If Gore served 8 years as President

[itsrobert]

We would had a good chance of running Vice President Lieberman in 2008. Our choices would have been Lieberman/McCain (Lieberman's move for bi-partisanship) vs Jeb Bush/Palin. What a nightmare. Of course, I would have taken that chance.

edit: Thanks for the grammar help. Sometimes my mind gets a little scrambled. ;)

[virgogal]

1. You have me utterly confused.

[Richardo]

2. would have

not 'would of'

[Richardo]

4. would have taken that chance.

[Blue-Jay]

3. I don't quite get what you're saying.

[liberalpragmatist]

5. Lieberman would probably have lost

I suspect that there would have been plenty of Lieberman-haters even within the Democratic establishment and the Gore Administration. Lieberman would probably have faced at least one very well-financed, prominent challenger for the nomination.

Besides, truth be told, if Gore had won two terms, Dems would likely be set to lose in 2008. Few parties hold onto the White House for long continuous stretches absent something like the Depression/WW2. And I'm sure that Democratic divisions would have emerged by now over trade, financial regulation, etc. I could see a major Feingold-esque revolt against centrist Democrats, particularly if, as in real life, we were faced with a major economic downturn and the collapse of a housing bubble. Granted, Gore would probably have dealt with it better, providing earlier stimulus, taking quicker action to arrest the subprime mortgage fiasco. But with a recession, plus 16 years of Democratic rule, we'd likely be looking at, at least, two terms of Republican presidential control.

I still would have taken that over what we got. Basically, the Democratic Party's fortunes would be worse, but the state of the country would have been far better. And maybe four straight losses would have at least somewhat moderated the Republicans so that the non-insane wing was in charge while Democrats got their act together, out of power.

[zaj]

6. Lieberman would never win the Dem nomination... policies aside

He's not a winning national candidate by any streatch.

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. I believe you just created the one scenario

...that would have allowed Ralph Nader to win in a landslide.

[bobbolink]

8. .

:rofl:

[muntrv]

9. Our deficits would have been lower, if not surpluses, because there wouldn't

have been the bush tax cuts for the rich and no Iraq war.

[Raine]

10. Gore probably would've picked a new VP

for this second term.

edit: added one word

[notesdev]

11. Palin doesn't even enter the picture if not for McCain picking her as running mate

so much for that part of the theory, but keep drinking and you'll think of more

[roamer65]

12. 9/11 wouldn't have happened.

Gore would have paid attention to the August 2001 presidential PDB and tightened security at the airports, IMO.

[obliviously]

17. There has never been a date missing in history!

[bamacrat]

22. I agree...

we would also be leading the fight against global warming, wouldnt be in 2 wars, would have nearly 5000 Americans still alive and almost 2 trillion dollars would have been saved.

[elocs]

13. The biggest 2 letter word in the English language: "if". n/t

[Swamp Rat]

14. We'd be flying around in electric cars, wearing wristwatch TVs

Eep opp ork ah-ah!!

[madinmaryland]

15. Well there are a lot of "if's" involved in you post.

If Gore had won, we may have avoided 9/11 and as a result not ended up in two wars in the Middle East. Also resulting in the continuation of Clinton's balanced budgets. OTOH after an uneventful first term could he have been beaten by someone in the republican party. Could W have tried a second time and won, resulting in what happened in 2000, or would someone in the repub party won like Clinton did in 1992?

Ironically, if the scenario above unfolded, Lieberman could have come out as a fiscal conservative who managed to keep us out of conflict in the middle east. Lieberman/Biden??

What would have happened in Congress?

Jeb Bush might have been a possibility, but Palin? Probably not.

