Posted on 02/22/2006 5:46:58 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Look Out, Here Comes Al
Dick Morris
February 22, 2006
Gore may be a man whose time has come in his party. It was he who warned of climate change and predicted its consequences. Hurricane Katrina was just a fulfillment of the prophesies Gore wrote about in his late-1980s book Earth in the Balance.
snip
History indicates that candidates who won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College have all come back to win revenge in subsequent elections. Andrew Jackson, cheated in 1824, won in 1828. Grover Cleveland, cheated in 1888, triumphed in 1892.
snip
Could Al beat Hillary? If Mrs. Clinton persists in her support of the Iraq war, he could. But never count on Hillary losing an election over a principle. It’s a bad bet. If she moves to the left on the war, as she already shows signs of doing, she would preempt Gore and Kerry and use her tremendous lead in fundraising and ex-officio delegates to cruise to the nomination.
snip
Gore has three things going for him: A perception that he was robbed of the White House and Hillary’s possible stubbornness in continuing to back the war.
snip
The third thing? The weather. As the evidence of global climate change impresses everyone who doesn’t work at the White House, Gore looks more and more like a man whose time may have come.
Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race.
______________________________________________________________________
By Roger J. Stone Jr.
February 22, 2006
Mr. Gore may be positioning himself to be the one Democrat who can defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Presidential primaries.
As a Republican, I could never back Mr. Gore’s election as President. But as a Nixonite, I see some uncanny parallels in the careers of the two former Vice Presidents. In fact, if Mr. Gore looks at Nixon’s strategy in 1968, he could end up in the White House after all.
Nixon’s book Six Crises was a cathartic exercise that Nixon wrote after he lost the 1960 Presidential election—one that maintained his place on the national stage. Mr. Gore’s new documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, thrusts him back to the center of the political life.
Like Mr. Gore, Nixon lost a Presidential election in a photo finish, and many felt the Presidency was stolen from him. Later, both men withdrew gracefully when further challenge to the result was fruitless. The grace with which each withdrew and accepted defeat was considered an act of statesmanship amid partisan furor.
Mr. Gore’s early endorsement of Howard Dean in the 2004 primaries earned him a new and growing anti-war constituency. Despite Dr. Dean’s collapse as a candidate and his weekly gaffes as the Democratic National Committee chairman, one fact remains clear: Mr. Gore was an early and articulate critic of the war in Iraq and supported the most anti-war candidate in 2004. He has since made notable speeches questioning the war, becoming the darling of the MoveOn.com crowd, and is now best positioned to be the “peace” candidate in 2008.
To win, Mr. Gore must run on a simple proposition that puts him at direct odds with Mrs. Clinton: Within 24 hours of taking office, he would withdraw all troops from Iraq and redirect national resources to crush Al Qaeda. The election of 2008 may become like 1968, with war protests wracking the country and the President sticking to his guns.
Mr. Gore must again borrow from the Nixon playbook and reinvent himself. The “New Gore” is more relaxed: He’s had time to think and reflect on the great challenges facing America. In his wilderness years, he has found himself. He is more self-effacing, funnier, cooler, easier-going, yet articulate and firm. The Al Gore who appeared on Jay Leno’s show after the 2004 Presidential election is the Al Gore that voters could find attractive, just as the “New Nixon” who emerged on Jack Paar after the 1960 election was far more palatable than the pale, sweaty, shifty-eyed Nixon of the Nixon-Kennedy debates.
It wasn’t until Watergate that we saw the other side of 1968’s relaxed and affable Nixon, whose political acumen I admired. But in 1968, his persistence, drive and shrewdness—coupled with a divisive war—drove the most remarkable political comeback in American history.
Sound familiar? It should, because the stage is set for Al Gore, the winner of the popular vote in 2000, to do the same.
Roger J. Stone Jr. is a veteran of eight Republican Presidential campaigns.
http://www.observer.com/20060227/20060227_Roger_J._Stone_Jr._politics_wiseguys-2.asp
Gore withdrew gracefully?
If that is not the most insane statement I have seen since the 2000 election, I don't know what is.
In my opinion he hasn't withdrawn yet.
This ugly result would actually be the Presidents fault. You cannot go against your main support time and again (immigration/summer '05 transportation bill) without consequences.
the Port fiasco is the only the latest. Why threaten a veto now when he hasn't use it yet?
Were truer words ever spoken?
Gore is no Nixon. Nixon was a brilliant man, Gore is a nut. Nixon got the '68 nomination because he campaigned all across the country and built up enough favors. Otherwise, Reagan might have taken it. And also, Nixon never, never bad-mouthed America. He was a red, white and blue patriot and the people remembered when he passed away.
We had better start handicapping the Republican race, this mess will be too engrossing and we might end up with a Harriet Meyers candidate if we don't pay attention.
I do not remember Gore showing any kind of grace at any time.....especially when he lost in 2000 and tried to change the result. Nixon did show grace (in 1960) to avoid a national crisis, while the Dems spend their time trying to create one.
It is never going to happen.
Watching Al Gore on live TV in Nov-Dec 2000, in horrified fascination and relief about what might have been (but wasn't), turned more people into Republicans or independents (and committed voters) than the RNC has done with millions in donations.
Morris says the hurricane was evidence of global warming and is implying that Gore withdrew gracefully?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Is he NUTS?!
Yeah.
These guys are smoking crack. Gore is generally perceived as a lunatic and there are plenty of sound bites to prove it.
In my opinion he hasn't withdrawn yet.
D I T T O !
Nixon withdrew immediately and refused to challenge the results in Illinois. Gore tried to have the rules for counting votes changed in order to alter the results of the election in Florida.
Of course, there is also a lot of similarity in the way Nixon went to North Vietnam and Russia and Washington and denounced the US position in the Vietnam war the way Gore did in Saudi Arabia, and accused our soldiers of war crimes. Oh, wait, that wasn't Nixon. That was Jane Fonda in Vietnam, and that was bill clinton in Russia, and it was John Fonda Kerry that lied to the Congress about imaginary war crimes. Nixon didn't do those things after all.
A Gore comeback is laughable.
Any competent opponent would obtain video of his infamous Saudi speech and quickly paint him as an anti-American loon.
Which of course he is.
Please let AlGore run again. Morris is reaching with this piece.
Dick Morris forgets one key point. Algore is a certifiable nut.
I'm also waiting for Samuel Tilden to make a comeback from the 1876 election.
This reads like a college term paper - many forced comparisons.
Nixon's expertise in foreign policy and overall intelligence overcame his lack of the "political charisma" of, say, a Ronald Reagan. Gore does not appear to have any assets to overcome his "politics as a second language" personna. I don't think the environmental angle will do it. but it would be fun to watch Kerry, Gore and Clinton duke it out in primaries.
The difference was that the Presidency WAS stolen from Nixon.
Looks like Morris is trying to keep his prediction accuracy rate down again.
You nailed it! Gore is finished as a presidential candidate--as long as the Dims retain any sense at all.
Hey, wait a minute...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.