I have lost all respect for Al Gore...

[D2bets]

...saying the Democrats should now unite behind who he says is the strongest candidate. When exactly was he annointed with that choice? I must have missed that. There's a politic process in place and not one vote has yet been cast. Yet we should all take Al's lead and fall behind who he selects. Nonsense. The real truth here is he regrets not running and wants to run himself in 2008...he figures Dean will lose and he wants his grassroots support which has shown a knack for fundraising. That's what's going on here.

And wile I'm no fan of Lieberman, not even notifying him ahead of time and explaining himself is low-class.

Does endorsing Dean mean he will lose his home state in the general election as well?

...I also heard some rumors to the effect that Gore chose now to do it and did it in Harlem just blocks away from Clinton's office because Wes Clark has a MAJOR set of endorsements set in the coming weeks. We'll see.

 

[radiofreecostarica]

and this happened, just now??

 

[D2bets]

RFCR, what are you referring to? Yeah, Gore officially endorsed Dean today and in so doing said the other candidates should unite behind Dean and stop attacking him. Pretty stunning request. Hey Al, it's still the primaries. Endorse whomever you wish, but don't tell the others how to run their campaigns. Not a single vote has yet been cast.

I just have a feeling this is the first shot across the bow. An anti-Dean sentiment is going to coalesce behind Clark and he is going to get some major endorsements in the coming weeks.

 

[radiofreecostarica]

i meant your loss of respect for the man.

 

[bulldog77]

Gore seems to remind me of Twain's comment on a politician he knew that, "He has all the qualities of a dog save loyalty."

 

[D2bets]

I was disappointed in how he ran the 2000 campaign but there was still some respect left. It's gone now. The more that Al Gore is involved the longer it will be before we have a Dem president.

 

[radiofreecostarica]

Unfortunately Gore´s behavior during the debates was less than exemplary (yawns, sighs etc.) and although satirized and overdone by the press, it did lend to his being seen as a pompous asshole.

 

[ChuckSims]

Dean is starting to pull away and now with Gore's endorsement, this race is over, its over. Clark is fading, he offers nothing.

 

[bunyon]

Gore doesn't owe Lieberman shit. Hell, Gore gave him the chance to be vice president. That's more than anyone else has ever offered Lieberman. Does that mean Gore is attached to him for life. I didn't here anyone bitching last Fall (2002) when in an interview, the Clintons kept dodging the question when asked "Would they endorse Gore". If Gore is doing this to position himself for '08 whats the big deal. Like thats never been done before.

 

[PatPatriot]

Look for gore to run again for Pres. in '08...what he did today was seperate himself from the Clintons,he knows Dean has no chance of winning....So when he goes up against Hillary he can say he was the anti-war canidate when Hillary voted for the war and the money to support it...Good gamble on his part..it will be the Manchurian canidate against the Manchurian canidate.

[This message was edited by Patriot on December 10, 2003 at 02:08 AM.]

 

[PatPatriot]

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 11:35 p.m. EST
Gore Upstaged Hillary After Sunday TV Appearances



Al Gore may have slapped Hillary and Bill with his unexpected endorsement of Howard Dean – he literally upstaged the former first lady.


A New York political source close to Democratic circles in New York say Hillary’s folks are seething that Al Gore decided to back Dean when both Clintons are clearly opposing him.


But worse, our source says, is the timing of Gore’s announcement.


Some Hillary backers believe Gore purposefully intended to hurt Hillary and take the spotlight off her spectacular media blitz last weekend on the Sunday talk shows.


In an almost unprecedented situation for a sitting U.S. senator, Hillary was the star guest on the three major Sunday shows on the same day: NBC’s ""Meet the Press with Tim Russert," ABC’s "This Week" and CBS’s "Face the Nation."


"The media practically anointed Hillary the head of the Democratic Party Sunday,” source says.


But Al Gore apparently got wind of it and upstaged her. By coming out for Dean, Gore stole the mantle for himself.


Source says Gore’s timing for the endorsement was to send a nasty message to Hillary. According to The Associated Press, Gore called Dean this past Friday to tell him he had made his decision and wanted to endorse him as early as this week.


Source says Gore and his advisers would have learned of Hillary’s network appearances last Friday, the same day he learned of Hillary’s appearances.


Gore is fuming at the Clintons, believing he lost the 2000 election because of Bill’s scandals and Hillary’s Senate bid – which sapped resources from his campaign.


He is also angered that the Clintons have cut him out of major Democratic Party decision-making. Gore hasn’t been in contact with the Clintons for over a year, source says.


Gore’s upstaging of Hillary is particularly infuriating. Last month she expected major media attention on a tour of Iraq.


At the last minute, President Bush touched down in Baghdad and upstaged Sen. Clinton’s visit.


Twice in the past 30 days Gore has stolen Hillary’s thunder.

 

[bunyon]

Patriot....I agree with you. Also, with Gore endorsing Dean this early, if Dean fails to win the White House, who do you think will get the Dean supporters in '08? One other point, if the war in Iraq gets worse & is looked upon a few years from now as a major mistake. Who will be able to stand up and state that they were against it from the get go? Not Hillary.

