Gore or Feingold in 2008?

[BlueAwards]

We all know there many good democrats that will be competing for our vote, but if it were between Al Gore and Russ Feingold in the primary, who would you vote for?

[bluethruandthru]

1. Both! n/t

[lwcon]

25. Ditto

Gore-Feingold, Feingold-Gore -- you can't go wrong.

I guess I'll say Gore to top the ticket, because he's been the bridesmaid for two terms and was ripped off in 2000, but either way this would be the best combo since peanut butter met chocolate.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[NastyDiaper]

72. Both!

Both! RFKJr intereor secretary works just fine by me.

[Progressive4Life]

26. Absolutely!

Gore-Feingold is my dream ticket. :thumbsup:

[bemildred]

52. Ditto. nt

[saltpoint]

2. This is a no-lose proposition. Two great people.

[William769]

3. ...

[IndianaGreen]

4. This is a win-win poll no matter how one votes!

I voted for Russ because he has been there in the trenches while Gore has not indicated that he is running. If Gore intended to run, he wouldn't be playing Hamlet.

[Autonomy]

5. President Gore for re-election

[Uncle Joe]

6. Al Gore without a doubt,

I do however respect and admire Russ Feingold.

[AtomicKitten]

21. ditto

[ShortnFiery]

45. Hey AK!

We agree once again. :woohoo:

Great to see you here. :-) :hi:

[AtomicKitten]

49. there you are

Nice to see you too!

[NNadir]

7. Al Gore is the best hope for our country and our world.

I'm not sure he'd run, but I'd personally feel a whole load better if he did.

[ShortnFiery]

44. Yes, I've warmed up to him especially over the past few years ...

Gore was a little too much to the right for me ... a centrist. However, because the entrenched DLC sort of used him, I think he's an honest broker now. BTW I did vote for him in 2000. :P

I'd love for Al Gore to run and this liberal would work like hell in her local Democratic Party to help him pull our great state of Virginia. :-) :hi:

[hippiechick]

8. Gore/Feingold. The only ticket for this hippie!

:applause:

Russ will get 8 years to learn from a Master and further hone his skills, growing into the Statesman role and there'll be no stoppin' him when he's heading the ticket down the road!!

:applause:

[Ken Burch]

9. Gore beating Feingold in a DU poll?

My God, wyldwolf will be going into tremors.

(I voted for Feingold but would support Gore if nominated. I'd fight like hell to get Gore to stand on a tough-talking economic populist platform, like in his best moment in 2000, when he gave the "the people, not the powerful" speech.

If he's progressive he can win. If he regresses into centrism, he'll have a harder time.

[IndianaGreen]

12. I think Gore, if he were to run, would avoid the likes of Donna Brazille

and the other Beltway handlers that have brought so much harm to the Democrats and the country.

[Ken Burch]

40. We can but hope...and Tipper can but hope

nt

[twenty2strings]

10. Both...n/t

[Rowdyboy]

11. Russ Feingold represents the future AND he wants the job.....

Gore apparently doesn't. Under those circumstances, my vote was easy. I want a person who WANTS the job and is willing to devote 100% of their time and energy fighting for it, not someone who wants to be coaxed into running.

Considering his past experiences, I don't blame Gore for not seeking the office again.

[guinivere]

14. Agreed. Feingold seems to have the fire. nt

[ShortnFiery]

47. Gore has clout and a great deal of foreign policy experience ...

Plus he would pull in the greens - in a BIG way!

Finegold as VP would be awesome.

[Adelante]

13. Voted Feingold

Prefer Clark.

[Totally Committed]

15. My favored ticket at the moment is

Clark/Feingold, if Wes decides to run. If Wes does not run, my second favored ticket would be Gore/Feingold. If neither Wes nor Al runs, we are up sh*t's creek without a paddle, because I don't see Russ as carrying a ticket.

TC

[Mrspeeker]

16. gore already won

he just didn't get the perks :)

[bullimiami]

17. either.

[El Fuego]

18. We need to re-elect Al Gore!

[Peace Patriot]

19. Gore/Kerry '08. The Poetic Justice ticket. Otherwise, all bets are off,

and I would support Feingold, based on the issues--he would have the edge for me--although I think Gore has a lot going for him on issues like torture and ethical and constitutional government. I would not like to see Kerry as the prez nominee--too much waffling around about the war--but as an elected president, he has a right to be on the ticket. And that is the biggest issue for me--RESTORATION of our democracy, and RESPECT for the will of the American people. Gore was elected first, and has eight years experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. He is also a better speaker, and is better focused on the core constitutional issues--where the Bush junta has gone way wrong. His election has been proven. He should head the ticket. Kerry won by overwhelming inference of the available data, in a highly non-transparent election. He has no experience in the executive. He should second Gore.

