How much did the Gore endorsement help, or hurt, Dean?

[ChemEng]

I really thought that when Al Gore came out for Dean that the race would be over. So what went wrong? Are endorsements not worth a plug nickel anymore?

[dobak]

1. not even worth a penny

[One Taste]

2. I think it hurt him a bit

Gore seemed like he was trying to circumvent the democratic process, but telling everyone to rally around Dean before a single vote was cast.

[RobertSeattle]

4. Agreed - bad move by Gore

I am sooooo glad Bill and Hill (and Carter) have kept their mouths shut. Good for them.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Agree with that

Gore's "rally around the strongest Democrat" crap pissed me off to no end. An incredibly foolish statement that probably made a lot of non-Dean supporters anti-Dean, especially when Howard backed it up (by saying he appreciate Al Gore citing the "11th Commandment").

[Carolina]

12. Doubly agree

I said at the time that Al's political instincts were often a tad off (so-called tin ear). Dean had the momentum and was doing just fine without Gore. I thought the endorsement was self serving of and for Gore because Gore's media negatives, or perceived ones, could easily be morphed to Dean and harm rather than help him. By contrast, it gave Al a moment in the spotlight again.

[Disandra]

3. It did cost a lot...

A lot of my friends who were going to vote for Dean really changed their mind when Gore came out in support. We all voted Green in the last election for a reason.

BTW--I'm still holding out for Dean, so I'm not bashing him. ;-)

[deminflorida]

5. I looked and smelled of plans for a future run for Gore....

like in 2008. It was a miserable, failure.

[ramapo]

6. Hurt

The flurry of endorsements increased expectations to where Dean now looks bad not winning (or even coming close).

I thought the endorsements were premature. Voters don't like being told who to vote for. Let the voters speak. Then Democrats should all endorse the eventual candidate.

[loudnclear]

7. Dean is his own worst enemy! Not much can help him .

Too bad. He has the guts to take on Bush without fear.

[auburnblu]

9. The Harkin endorsement didn't help either

I think Gore just wanted to get his name in the news. I thought Harkin's endorsement would be a big plus. What the heck happened with that?

[goodhue]

10. endorsements no help

they fed perception that media and insiders had already selected Dean, something which Iowa democrats like to reserve for themselves

[Jerseycoa]

11. Look what it did here at DU

It did great damage and divided the party. I think it served to stiffen the spines of opponents and their supporters.

[Bucky]

13. What did Clinton say about Gore? "His political instincts are terrible"?

Something like that. Again, Clinton's right and Gore's wrong. Now, if Dean falters, Gore is dead as a party leader. If Dean comes back it'll be based on people power, not big wig power. Gephardt only retired based on Iowa; Gore actually died there.

[RichV]

14. I'd say effect was almost nothing

Exit polling reported by Fox said less than 1% of voters said endorsements made any difference at all to them. Take that for what it's worth. Sorry don't have link handy. Going to bed so I'm not going to look at this second.