Reply #11: Dean or Gore?

[dansolo]

I agree with your assessment about Dean and Gore, but I'll go a little further. Late last year, I was really excited about the prospects of a Gore candidacy. He was finally getting his voice, and he was showing a lot of passion. The polls were overwhelming in his favor. And then he was gone. With very little reasonable explanation, he slipped away, not even giving the policy talks that he promised. It is obvious that people in the DLC, and most likely Lieberman supporters, were the ones who forced him to drop out.

After that, I leaned towards Kerry because I felt that he had the best chance of beating Bush. Dean hadn't taken off yet, and I hadn't gotten a chance to hear him speak, so he was pretty much an unknown to me. In the past few months I have gotten a chance to learn more about Dean, and he is exactly the type of candidate that I have been hoping for.

But this is where it gets complicated. I like Gore a lot. I still believe that Gore would be an excellent candidate, and would very likely trounce Bush. But I still don't want him to run. Why? It's exactly because I like him so much. I would have to choose between him and Dean, as I suspect a lot of people would. What that would do is split the vote between them, clearing the way most likely for Kerry. I have nothing against Kerry, but he just doesn't inspire me like these other two candidates do. Which is exactly what I believe some people are hoping for. Al Gore isn't going to change his populist message, so it is hard to believe that the people who screwed him over in December would be embracing him now.