s no motivation for change, no reason for improvements, no desire to help others. Especially when the Tourists can be soaked and taxed for every penny. In short, don’t expect much from Florida, except a Vacation.
Seriously.
126
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Yes, and virtually none of the Disney visitors realize that just the lawn fertilizer runoff makes the place one of the state's worst polluters....it used to, probably still does, be organized as its own county-equivalent for state government purposes.
13
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Um, excuse me, but I actually live in Florida and don't appreciate your comments. I am in my early 60s and retired to the Sarasota area 3 years ago. I have been very impressed with the level of services from all levels of government here. When you have lots of engaged and smart retired folks, things get done. The problem is our idiot president and ridiculous governor trying to taint the process of recount which is mandated by state law. Really.
7
@PWRT
Congratulations. Yes, some people in Florida are engaged and active. Good luck with THAT.
4
I seem to remember a study -- maybe from this very NYT? -- that examined all the evidence and determined that Al Gore won. Not just the popular vote, but Florida too, the electoral college, the election.
So, what is really right? Would it have been right to fight for justice? Hindsight is 20-20 but in this case it's still a blur.
And here we are again, in Florida.
48
@ML Several months after Bush was sworn in the NYT ran a story in which they used the standard that the Court set out in the Bush v. Gore decision. That decision ad concluded that equal protection required the end of the vote counting because different counties were using different standards, for example one county might count ballots with hanging chads and another would not. The NYT came up with every different standard that had been suggested by either party. They found that if the Supreme Court standard had actually been required, and any one standard had been used, Gore would have won under every standard. This story was literally buried and the Democrats did nothing to make it better known. In Mr. Bruni's piece it is again ignored. When events are not taken note of , history itself is perverted.
59
@ML Read the SCOTUS opinion.
If there's a close call and a recount is allowed or even required by law, why halt that recount? Gore could have conducted himself honorably while awaiting the recount results. That would have provided a wonderful example of democracy in action, and not being afraid to double check just to make sure, then support everyone in the process, including the true winner of the election. By conceding without letting the recount proceed, he may have allowed an injustice to occur to the voters.
17
The thing I could never understand is why Democrats fought tooth and nail to keep a serial abuser of women who had, without doubt, committed perjury and obstructed justice in the Oval Office instead of removing him so Gore could go into the election with all the advantages of incumbency. Imagine how the world would be different if Democrats had done the right thing and forced Clinton out.
21
@J
Yes--keep dreaming.
Look how well that plan worked out for the republicans in 1974. Jerry Ford lost the '76 election because the republicans were tarred with the stain of Nixon.
2
Al Gore with John Kerry as VP, or vice-versa
3
@BG
I voted for them both with few qualms. Kerry's skills as a negotiator are sorely missed, as is Gore's environmental advocacy. But their time has long passed. At least they realized it, crying shame that Clinton didn't.
7
Thank you Al Gore (and Barack Obama) for being who you are, despite society's lag time. And thank you Frank Bruni, for yet another provocative, thought-provoking column.
I am going to use two words together to describe a critical characteristic Al Gore (and Barack Obama) possess, that no one wants to utter, let alone acknowledge and explore in our politics, or for that matter, in our society...
...emotional maturity.
Al Gore is an emotionally mature person; able to respond, rather than react or attack, able to put the needs of society above his own, able to learn and grow, able to accept disappoint…or even failure.
Wealth, power, success - even the fulfillment of adult responsibilities - do not necessarily guarantee a man or woman is emotionally mature...witness our President.
Barack Obama possessed emotional maturity as well; the media, unable to recognize this character trait, instead labeled him "No drama Obama," as though that was..."a bad thing."
When we begin to recognize and value - personally and politically - emotional maturity, we will change the fundamental fabric of our society and move in a positive, productive, and powerful new direction.
1124
@Kelly Grace Smith Beautifully stated. Bravo!
53
But stopping a recount effort is not the only emotionally mature decision in a heated close call election.
8
@Mary Ann Gore didn't stop the recount; he accepted the final judicial decision, wrong as it might have been, because he believed it was necessary to respect the legal process.
50
We would have had no Iraq War with Gore. Just imagine how different the world would be today. No ISIS, probably a subdued Hamas, very likely a viable peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians
89
@Luis Ribas
Crying over spilled milk. Pull yourself up and work for something better. Encourage voting and voting in a thoughtful responsible manner. Forget the past but learn a lesson from it and get going.
