I've been pondering the possibility of a Gore candidacy with increasing delight (and optimism). Diaries like today's
Gore-Hating Republican Blogger LOVES Inconvenient Truth have only stoked the fire. So, here's my shot at explaining why Gore is our strongest candidate,
likely to win in a landslide, and not only that, he's more than ready to be a truly great leader.
It's not hard to figure. Gore has successfully (and non-cynically) positioned himself as an outsider, yet he has the experience and clout of an insider. He can run an insurgent campaign, piss off the D.C. establishment, continue to scare them to the bones, and do so without losing their support because they'll know he can win and thus desperately want to stay on the right side of him. Why does McCain toady up to Bush after South Carolina? Because Bush won (or he didn't win, but . . .).
This candidate--a candidate who can take on whoever he needs to--will be loved and admired by the voters, especially independents, and he'll be able to lead. And that's the rub. For voters, independents in particular, a candidate who's unafraid, who can take on all comers, will trump any particular set of policies. From the perspective of the national security vote, this position will work better than any lunch basket of anti-terrorism policies. And it means that Gore could (and would) govern by principle, intelligently.
Several pundits and power-brokers have argued (Dick Meyer, Frank Luntz, Alan Greenspan) that the time is ripe for a third-party, usually touting Bloomberg. But they miss the obvious: Al Gore can run as a Democrat and win the independent vote. Such an election would turn out as skewed as the current approval numbers for Bush: In short a historic landslide for Gore.
No other candidate, Democratic or Republican, has anywhere near this electoral promise and I don't see how any other individual could govern as effectively once elected. Other potential candidates look great to me (I love Schweitzer, Obama, and Feingold), but Gore stands above them. It's not insignificant, for instance, that Gore knows from political consultants. If anyone can handle them (a big if), he can.
There's more, of course, much more, to recommend Gore. Most of all the symbolic restoration of legitimacy to our Presidency (but more than symbolic). But ultimately it's the personal odyssey that's left him positioned as the perfect insurgent candidate.
Isn't this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity?
Postscript: For even more optimism, this time pointed at `06, check out these two links from the ever-wonderful Political Wire:
"The Worst" suggests that Bush's numbers may have hit bottom (bad), but they're the worst of the past 61 years (good).
"History's Guide to the Midterm Elections" has Republican political guru Larry Sabato saying that a President's approval ratings are the key indicator for midterm elections and "the only real question is how many seats the Democrats will gain in the Congress and the statehouses, not if they will gain."