December 10, 2003

Almost presidential  

It's interesting that Al Gore still wields so much power among Democrats, and even beyond. Obviously his position is unique, but I think he gained a level of respectability first by conceding the election, and then especially by deciding not to seek the presidency again (ie reelection). Specifically, he seems to be above politics - so when he endorses someone, it's seen as genuine, and not some attempt to set himself up to run in 2008. And yet this was a largely political endorsement - Gore and Dean have very different views on a lot of issues, and Dean's main attraction for Gore seems to have been that he's going to win. Once again, Gore is playing essentially a conciliatory role - it will be interesting to see where that takes him.

Comments
jon  {December 10, 2003}

Al Gore is a singularly feckless politician. He's a very intellegent and accomplished man, but an astoundingly poor politician. Whatever happens now, I think he is irretrievably diminished. Whatever he gains from having endorsed Dean before any votes have been cast can't possibly be worth the damage he's done to himself.

Maybe he is done with politics and just wanted to get a good 'jab' in; maybe he has honestly changed his views; maybe he sees what Dean - and progressives outside the party, with their 527s - are doing organizationally in the 'field' and thinks it's the future of American politics (of course it IS the future, modus operandi-wise); maybe maybe maybe...(I'm not going to get into the 2008 theories). Why do you think he did it? Unless he did it just because he supports Gov. Dean and wanted to pre-empt the whole primary cycle, I'm baffled. It's pretty dangerous to decide that the enemies you've made 'don't matter'.

Bush, Dean and Gore are starting to remind me of each other in some weird way. They are all three kind of peevish, and they all three seem to feel that somehow being 'right' is sufficient, no persuasion necessarry: Bush, before the Iraq war (but not limited to that!); Dean, with his 'our voters are smarter than you' attitude; and Gore with this move. Notwithstanding his personal arrogance, Clinton seems like a master pol compared to these guys. Equivocal figure that he is, I find that fact kind of depressing.

By the way, I'm Jon, one of the guys at that meetup for Hart way back when. Too bad it was Dean who took his 'slot', IMHO.


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