1
Nice job Frank. I remember all of those events, living in FLA at the time, and it is insightful to have them so well recounted today, especially with the additional details. How low we have fallen, and how quickly.
11
Al Gore is a great American; he won the election in 2000 before being robbed of it by Kathleen Harris, a SWAT team of Bush-Cheney grand political larceny lawyers, Jeb Bush's central voter file purge, widespread voter suppression tactics and the Supremely Rigged Republican Court.
Hillary Clinton is a great American; she won the election in 2016 before being robbed of it by the right-wing FBI, Kremlin campaign sabotage and voter suppression laws in Republistan.
Both would have made excellent Presidents.
Instead, America - through orchestrated Republican hijacking - got two unpopular, dim-witted Morons-In-Chief who proceeded to wreck the country in uniquely horrible ways that favored 0.1% greed over 99.9% of the people.
These were horrific acts in American history and reflect the need for a peaceful, orchestrated revolution by the citizenry against the rapacious, right-wing that demands power at all costs and cannot stand democracy or the will of the American people.
The revolution will entail a new voter consciousness and a new Voting Rights Act that facilitates easy voter registration, voter file purge protections, modern auditable voting, and re-enfranchisement of all eligible voters that the Grand Old Pirates have worked full-time to suppress.
We don't need Al Gore or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden in 2020.
All we need is a decent Democratic candidate and an actual democracy and the GOP-Trump Toilet will be flushed back into the right-wing cesspool from whence it came.
760
@Socrates
We need a true Progressive candidate that will be fearless in their message and not ''tailor'' it for whom they are talking too. Then of course, it will be up to us to support them.
75
@Socrates
Both Gore and Clinton were wooden, without charisma or any clear policy other than it’s my turn.
21
@M
They may have been wooden, but they were both policy wonks and were committed to public service. In the long run, wouldn't we have been better off with either--or both?
213
Gore and the Democrats did not see how Republicans were prepared to take partisanship, dirty tricks, manipulation of public opinion, and courtroom knife fights to a previously unimagined level. If the results had been reversed, you can be sure that the GOP would never had stopped fighting and graciously "told Americans to move on."
HRC likewise underestimated the depths to which her opponent would sink, also failed to give as good as she got, and apparently forgot that the Presidency is not won by the popular vote or amount of money raised.
Hopefully the Democrats have finally woken up.
283
@Pat
nor did they fight for Garland
we have one party who still fails to understand how dirty and undemocratic the other has become
16
Al Gore would have been head and shoulders superior to George W. Bush. That the popular vote was thwarted in 2000, and Florida never thoroughly accounted for, are infuriating. Yet Al Gore, while not hiding his disagreement with the outcome, showed respect for our political institutions and concern for the consequences of a divided electorate. Gore encouraged his own supporters to accept the outcome and he soon found a new way he could be influential.
To compare Gore with Donald Trump - who, notably, also lost the popular vote and had other extenuating circumstances around his election - is unthinkable. Trump respects nothing, actively divides us, and rejects no opportunity to paint himself as a victim.
It would be satisfying to see someone of Gore's good character defeat Trump. It would feel best if we abolished the Electoral College so that gimmickry would not keep subverting democracy.
228
Not to mention the starkest contrast between the two: that "covfefe" thinks (to stretch that term's meaning), "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
He enjoys A Convenient Lie. Fox & Fiends often deliver.
21
@NM, Gore won the popular vote, as did Hillary Clinton.
11
@NM
Bugs Bunny would have been haed and shoulders above dubya. Bugs can think on his feet, dubya`s deer in the headlight look was telling ( whaaaat ).
3
In 2000 Al Gore was as charmless and wooden a presidential candidate as I have seen in the last sixty years. That said, I voted for him with enthusiasm and would do so again. Contrasted with Trump, he looks sensational, but Trump has a way of radically changing our perceptions of the past. George W. Bush, the worst president at least since Warren Harding, looks good compared to the fascist ruffian in the White House because he´s light hearted and brings decent manners to the table. So yes, in that light Al Gore looks terrific, but only in that light.
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@Edward Baker,
excellent observations.
4
@Edward Baker I disagree with the phrase "...but only in that light." Al Gore is a serious man. Al Gore is a thinking man. Al Gore is a polite man. Al Gore is a man.