I also believe that a Gore/Kerry ticket would rally the nation in a way we have never seen before. I think it may be the only ticket that can beat the Bushite-controlled voting machines. I think it will blow the 5% to 10% advantage that these rigged voting systems have been giving to Bushites right to hell, with a 20% margin of victory.

I think everybody knows Bush and his junta are liars and cheaters. You don't have to prove that to most Americans. And when they see a Gore/Kerry ticket, they will know what to do. Restore order. Put the rightful people in the White House--the people we REALLY elected. Undo all that lying and cheating and thieving. And start over.

Americans love justice more than anything. They will love this ticket. And the acknowledged victory of these two men, at long last, will signal the rebirth of American demcocracy. Can you imagine the joy that this restoration would bring? Can you imagine the team they will put together, to undo all the Bushite harm?

This is the ticket. A sure winner. Although both men "lost," they "lost" unfairly. And the deepest issue--the thing people will feel in their gut--will be justice, a matter that goes beyond politics. Justice. Order. Lawfulness. Fairness. Rightness. The baseball virtues.

[IndianaGreen]

20. Eleanor Clift on Gore

I voted for Russ in this poll, however, here is what Eleanor Clift is saying about Gore:

Gore Redux

The former veep is refusing to play overt campaign politics. But could his focus on the environment be his ticket to the presidency?

By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:26 p.m. ET April 28, 2006

Whether he is or isn’t running almost doesn’t matter. Gore has the luxury of waiting until late in the political season to announce. He has universal name recognition, a proven ability to raise money, and he can tap into the MoveOn.org machinery to launch a grass-roots campaign. Unlike front runner Hillary Clinton, there is no doubt about where Gore stands and what he believes in. He opposed the Iraq war, he was against the Patriot Act and he spoke out forcefully against President Bush’s torture policies and warrantless eavesdropping. Gore has become the darling of the left, yet global warming is not, or shouldn’t be, a partisan issue. The days when the first President Bush mocked Gore as “Ozone Man” are over, relegated to the dustbin of history. Conservative evangelical Christians see themselves as stewards of the earth. When asked at a screening of his film in Washington this week what he would say to Bush’s claim that global warming needs further study, Gore quipped, “I hope he finds the real killer,” adding quickly, “I shouldn’t have said that.”

There is a parallel for Gore in another president who lost narrowly, retreated to private life and then returned to win the presidency. His name was Richard Nixon. He lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960 in what was then the closest race in American history. Written off by the political establishment, Nixon went to New York and practiced law. Then in 1964, the Republicans took a drubbing with Barry Goldwater, a conservative whose loose talk about going to war scared the country, and suddenly the uptight and sober Nixon looked pretty good to a party desperate to regain the White House. John Kerry came much closer to winning than Goldwater, but Kerry turned out to be a wind-surfing dilettante who in retrospect reminded Democrats they had a better candidate in Gore. “It’s like the “Mrs. Robinson”: ‘Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you’,” says a Democratic strategist recalling the Simon & Garfunkel song from the movie, “The Graduate.”

This could be the ultimate remake for Gore, whose struggles with his persona during the 2000 campaign made him an object of ridicule. He’s older now, 57, and the pounds he’s put on have robbed him of that princely patrician look that the voters never liked anyway. He seems more approachable, and he’s a first-rate teacher as he explains in “An Inconvenient Truth” about the inescapable march of global warming, along with its consequences, that first captured his imagination as a college student. The film is not apocalyptic; you don’t leave the theater feeling all is lost. Gore says he deliberately left out recent scientific predictions that the world has just 10 years to reverse global warming or a tipping point will be reached beyond which it cannot be stopped. Reflections about the 2000 presidential race (“It was a hard blow, but you make the best of it”), a childhood split between farm life and a hotel room in Washington and his beloved sister’s death from lung cancer interspersed with the slide show give the movie a biopic feel that makes viewers wonder what might have been if history had taken a different turn.

Gore is not anything like Nixon, but there is an underlying psychological subtext they have in common. Once you’re bitten by the presidential bug, you stay bitten. The only cure is formaldehyde. This is his Richard Nixon remake. “He would get in if the timing’s right,” says a Democratic strategist. “The question is—is he willing to challenge (Hillary Clinton)?” That’s a question not even Gore seems to be able to answer.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12535070/site/newsweek/

[Auntie Bush]

56. Other - Wes Clark...and no other.

[incapsulated]

22. Russ hands down. n/t

[MH1]

23. Other - Kerry. nt

[rep the dems]

24. I voted for Feingold.

Nothing against Al Gore, but Russ has really taken a stand against the republicans, and against Bush. Gore hasn't held an elected office since 2000 (even though he should be president now) so while his popularity may be decreasing, I think people are getting more excited about Russ possibly being the next president. Just my 2 cents.

