Teagan Goddard joins in the blogosphere fantasy that Al Gore could credibly be named the Democratic nominee:
It’s clear that for either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic presidential nomination, they’ll have to win the majority of superdelegates at the convention. But what if the superdelegates split right down the middle like Democrats across the nation?
Talk of a joint ticket — Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama — might be an elegant solution to the problem. But what if Clinton wins the popular vote and Obama wins the majority of delegates? What if the next two months of campaigning turns so ugly they can’t stand each other? Would either candidate willingly step aside to take the number two spot?
The answer might be for someone else entirely to step into the race at the convention. The most likely candidate would be Al Gore. Most Democrats think he was robbed of the presidency in 2000 by the Supreme Court and could be the only one to unite the party.
Think about what’s being said here. The Democratic race is down to two candidates, each of whom has raised tens of millions of dollars, energized constituencies important to Democratic success in November, and garnered primary votes from a combined total of over 26 million people.
Does anyone really think that after all of this the DNC would be credibly able to name as its candidate a man who has been out of politics for eight years, spent the last year on the sidelines, and participated in a grand total of zero primaries ?
If you do, you’ve been smoking something a lot more powerful than what Bill Clinton claims he didn’t inhale.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:59 am
“[...] name is *its* candidate”.
March 9th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
It depends. If Hillary a) wins Pennsylvania and closes the delegate gap and b) she and Obama tear each other to shreds between now and August, they might both be unfit and too bloodied to have any shot of winning against McCain.
Gore could come in as a unity candidate and choose Obama as his VP candidate, thus retaining all of the new voters he has brought into the process. Al is tanned, rested, and ready, has a Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar by his side, and like Obama, has been right since day one about Iraq.
Seems like a sensible thing to me.
March 9th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Clinton, both of them, would never let your scenario unfold.
Something like this has never happened since the selection of nominees was taken away from the party bosses. The idea that someone could come in from out of the blue and be a credible candidate is the stuff of bad political fiction.
The Democratic nominee is going to be one of the two people still in the race, there’s no way around it.
March 9th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Why not?
Because you say so?
It is not like you are considered anyone with any insight, educated view or any reputation as anything.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:55 am
[...] Back on March 9th, I noted this: Think about what’s being said here. The Democratic race is down to two candidates, each of whom has raised tens of millions of dollars, energized constituencies important to Democratic success in November, and garnered primary votes from a combined total of over 26 million people. [...]