How did Gore do better than Kerry?

[AP]

Kerry ran a campaign that was 10 times better than Gore's and everyone knows that Bush 2004 is ten times worse than they imagined Bush 2000 was going to be.

Can being from the South be worth that much?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. it was worth more in florida for sure...

it was worth more in rural areas...

[JohnKleeb]

2. thats a good question, I dont know

people are stupid though.

[liberalpragmatist]

3. He didn't

Got millions more votes than Gore did. Or even Clinton. Most votes of any Democrat in history.

Unfortunately, we were swamped by evangelical turnout, which nobody expected. As a result, Bush got way more votes then expected.

And what's happened since 2000 is that evangelicals, conservatives, and neocons have developed this Mao-like cult of personality around Bush. As ludicrous as it is, he's like a messiah to these people. We underestimated that, which was a mistake. You can't beat "the messiah".

[AP]

13. Gore had a masters in theology, right? Southern religious guy. Hmm.

Maybe that dampens the enthusaiasm of those evangelicals.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. it's water under the bridge now but maybe we should have let gore run

again (nt)

[Egalitariat]

5. I think so

Southerners don't trust people they perceive to be "elite". They view W as a dumbass, and since they're dumbasses too, they like him.

We should run Southerners b/c Northern Dems will vote for a Southern Dem because he's a Dem. Southerners just won't do that.

[American Tragedy]

30. Oh right, the northerners are the elitists

even though they are proven to be fully willing to vote for southern and diverse candidates. Meanwhile, the very people in the South who call northerners elitists consider northerners and anybody who acts or seems too different from them unacceptable. Who are the elitists really?

[KittyWampus]

6. Paperless Electronic Voting. Massive Scale Voter Fraud

The exit polls were correct.

[Kerry in 04]

10. YES, and I have links to post if I could just make a new post.

[robbedvoter]

7. He faced more media hostility, less support yet won, fought for us

and stayed true to the promise to fight eventually. His anti-war speech before the senate debates had an effect (till gephardt undercut it)
One more thing: anti-war is better than co-sponsoring the IWR any day.
http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SJ00046:@@@P

Most importantly, a word that may be complicated for someone asking such a question: INTEGRITY

[AP]

15. "Integrity"? What do you mean by that?

I guess it's so complicated I don't understand what you're trying to argue by implying I don't have integrity.

[robbedvoter]

25. I knew you'd be stumped. because I know whom you like.

Clue: it's not skin deep.

[AP]

27. Here's a post for you to read. I think you've been had.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1309963#1313107

[JI7]

8. Kerry got more votes than Gore, but a "Massachusettes Democrat"

probably got more evangelicals to come out and vote against Kerry.Kerry is also Northeastern Catholic with Jewish grandparents while Al Gore is a Southern Baptist.

the hatred among the right wing, especially the religious type against Kerry was much more than against Clinton and Gore.

[JPJones]

9. Semi-incumbant, Bush had no experience n/t

[VOX]

11. The right wing didn't have the "All terror, all the time" card to play...

in 2000.

Since 9/11, they have tried to turn the population into frightened lab animals, and with some success, apparently.

[AP]

18. And the Democrats didn't have the four-year long record of crappiness.

Bush actually ran a cleverly stupid campaign in 2000. In 2004 I think he just ran a crappy campaign. I also think they cheated in OH and FL. But I do think that we've learned that a NE liberal can run a kick ass campaign against a terrible Republican with an awful record, and he still has a HUGE hurdle to clear just by virtue of being from New England.

[NewJeffCT]

12. it's the economy, stupid

To paraphrase Carville. The economy was in good shape when Gore ran due to the 8 great years of Clintonomics. He had that to run on. However, the Bush economy was a disaster, but the RW propaganda machine was able to blame it on Clinton-years excesses and 9/11. Not only that, but when Bush started spouting off supposedly good economics numbers the last few months, nobody on the Kerry challenged them on it with the truth. Not once did I hear a response to Bush's bragging about 1.7 million jobs in 12 months and then 1.9 million in 13 months. Those are, in actuality, pathetic numbers. Worse than his daddy who was lambasted for a jobless recovery. An average 13 month period under Bill Clinton brought you over 3 million new jobs.

[Demi_Babe]

14. It's the W Phenomenon

You either love him or hate him and those that love him fought a little bit harder! Remember, Hitler had a large following. Kerry did nothing wrong. I believe ANYONE would have failed against *.

[Tatiana]

16. Yes, I think it helped that Gore was a Southerner.

It's a cultural thing, a trust thing. I've talked to several co-workers who didn't care for either Bush or Kerry, but voted for Bush because they said they didn't trust Kerry. At least Bush cared more about being right than being popular, one lady told me.

WE knew John Kerry. We followed the Dem primaries religiously. We watched and attended the rallies. The average American, unfortunately, didn't pay much attention and therefore went into the booth voting for the person they "liked" and "trusted." Bottom line. Kerry tried his damnedest, but I think the slow response time to the Swift Boat Liars hurt him. Like my great-uncle (Alabaman) told me, "If the boy can't defend himself, how the hell is he gonna defend the rest of us?"

Southern candidates catch a break in the respect that Southerners are more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. They feel like their culture is more respected. Some of my Southern relatives swore up and down to me that Kerry was going to may gay marriage federal law. Now that's ludicrous and if they knew anything about Kerry, they would have known that was a lie. But they didn't really know Kerry. And that's why we lost.

