One of the big knocks against Al Gore was that he had peace, allies,
world pre-eminence and a booming economy and still lost to George W.
Bush. Despite the Republican shenanigans, he should’ve had the election
in a cakewalk– so the story goes.
Perhaps (or perhaps the shenanignas were more effective in the first
place than people credit.) But it’s one thing to lose the election, and
another thing to actually lose the peace, allies, world pre-eminence
and the booming economy, wouldn’t you say? How bad do you have to be to
squander the world’s sympathies post-9/11 to a point where you are
making it a toss-up popularity contest against Saddam Hussein? And this
was supposed to be the “likable” candidate, the guy you were supposed
to feel comfortable having a beer with. Maybe there’s something to be
said for the occasional grown-up action after all…