If Al Gore decides to run, the very first thing I want from him

[burythehatchet]

is a complete explanation of why he elevated Joe Lieberman onto the ticket. I do not believe he picked Joe himself, I believe he was forced to doit. My suspicion is that it was a DLC power play. But I want to hear from Gore on this issue. I think it is as relevant today as it was then, given the circumstances.

[Selatius]

1. I think you answered your own question.

Clinton-Gore was very much influenced by the DLC. Many of its staffers were DLC, and policies such as free trade and NAFTA were DLC answers in their Third Way, so it's safe to assume that when Gore assembled his campaign staff, he simply imported onto his staff many of the same individuals he had worked with for the previous eight years.

Of course they wouldn't have liked him to drop the Third Way and leave the DLC and try to adopt economic populism in the last months of his campaign. It went against their economic philosophy as well as some of the bigger corporate financial donors to the DLC as an organization.

Of course, I don't expect Al Gore to air the dirty laundry over what happened in 2000, but I generally agree with your assessment.

As far as Joe Lieberman is concerned, I don't know why he picked him.

[DURHAM D]

2. Bull - Al was so busy

running away from the Clinton White House he would have picked Newtie before listening to the DLC.

[burythehatchet]

4. How so. He ran from Clinton because of Lewinsky

that doesn't have anything to do with the DLC.

[Pithy Cherub]

3. Actually no,

Holy Joe has slipped into political idiocy after his selection as Gore's VP. He ran for president on the basis of what he perceived as support for Gore, then Gore endorsed Dean which really made Joementum cry. That was the Gore repudiation in that act of demonstrably outlining his values and his oratory against the war. Lieberman has shifted even more to embracing neocon theocon hellish ideas and Gore has had a voice. What Lieberman has become in the last six years belongs solely to Lieberman. Gore had no part in sanctimonious Joe's delusions of grandeur. Gore did select Lieberman because he was in the clutches of the centrist nutbars and has enured he has become his own man by speaking his own truths consistently.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. I don't think it's any great mystery. Lieberman had clucked and "tut-tutted" Bill Clinton on the

Floor of the Senate; therefore, Joe was considered by some to be an "innoculation" against the election-destroying rampages of the wayward, blowjob-enjoying CLENIS.

While I agree that he was an exceedingly weak VP pick, one should remember that the situation in 2000 was vastly different than it is now- there was no Iraq war, 9-11 hadn't happened, the word "neo-con" hadn't really entered the lexicon. Lieberman's name certainly didn't carry the same kind of foreign policy implications that it does now.

[burythehatchet]

6. I tend to agree

but you do have to wonder how Gore could have agreed to run with a man of such little charater, honesty or integrity. Joe has always been a bit of a hoe.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Gore made some mistakes in 2000, no doubt about it.

Important thing to me is, his behavior since then indicates he has learned from them. I think part of the problem was, he was running as the veep of a pretty popular administration, the economy was good, the track record for the 8 years was pretty good- most people thought the election was his to lose (actually, it was, since he won it) ... but that being the case, I think he was too inclined to listen to advisors who told him to "play it safe". He was too careful, and Joe was the "careful" pick. Being careful was not a smart move.

I think now he knows this, and he has been freed since then to let himself take the stands he truly believes in.

[burythehatchet]

9. Why does Danna Brazile's face pop up in my head

as I read your post? I think you have it pretty well pegged. But I do want to hear Gore talk about it. Maybe all I really want Gore to do is to repudiate the bastard in public. I kind of NEED that.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. You could call his 2004 endorsement of Dean a pretty strong repudiation

but I totally hear ya. :hi:

[ccpup]

8. with all there is to worry about

, the very first thing you want is an explanation about a decision he made over 6 years ago? I get the sense that no matter what he said, you'd still find reason to complain and question.

[burythehatchet]

10. Your sensory abilites are quite remarkable

its like you're in my head.

on edit - please take a moment to browse my online shop and purchase a bumper sticker I created about two years ago.

[ccpup]

12. hmmmmm ...

and it's pretty windy in here. You don't have any magazines or something I can pass the time with until something interesting happens, do ya? :popcorn: (Forgive me, but I couldn't resist)

[kimmerspixelated]

13. I'm with ya, but

I thought I had read that he wasn't gonna run, sadly.

[burythehatchet]

15. That was bad reporting. Until he says I will not run

I'm going to keep that candle lit.

[applegrove]

14. Joe L's record was good until this war where he turned into a neocon.

Gore couldn't foresee the future. Nobody can.

[burythehatchet]

16. When Joe took the floor in that senate to admonish Bill Clinton

knowing full well that the impeachment was a result of a 6 year witch hunt, he sure lost my respect. I saw him then as an opportunistic whore. Prior to that he was the "Hollywood is to blame for society's ills" guy. But no, I never imagined the slime he would eventually morph into.

[Hippo_Tron]

17. Because Joe didn't show his true colors until Iraq

I'll fully say that without Iraq, Lieberman wasn't a great pick in the first place. That said, Joe wasn't nearly as bad as he was before Iraq started. The worst you could say about him is that he made a made an ass out of himself complaining about video games and while I have issues with that, I'll admit that there are more important issues than video game industry regulation.

[yurbud]

18. If Gore had "won" & resisted Iraq plan, he would have been JFK'd, then Joe...

would have put things back on the Chamber of Commerce approved track.