13
However, don’t forget that 100,000 innocent Iraqis died in Bush’s irrelevant invasion. He was undoubtedly the worst president in our history, though Trump is running a close second. (Well, we have to reserve a place for Nixon. Perhaps third. All three, Republicans.)
14
Just think of all the 'not Trump' Americans who could have been at the helm of our country and done some good. It's positively mind-boggling!
30
And yet one more column praising a Democrat who refuses to fight back, against corruption, against lawbreaking, against attacks on basic human decency.
This is why Hillary Clinton lost to the most unfit man ever to sit in the Oval Office. She wouldn't fight. She wouldn't call him out. She wouldn't publicly expose him for the disgusting, ignorant man he was.
And it isn't just Hillary. It is Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, who also like to "play nice". Well, their appeasement to Trump and the Far Right has caused more damage to this country since he took office than in entire decades before.
And now it looks like Beto is all for "playing nice", too. Well, I have one suggestion for him - Don't. All it will get him is another Democratic "participation trophy".
When we look at the mid-terms, we see that fighters, such as Kamela Harris, Ocasio Cortez and Presley were the most successful Democrats. Why? Because were vocal in supporting their base. They wouldn't "play nice" when it comes to the loss of civil rights, voting rights, the environment, or affordable health care.
So Mr. Bruni, perhaps candidates like Gore are the better people for not fighting. But our country is the worse for his concession. Perhaps Pres. Obama did the "principled thing" by not disclosing Trump's ties to the Russians before the 2016 election. But his failure to act has definitely hurt this nation. And I, for one, would support someone who is willing to swing elbows on my behalf, for a change.
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@Donegal
I agree for the most part, but keep in mind that if the votes are there in the Congress (and in particular the Senate) then the legislation can pass. The more votes there are on the Democratic side, the more Progressive the legislation can be.
It's a chicken and egg thing - what comes first ?
17
@Donegal, How soon we forget that the Clinton platform was mostly that she was not Trump, and how abhorrent she was. Then she called out GOP voters for being xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, bigoted, intolerant...
And then, she lost. Which just goes to show what the Dems should have remembered from grade school. When someone calls you names, most of the time you don't want to help them.
11
Hillary didn't call him out??? Watch the third debate, to take one example, and see if you think that is still true?
27
No George W. Bush, no Dick Cheney, no second Iraq war, no devastated Middle East, no ISIS, no Shock and Awe...
No doubt about it, America and the world would have so much better off if he had carried the day. Truly, I would be glad to vote for him again, if he ran from day one in the primaries and he was the one who the Democratic voters finally select. I look forward to having at least ten great candidates heave their hats into the ring. The election of 2020, at least on the Democratic side of the primaries, should be heartening for those of us tired of narcissistic bombast.
For too long, America has been run as if it were just a roadshow of "House of Cards". Shudder.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
497
I voted for Gore with enthusiasm, however I must say that you are right that there Bush and Cheney would have been nobodies. As for no Iraq war and no ISIS... well that’s just speculation. There’s no way of knowing Gore’s answer to 9/11. In fact, there’s no way of knowing if 9/11 would have occurred under Gore.
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@Hugh Massengill
We sure would have been better off. Too bad he threw in the towel precisely when it mattered the most.
17
@BWCA, there's no way to know for sure, but there are indications aplenty that Gore wouldn't have had to revenge himself upon Saddam Hussein -- who had no connection with the 9/11 attack.
59
Politics abhors a vacuum, which is why there are so many pundits that are waxing nostalgia. I understand the reaction, but please resist the temptation.
America is a truly Progressive nation that has been trying to catch up with itself and the ideals of the founding fathers. The Constitution is a living embodiment, and has been added onto for centuries to arrive to where we are today - supposedly a modern Democracy.
There is one little piece of the puzzle missing, and that is the structure of voting, along with access. No other Democracy on earth is so advanced, yet at the same time so restrictive with its electorate/citizens.
Just like Single Payer, and climate change (Thank You Al Gore), human rights, and other things are part of the Democratic party's official plank, there now needs to be voting.
I would submit that America needs mandatory voting, but would settle for a few basic things like :
- automatic signing up with a driver's licence
- a national holiday to vote
- paper ballots in every state (preferably sent via mail)
- public elections of no more than 8 weeks
- an end to Citizen's United
- a full restoring and expansion of the Voting Right's Act
Enact ANY ONE of the above & Democracy has a chance.
