December 11, 2003
Nice Guys Finish Last.
In the great election of 2000, Al Gore ran against George Bush in a bitter and close race for the presidency. At the last moment I decided to root for Al because when you look at the history, Al deserved it more as most of his life had been spent in public service. Then big AL won, but they wouldn’t give it to him. Even the Republican Party is starting to concede to that fact with a bit of a sneer and a wink. We all felt sorry for Al.
Yesterday, Al Gore came out of the political closet and to much of everyone’s surprise, endorsed Dean Howard for President. This was odd for two reasons. First, everyone would have assumed he would have backed up his old running mate in 2000, Joe Lieberman. Second, everyone wandered what was going on in the background of the Democratic Party in terms of the Clintons, Joe Lieberman, Al Gore, and Dean Howard. It was a political pajama party and Joe got left in the cold.
Joe had put off joining the political race in the first place because of a promise he had made to Al back in 2000 that if Al wanted to run again, Joe would not run against him. Nice guy, but obviously the sentiment fell short on his old pal Al.
There are theories all around about what is going on behind the scenes, for the latest conspiracy just turn the dial to Fox News. Whatever the reason, the guy who I thought deserved it more back in 2000 just fell a few notches short in the stand up guy department. By all of the snubbing the event has received from both democrats and republicans alike, the outcome was probably less than what Dean had hoped for.
I am Jack’s sense of disillusionment to the fact that the political parties really are about revenge and 'getting even' as opposed to a unified idea of government.
Posted by Beau Wade at December 11, 2003 03:02 AMBeau, I agree with your conclusion. Joe L. is so much of a centrist, that he straddles the 2 major party fence on too many issues as I see it for Al to have backed him, though. Joe L. supports the invasion of Iraq, not the modus operandi, but, the act. On that major issue, I wonder if AL G. just felt their needed to be more contrast to G. Bush, for the Dem. candidate.
Plus, Joe L. lacks the fiscal conservative stance to appeal across party lines to those who know this kind of debt is short-changing our children’s paychecks as they enter the workforce. Just read an article yesterday on how Parents in this country are still supporting their 40 year old children in record numbers. Joe L. would do little to appeal to those parents who want to see an increase in worker wages that will permit financial independence for their offspring entering the workforce, and better options for financing higher education.
Political loyalty has cheated the American people in a host of scandalous events throughout the decades in this country, from the Warren Report to the Whitehouse leak of CIA identity. The people’s interests are not served when political loyalty becomes complicit in cover-ups and backroom deals.
Howard Dean stands in stark contrast to G. Bush on a number of issues that have legs with middle class Americans, like medical care access and affordability, unilateral and premeptory war policies, and national debt which is already making its influence felt by the Federal Reserve Board which announced a change in bias on interest rates this week indicating rising interests to fight inflationary pressures are becoming likely for 2004.
Posted by: David R Remer at December 11, 2003 09:07 AMBut, Al was a nice guy, and he has been reborn as of his announcement this week. As power brokers go, he is at the front of the pack, again. So, maybe all nice guys don’t finish last, sometimes they just change direction.
Posted by: David R. Remer at December 12, 2003 04:05 PMGet over the 2000 election. The system was never set up to allow the majority popular vote to win. Never. It just usually turned out that way. So harping on that issue is not productive. Change the Constitution if you want, but don’t blame Bush. Electoral votes count. And they resulted in Bush winning.
Posted by: Scott S at December 12, 2003 05:50 PMActually, if you reread the post, the main point had nothing to do with the 2000 election except to make a point of my opinion of Al Gore and how I came to it.
But since you brought it up,…
Yes, the president is elected by the electoral college and not the popular vote, however to suddenly demean the popular vote because the process happened to get “your party’s president” elected is extremely disingenuous. If the situation were reversed Republican’s would have been outraged, I suspect even more so.
I am still amazed people aren’t outraged that the 2000 election basically told everyone that you can vote if you want to, but it really doesn’t mean it counts.
Posted by: beau at December 12, 2003 08:56 PM