[stray cat]

27. Feingold definitely

Either if they got the nomination

[JNelson6563]

28. Gore/Feingold '08

That would make me very happy and I'd work tirelessly for such a ticket.

:toast:

[Greyhound]

29. Feingold of the two. Gore is a fine man and could be a great leader

but he just has too much baggage. Given the choice however, I would vote for Clark and if dreams really do come true I'd get Gore or Edwards on the bottom of the ticket.

[LeftofU]

30. Gore/ Clooney 08

my choice

[guidod]

33. Gore is fine, but

we don't need anymore actors in politics.

[OhioChick]

31. Al Gore! n/t

[guidod]

32. BOTH!!

[NJ Democrats]

34. Russ!!!

But I wouldn't mind Gore-Feingold. That would be great!!!

[IndianaGreen]

35. A kick for the graveyard shift

:kick:

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Gore/Feingold 08. But, really, I would be ecstatic to have either of them.

Even better to have both.

[smoochpooch]

37. I voted for Gore

because I actually want to win the election in 08.

[dolstein]

38. That depends -- do we want to lose 49 states or only 40?

NT

[Jai4WKC08]

39. My thought too, essentially

Altho I would not have been clever enough to have put it that way.

[Ken Burch]

41. You DLC guys haven't got an obvious winner, so cool it

We can assume that no one else will pull off Clinton's centrist with charisma routine.

Anyone can be elected as a Democrat so long as he(or she)takes strong positions and defends them with fire when under fire.

Moderates no longer have the keys to the kingdom.

[Jai4WKC08]

54. When did Al Gore renounce the DLC?

I know you didn't address my post, but since I agreed with the guy you did address, I figure your comments apply to me too.

Except that I am NOT a DLC-supporter. And I don't think the guy above is either. Not necessarily, anyway.

There are Democrats out there every bit as progressive as Gore and Feingold who do not have the same potential problems in getting elected.

And if you think "anyone can be elected as a Democrat," well... you've moved beyond wearing rose-colored glasses to immersing yourself in a rose-colored world.

2008 is gonna be a tough battle. The GOP still has its machine, its media, and every corporate dollar behind it. They'll have the voting machines too if we don't win back the House in '06. Maybe even if we do, in the states with GOP state governments.

[Ken Burch]

63. Well, Clark is nowhere near as progressive, if that's what your avatar

is implying.

And how do we KNOW Feingold would have trouble? As far as I know, he has even been put in a national head-to-head poll.

Hillary clearly isn't the answer. She'll won't stop moving further right, she'll end up no more progressive that Bill(which would in itself make voting for her a waste of time since, unlike Bill, she has no charisma whatsoever.

And I don't understand why the guy is implying that Gore is a sure loser, as far as that goes.

[Jai4WKC08]

69. Clark is certainly more progressive than Gore

Or at least more than Gore was during his very long political career. And Clark is not much less progressive than Feingold.


http://headstrong-america.blogspot.com/2005/12/graph-rates-2008-hopefuls-on-issues.html

I happen to like and respect both Gore and Feingold. They are both good men and good Democrats. Not better than Clark, but certainly good enough to be excellent presidents, and far better than anyone the GOP could put up against them.

But I don't think either of them has a very good chance of winning. Gore is already defined to most voters by his 2000 campaign and what the GOP/media did to him. It is much harder for a candidate to redefine himself once the image has been created, no matter how false. Yes, I do know he won in 2000, but it was VERY close -- much closer than it should have been. I don't see him getting more votes than he did in 2000, and probably significantly fewer. Feingold is a short, Jewish, northern senator with two divorces and no wife. I think his being Jewish (which I am also) will be enough to keep him from getting the nomination, but all those factors would combine to sink him in a general election.

[nickshepDEM]

42. You're exaggerating a little.

But you're underlying point is true.

[Ken Burch]

64. How do you know?

How can you be sure it would be sure it would be a bad idea for our party, for once, just for once, to nominate someone who not only clearly disagrees with the ugliness of the Reagan/Bush era(unlike the last Democratic president, who ended up essentially endorsing Reaganomics)but will stand and fight and defend his or her positions under fire, rather than caving in and apologizing for not being Republican?

