The London Telegraph reports that unnamed senior Democrats are continuing to mull the fantasy that Al Gore will save the party from having to choose between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama:
Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president.
The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November’s election to the Republican nominee, John McCain.
Former Gore aides now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party’s convention in Denver during the last week of August.
Two former Gore campaign officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that a scenario first mapped out by members of Mr Gore’s inner circle last May now has a sporting chance of coming true.
(…)
If neither Mr Obama nor Mrs Clinton has the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination, and if both appear unable to beat Mr McCain, under one scenario a group of about 100 party elders – the “super-delegates” – could sit out the first ballot in Denver, preventing either candidate winning outright, and then offer Mr Gore the nomination for the good of the party.
Tim Mahoney, a Democrat congressman from Florida, said last week: “If it goes into the convention, don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket.” This suggests the party would accept a Gore-Clinton or a Gore-Obama pairing.
This idea has been floating around for the better part of a month now.
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.
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 ?
And, in response to Mahoney’s “compromise,” I said the following:
Mahoney’s “compromise” is, in a word, absurd. There’s simply no way that Clinton and Obama, and their supporters, are going to accept the idea that someone who has spent the last year sitting on the sidelines collected royalty checks from his movie, along with generous speaking fees, and a Nobel Peace Prize, is going to somehow waltz into Denver and take the top spot on the ticket.
While neither Clinton nor Obama are likely to walk into the convention with enough pledged delegates to win the nomination, one of them will walk in with the most pledged delegates and a majority of the popular vote. It will then be up to Mahoney and the rest of the superdelegates to decide what they’re going to do.
But that, I think, is really what Mahoney’s fantasy is all about.
He doesn’t want to make a choice between Obama and Clinton. And he especially doesn’t want to have to face the consequences of that choice later on down the line, whatever they might be. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other superdelegates feel the same way. Unfortunately, though, the byzantine nomination process that that Democratic Party created has led to this and they will have to make a choice whether they like it or not.
And, more importantly, according to at least one poll, the majority of Democrats don’t want Al Gore to “save” them:
Some pundits have recently floated the possibility of Al Gore as a compromise nominee to end the Obama-Clinton struggle. However, when Rasmussen Reports asked Democratic Primary Voters about a three-way race including Gore, the former Vice President attracted less support than both Obama and Clinton. The national telephone survey of 423 Likely Democratic Primary Voters shows Obama attracting 42% support while Clinton earns 26% and Gore is the top choice for 23%.
Among White Male voters, Obama leads Gore 40% to 33% while Clinton trails with just 18% support.
Among White Women, it’s Clinton 37%, Obama 30%, and Gore 25%.
Among African-American voters, it’s Obama at 70%, Clinton with 14%, and Gore barely registering at 5%.
The survey also found that 41% believe that Obama would be the strongest general election candidate against John McCain. Twenty-six percent (26%) say that Gore would be the strongest candidate while 23% named Clinton
Given those numbers, any attempt to put Gore in the top spot at the convention is likely to cause serious trouble for the Democratic Party.