 

[PatPatriot]

Bunyon thats right, Gore can only win with the lefties...They could have a 4th of July parade in Baghdad followed by a doubleheader with free hot dogs and apple pie...and the lefties will still say the war was a failure...but seriousley its a good calculated risk on his part....the Clinton Gore political marriage is over...but what goes around comes around.Clintons have backstabbed and fxcked more politcal partners for their own self intrest than anybody.
Another thing is the Clintons will have to give up money from the DNC and that will drive them crazy...Thats why Wes Clark entered the race, he was just a Clinton puppet he was supposed to beat out Dean and preserve the money in the DNC for Hillarys run..

 

[PatPatriot]

Here is another theory...at the very least Wes Clark was supposed to keep the nomination close going into the convention so that it turn into a brokerd convention...with a draft Hillary element to it....If Bush numbers are bad she "reluctently" excepts the nomination and is basically annointed the nominee...By doing it this way, she avoids all the debates and scrutiny and negitive exposure the 9 dwarfs have had to endure....If Bushes numbers are good, she declines and will have so much momentum going into '08 she will be hardly opposed...But old Al gore will now have somthing to say about that.

 

[D2bets]

Patriot, if that's true about Clark and Clinton, and frankly I hope it is, then they really need to get off the dime and officially endrorse him. That would make for a nice shot back at Gore if Big C endorsed Clark.

 

[FloydGondolli]

Funniest line I heard regarding Gore's endorsing of Dean:

"Death Endorses Taxes"

"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man." - The Dude, 1998

 

[PatPatriot]

D2...Here is yet another angle, I just found.This makes the most sense,IMO....If Billary runs as Clarks VP.They have a great shot at winning the nomination.Timing is everything because Howard the ducks front running status will start to fade...If Clark wins nomination but loses election,Billary still benifits from all the exposure going into '08 and the Clintons maintain control of the DNC and the money machinary....If Clark wins election look for Clark to step down for some reason and if he likes his position as being Pres. look for him to have the same fate as "Buddy the dog".....Again, Billary is annointed President without the riggers of actually running....The shamless Clintons will find any unethical angle for their thirst of power. They are very dangerous people.
Tuesday Dec. 9, 2003; 3:01 p.m. EST
Clark Eyes Hillary for VP Spot

In a bid to reclaim some of the spotlight after Al Gore endorsed his rival Howard Dean Tuesday morning, Democrat presidential candidate Wesley Clark said he was considering asking U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his running mate in 2004.

"She is very smart ... I like Hillary. I've known her a long time." Clark told MSNBC hours after news of Gore's endorsement broke.

On the campaign trail in New Hampshire Tuesday morning, the former NATO chief said he "has not ruled out Hillary Clinton as his running mate if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination," according to the Associated Press.

"I think she wants George Bush out of the White House because it's best for country," Clark said earlier, suggesting that his party's most popular politician might accept if it was the only way to defeat President Bush.

On Sunday Sen. Clinton refused to rule out joining the Democrat ticket as vice president and said only that she did not expect any of the presidential candidates to ask her.

"That is not going to happen," she told ABC's "This Week" host, George Stephanopoulos. "That is so far beyond the realm of the possible."

"That's not a 'No.' It could happen," the former Clinton communications director replied.


Editor's note:

 

[D2bets]

LOL Patriot. But Hillary has said she will serve out her term as Senator. I mean, are you saying she's going to come out soon saying she's be Clark's VP or is she going to wait until and if he win the nomination? If she really wants that she at least needs to get out there and endorse him soon. I have been hearing that Clark's camp has a major announcement coming soon but I just dont know what it is. Someone needs to do soemthing to shake up this race though. Clearly Clark wanted to put the idea out there that he'd like to have Hillary as VP an that they support each other. Gore clearly was trying to upstage the Clintons in terms of the timing and location of his announcement. It'd be nice to see the Clintons take a shot back at them and endorse Clark and make the announcement, say, in Tennessee. lol Clark needs to do something to knock some others out seen and get this seen as a 2-man race. If he can frame it like that he can try to coalesce the support of the party moderates and those just desparate to take Bush on and beat him. Clark has a chance for a wider base than Dean IMO.

 

[PatPatriot]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> But Hillary has said she will serve out her term as Senator. I mean, are you saying she's going to come out soon saying she's be Clark's VP or is she going to wait until and if he win the nomination? If she really wants that she at least needs to get out there and endorse him soon. I have been hearing that Clark's camp has a major announcement coming soon but I just dont know what it is. Someone needs to do soemthing to shake up this race <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
She has to be asked first...She wants to be in a position where the appearence that she is in demand...Just like when Bill ran for Gov. in Ark. he said he will never run for Pres. while gov in Ark. but out of the goodness of his heart,answered the call of a grass roots campign "People for Clinton " (or some shit).That he and his phoney cronies staged and put together and organized behind the scenes to make it look like it was huge draft Clinton movement.....Hillary is in the process of doing the same thing with the "slip and fall artist" himself working behind the scenes.
(They will stop at nothing)
She dosen't have to endorse Clark,by excepting the VP position is all the endorsment Clark will need.
I really mean this, Hillary will look for a way to be annoited Pres....The 2 reasons she will lose running the "honest" way is that half the country hates her politics,and that she is a woman.
Timing is everything with the announcment.As soon as the buzz about Gore backing Dean dies down you might hear somthing.

 

[dickman]

For the very first time, I agree with Radiofreecosta rica.