An exception to the trust issue would be Howard Dean. A lot of Southerners (including my great-uncle) liked him. He was for guns. He actually came down South and campaigned! He tried to have a dialogue with Southerners and I think they responded to that positively. Two cousins in the Reserve liked Clark. I noticed Edwards was popular in South Carolina. Kerry, just by virtue of who he was, couldn't connect with these types of people. The overemphasis on his Vietnam service hurt as well. In SC, MS, and AL, Edwards had a higher positive rating than Kerry did. And Kerry was the war hero.

[Awsi Dooger]

17. Gore was the one who blew it, not Kerry

Gore had every advantage, his own party in office and eight years of unequalled prosperity. I don't care if he technically won. He failed to embrace edges that should have made it a 3-5 point semi-rout.

Kerry was facing an incumbent, for one thing. That obstacle was never fully weighed on DU. And 9/11 provided Bush the only ally he really needed, widespread fear.

Gore and Kerry were comparable in likeability, not very. We'll continue to look from outside in, if we make that mistake in 2008.

[AP]

21. I totally agree. Like I said, Kerry ran a campaign ten times better than

Gore's. It was actually pretty brilliant. They made lemonade out of lemons in many respects. And I think Bush's campaign was running on three cylinders through the last two weeks.

Obviously something else was going on which made it harder for Kerry than for Gore to win.

There are some obvious factors, like Gore's 8 years experience in the WH.

But I think two big ones are 9/11 (fear and terror) and the cultural problem of being from the NE.

I think for Americans, being from the South isn't so much of a regional thing as it is a proxy for class, and I think it's very important for the Dem to have that class proxy.

Bush's family is hellarich. But he moves to TX and suddenly he's just a regular guy. Something's going on there...

[Awsi Dooger]

28. I didn't fully understand the regional problem until last summer

I drove from Nevada to New York to Florida, then back. Two full months and sampling opinions, primarily regarding Kerry. Convenience stores, golf courses, shopping malls. The average Joe didn't buy Kerry as one of them, even necessarily the same species, particularly in the South. Yet when I told them Bush bought his Texas ranch as a presidential prop in '99, they would say unbelievable stuff like, "I bet he got a real good bargain, with all those family connections."

[Samantha]

19. Kerry didn't run a better campaign than Gore: bottom line, Gore won

the popular vote, Kerry did not. Despite whatever political light you wish to shine on the literal campaign, AP, it's that bottom line that counts (pun intended).

I thought it was highly amusing that so many people here at this website was so critical of Gore's campaign, yet Kerry's strategy imitated Gore's: sacrifice the South, come across the Northeast and skim off the top. The thing that did Kerry in, despite all the pundits' talk about the brilliance of Kove, the simple truth is that today Bush* is credited with 274 electoral college votes, eight of which are from simple redistricting. We have known this for quite some time, that if Bush* simply carried the same states as in 2000, he would have 8 more Electoral College votes. No one really focused on it. It doesn't take a political genius to simply redistrict and milk more out of the Electoral College, and it doesn't take any genius whatsoever to sit up and take notice and offset it.

The Republicans used their same 2000 playbook to stifle the Democratic vote, and Kerry, who emulated Gore's count every vote mantra, folded before even pretending to so.

And the New Dems really whined about Gore's populist campaign. What was Kerry running there at the end?

At least this is one argument I will spend no more time on at DU, who can run a better campaign, Kerry or Gore, because we are staring the results in the face tonight. Make that, the results are staring us in the face...

[AP]

24. Regardless of whether they ran in the same states,

Kerry ran a better campaign in those states, and Gore kept it tighter than Kerry. I think part of the reason was cheating again, but part of the reason also had to do with gay marriage and the religious right showing up in numbers they haven't displayed since 92.

[mzmolly]

20. Kerry got 3 million more votes than Gore.

:shrug:

Though both men should have been President.

[Samantha]

26. True, from purely from the win standpoint, simple numbers do not "count"

Percentages matter. Gore got the higher percentage of the total vote. Kerry failed to do this.

[prayin4rain]

22. Diebold.

[RobinA]

23. It's the 9/11, Stupid

The Gore and Kerry races are in no way analogous. This was about 9/11, I don't care what people say about moral values. I'm sure for some people it was moral values, but 9/11 lost this election. Or won it, depending on which sside you're on. Kerry the Thoughtful was not going to beat Bush the Arab Bomber. In my opinion, nobody was going to beat Bush the Arab Bomber.

[leftofthedial]

29. because there were 30 times as many cheat machines

this go 'round

[enki23]

31. kerry did significantly better than gore

but the hatred of gays is something that is bigger in this nation than we are.

[Citizen Kang]

32. Gore got the most votes

Gore won by 500,000+. Kerry lost by 3.6 million. Of course more people voted in this election. More people live here and turn out was much higher on both sides.

Everyone trashed Gore for running a lousy campaign. Yet he managed to win the popular vote. He would have won Florida if the votes had been counted. Kerry, well he never even came close.

Everyone trashed Gore for not trotting out the Big Dog, back in 2000, Clinton Fatigue was a very real phenomenon. But Clinton campaigned for Kerry (though not much due to the heart surgery) and maybe it won PA for Kerry, but did it help nationally? Not one bit.

A lot of people owe Al Gore an apology. Including several on DU.