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@FunkyIrishman Yes to all of those, but I would add abolition of the electoral college. If we want to call ourselves a representative democracy, we should act like one. Our president should not be someone that lost by 3 million votes.
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@Justin
Why not go on to a full parliamentary system then, where truly the population can be represented in a house of about a 1000 members ? (where the majority would make up the ruling party with coalitions if need be)
As it stands now, it is a winner take all 50 different types electoral system where a minority can game it. (electoral college or not)
Just a thought ...
15
@FunkyIrishman
Making election campaigns publicly funded, with a very low (low three figures) limit on individual contributions to any candidate, and bringing back the Fairness Doctrine are two more things I think we can add to the list.
25
Oh my goodness. Such old news with Al Gore. That was nearly 2 decades ago.
1
@Alex
Actually, Gore is never "old news". He hasn't stopped working "for nearly 2 decades" to improve your world.
326
@Alex The GOP hated Gore because he was smart and understood what we are doing to our environment. The truth hurts when all you want is short-term enrichment.
18
@Nancie He's worked to improve his world. Not mine. Only after the revelations certified as accurate in snopes.com were publicized did he begin to alter his energy-extravagant lifestyle, and he's far from respectability on that topic yet.
1
How different the world would be if Al Gore would have been our President...we would have taken on global warming and there would have been no war in Iraq. His was the first campaign I ever volunteered for...I never quite got over his loss.
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@kostja,
There might not have been a 9/11. The "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" intelligence report is something he would have taken very seriously, and acted on.
60
@kostja
100% true. But, that's precisely why it's a shame he just walked away. It's one thing to be principled, but another entirely to fight, on behalf of a nation, for principles. We desperately need Democrats who are willing to fight. Being correct,b taking the "high road" but smug about it, isn't a winning strategy. See Hillary Clinton, 2016. Her debates were awful, absolutely awful. Sadly, I knew she'd lose because she assumed everyone knew how "correct" she was. So she chuckled at Trump's "ignorance". Well, who's chuckling now?
8
@Q, you're right. Walking away is fine if you lose a tennis match. For the U.S. Presidency, look at the enormous destruction that has resulted from not fighting all-out in Florida (by demanding a statewide recount and making sure Republican gangsters in suits didn't obstruct it).
18
Gore would probably be a superior candidate in many ways to all of those his senior. Unfortunately, few things irritate people as much as being correct about something that they paid a terrible price for being wrong about. his sounding the alarm on global warming was both patriotic and necessary, but because of it he may not be viable in a general election.
38
No thanks--he botched the Florida recount. And picking Joe Lieberman? He was not even a real Democrat as evidenced by his later actions--double "no thanks" on Gore.
10
@KF Rahman
Gore botched the recount?
Governor Jeb Bush was in charge in Florida.
26
@MM . See the HBO film recount and the Miami Herald's reporting on the recount--he gave up too soon and did not fight back effectively.
10
I’ve been thinking of Gore too, and that he would be my preferred candidate for president in 2020. At the very least, he’d know what to do about climate change, and we desperately need to move ahead as quickly as possible in that area—it may already be too late. If only he’d been elected back then...
87
@Laura Gorman,
I'm sorry to be a wet blanket, but we're already too late to prevent global warming. Go back 20 years, and an aggressive policy on fossil fuels might have changed the present. But that time is long past. And you'd really have to go back 40 or 50 years.
Humans just aren't good at dealing with exponential functions.
7
@Duane McPherson Dear Duane,
It is too late to avoid some warming, yes, but there is still a difference between bad and worse, and between worse and catastrophic.
4
@Damien O'Driscoll:
I agree that we should do everything possible to avert any warming that we can avert. While also recognizing that we have already triggered several positive feedback loops (like permafrost melting and polar warming).
And to the extent that we have triggered positive feedback, preventing global warming from going any further is like un-flushing a toilet.
But can we still make a difference? Yes, absolutely.
2
Excellent and more than a little heartbreaking. So many "if onlys"
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@Linda
If only I had eaten less sweets ...sigh
9
there is much to
Discuss here, but given the aftermath there are many who believe that the Democrats caved much too quickly. I truly hope that whatever the outcome all of the Florida votes are counted this time around
...and that rick Scott tones it down a little!
12