The Sideshow wonders whether Al Gore did the right thing in not running for the presidency:
But the article is certainly correct that Gore’s decision not to run has hurt more than helped. The problem is that for Gore to be able to make a credible run, the party leadership will have to get over itself and get behind him. This has been Gore’s biggest liability all along – the fact that so many of the people who should be trying to position the party for a win are instead concerned with positioning themselves for the nomination, thus weakening our chances both in 2000 and today. Frankly, I’m not sure they are serious enough to avoid a similar mistake if someone they aren’t in love with receives the party nomination.
One of Dean’s assets is that, for all his much-mooted ambition for himself, he projects “We have to get Bush out and get our country back” more than he projects “I want to get into the White House.” You sure can’t say that about Lieberman, who doesn’t appear to be aware that something has gone wrong. He seems to support Bush so much that you have to wonder why he is in the race at all. If we’ve already got a perfectly good president, why should we elect someone else? Only because Lieberman has personal ambitions? That’s certainly no reason to vote for him.