Al Gore Can Rescue the Democratic Party

If ever an election was teed up for a victory it is this November for the Democrats.

G.W. Bush is perhaps the most unpopular president in the last 70 years; Republican is a bad word to a majority of people; the Iraq war is the war that never ends; and the perception is that our economy is slipping into recession.

So amazing as this sounds, the Democrats can and should win the November election for president. Period.

They are going to increase their margins in both the House and Senate. But the presidency is a personality/character/feel kind of vote. Voters need to feel something for the candidate.

That's why the more the nation gets to know Barack Obama, the less they like or trust him. And they already know they don’t trust or like Hillary one bit. Her negatives are higher than any other presidential candidate . . . ever.

They also know that the only time they have won the presidency since the mid-1960s the winning candidates have been, or perceived to be, moderate, white, southern men: LBJ in 1964; Carter in 1976; Clinton in 1992, 1996; and Gore in 2000 (winner of the popular vote).

When they run a goofy northern liberal, i.e., McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry, they lose. Period.

So they need to wake up and realize something: Obama and Hillary are so weakened and so damaged and so out-of-the-mainstream that neither of them can win in November.

Even a poor candidate like McCain, running with all the Bush baggage draped over his shoulders, would defeat either one of these two.

So here is what the Democrats ought to do, but probably won’t: Realize Obama or Hillary is not the answer and give the nomination, and the tremendous fundraising machine the Democrats have developed this year at the August 27 Democratic Convention, to Al Gore. Perhaps give Obama the vice president position to harness the youth and energy he has injected into the system this year.

Gore would hardly even have to campaign! He is so well-known and so acceptable to Democrats and independents, and so vindicated by Bush’s failures, by his opposition to the Iraq war, by his Nobel Peace Prize, and, most of all, by his not running for President that he is now seen as above petty politics.

Gore would win in November in a walk. Period.

Now, could this scenario happen? Yes, it could. How? The Democratic candidates have to keep ripping each other to shreds, thus making them un-electable in November.

But in this strangest of all years, anything can, and may, still happen.