[Ter]

16. Do you honestly think one party would hold the WH for 16 years?

And then another Democrat win in 2008 totaling 20 years? Not a chance. In modern times, people get bored after 8 years, with 12 being the limit. Chances are, it's highly unlikely Gore would have been reelected in 2004.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

18. Gore Never Would Have Won A Second Term

I firmly believe, and no one will ever convince me otherwise, that had Gore been President, 9/11 would not have happened in the first place. However, if it really WAS inevitable, Gore would have never won a second term. Wanna know why? Because the Republicans would have NEVER forgiven him for allowing an attack on U.S. soil. They would have dogged him mercilessly over it and he would have lost in a landslide in 2004 (probably to McCain). Wrap your brain around that one. Gore would have been drummed out of office for allowing 9/11 to happen, but Bush kept us safe even though he allowed 9/11 to happen. Yes, you have to love Republican "logic."

And if, like me, you like to explore alternate reality theories, who do you think would have been the crop of Democrats lining up to run against President McCain in 2008? Because I'll bet you a shiny new dime Obama wouldn't have been one of them. Without John Kerry choosing Obama to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, nobody would even know who he was. So the question remains, who would have been the Democratic field in 2008? John Kerry? John Edwards? Someone we never would have expected? A person like Howard Dean, who really mobilized the Democrats after/during the Bush fiasco, really only got motivated to do what he did because Bush was so bad. If Bush hadn't been around to screw everything up, would the Democrats even be in power right now? It's a whole domino-line of ideas here.

[PretzelWarrior]

20. you forgot Hillary.

she would still have won her Senate seat and been poised.

[Greyhound]

21. But that assumes that the 9/11 attacks were inevitable and that Al Gore would have

somehow lost all interest in Al Queda.

Remember that this was The Front Burner issue as the Clinton Whitehouse wound to its end. I think it's highly unlikely that President Gore would just ignore the good intelligence we had then like the Idiot Frat Boy did.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

25. True, And That's Why I Believe Gore Would Have Stopped 9/11

As I said in the first sentence of my post. The rest of it was a hypothesis on what might have happened if, despite all the evidence to the contrary, it happened anyway.

I also happen to believe that when President Gore received the report in February of 2001 (when it was released) that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the USS Cole bombing, he would have actually done something more than Bush did (which was.........NOTHING--which is why I absolutely LOVE it when right-wing mouth breathers claim Clinton did nothing about the USS Cole bombing--he was out of office when it was determined who was responsible; and guess who was in).

[PretzelWarrior]

19. why do you say that? Lieberman would have had primary challengers

and Obama would have cleaned his clock. so would have Hillary.

[TheKentuckian]

23. No way. Lieberman was purely tolerated, never desired by anyone.

Palin would also be non-existent as she was a Hail Mary by Grandpa not an actual part of the equation.

Seriously, Lieberman wouldn't have a shot in the dark level of chance and would have been blasted by Hilary or someone. Holy Joe has never been well liked and has the charisma of a melting slug.

[shimmergal]

24. You're right, Lieberman has no charm.

Plus, his need for grandstanding would have made him very unhappy in the typical VP role.
Yet I can't see him using it as a base for a secret govt. as Cheney did. He might have even taken himself off the ticket in 2004; in a kind of Palinesque move. But I too think he would have been outflanked in a 2008 race by Hillary or Obama or Dean or...who knows?

And the twenty years from 1932 to 1952 are certainly not ancient history. I like to think we could have done it again. Of course the Dems would have to keep doing things really for the good of the country...should be a lesson here for the corporate fascist enablers in the present Admin.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

26. I Always Thought The Choice Of Lieberman As VP Cost Gore Dearly

I think if Gore had chosen a better running mate, things might have been much different. For one thing, he probably would have won by such a large margin that the shenanigans in Florida wouldn't have mattered. Imagine if Gore had chosen John Kerry as his VP (as he was rumored to be considering), or if he chose someone like Gephardt. I actually thought John Kerry should have chosen Gephardt in 2004, but I really didn't have much of a problem with the John Edwards pick (he seemed to bring some likeability and some "down-homeiness" to that ticket that was lacking before).