Why shouldn't we try, for once, fighting the Republicans as equals, as a party who believes that EVERYONE, no matter where they were born, no matter what their skin color or their sexual orientation, no matter what economic philosophy they hold, is a REAL AMERICAN?

Why shouldn't we stand up for the excluded majority?

The fact is, people who think the Republicans are right about more than a handful of issues AREN'T GOING TO VOTE FOR US, no matter how "moderate" and apologetic and intolerant of nonconformity and diversity we try to look.

But that leaves us the majority, if we will only do what they want us to do...speak truth to power and live by truth when IN power.

"centrism" is defeatism, is cowardice, and, as the last three elections proved, DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE.

Courage and principle do.

[Doremus]

65. "Centrism is defeatism." You nailed it.

Is Bush centrist?
Is Rove centrist?
Are there any centrists in the WH at all?

Do they run from their ideals or do they shove them in your face?
Do they talk strong or water down their message so as not to 'offend'?
Do they know how to energize their base with words and actions or alienate their base in favor of non-member moderates?

It's freaking HIGH TIME the DLC stopped being embarrassed by who they are and embrace the ideals this party is supposed to stand for. Until they acquire the savvy (or motivation) to recognize they are enabling the "liberal=bad" mantra rammed down our throats by a cunning rival, we are SOL.

[Ken Burch]

70. And, historically speaking, everyone who ran as a centrist

to stop the far right(from the German Social Democrats in the 1920's and early 1930's to Jimmy Carter in 1980)FAILED TO STOP THE FAR RIGHT.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over in the hope of getting a different result.

[Jai4WKC08]

71. Bush and Rove have no "ideals" to run away from

They are calculating, manipulative and machiavellian. They will do whatever it takes to stay in power. When that means feeding the GOP base, they do it. When it means pretending divine guidance, they do that. And when it means backing off from an issue, they do that too.

There is NO reason to think that the GOP's 08 nominee will be any different.

I believe that most Democratic leaders have ideals, and generally the same ideals. I do not believe all of them are as courageous as they should be in standing up for those ideals when it seems dangerous to do so. Some aren't even when it seems merely expedient to be otherwise.

I think the DLC Dems tend to be the spineless ones. But they also tend to be the ones who are more effective at using issues and positions to win elections, and not letting themselves be entrapped by opponents who use issues for the same reason. Since they tend to come from redder regions, they have had practice. Maybe that's why the DLC has so much influence within the party. But maybe it's also why they don't seem to have the knack of winning national elections.

The more progressive Dems may have more spine, but for the most part they come from consituencies who allow them to. I can't point to any progressive Dems who have been successful nationally. Not since FDR, and in his case, I'm not sure you can compare his time to now. You can argue that they haven't been given a chance, but that sidesteps the point. If they can't handle the political maneuvers of the party establishment, how on earth are they going to beat the Repubs?

We need both sides, united, to take back this country. They balance each other, and each could learn much from the other.

[Greyhound]

61. Just a note, putting the NT in the message body defeats the purpose. n/t

[nickshepDEM]

43. Voted Gore...

Prefer Warner

[rniel]

46. Wasn't Gore

One of the people that started the DLC

That's my one main complaint.

[ShortnFiery]

48. Yeah, but a whole lotta hard knocks has seasoned him to

the realities of those of us who consider ourselves Average Working Americans vice the Political Elite. Remember he supported Howard Dean. I love Gore!

[rniel]

51. And he invented the internet

So that's a plus.

Just kidding.

[Doremus]

66. Never heard that one before, nope. (imagine rolling eyes here) n/t

[wizdum]

50. Will Gore run? Whose got the scoop? Any news on his plans or is he still

playing coy? I hope he goes for it. I think he could probably win since he represents peace and prosperity and dubya and the republicans represent death, disgrace and deficits.

[Clark2008]

53. Wes Clark

[union_maid]

55. Not a bad ticket

I'm not seeing anything wrong with this one. Providing, as I always add, that Gore promises not to use a single consultant that he used in 2000.

[Clarkie1]

57. I like them both...had to think on it for 5 seconds. Definitely Gore! n/t

[OnionPatch]

58. Al Gore, my president

I like Feingold, but Gore has really impressed me in the last five years or so. Besides, with the 2000 election fiasco in mind, he really should be our president right now. I think he should run and his slogan should be "Al Gore: Back to the Future" (instead of this detour backward in time that the Republicans have taken us on.)

[Zen Democrat]

59. Maybe Al Gore had a vision as a child with a voice saying ....

"You will one day be elected President with a Jewish Vice President." So he picked Lieberman in 2000. And all along it was FEINGOLD and the year 2008.

That would be a dream ticket for me.

[0007]

60. Gotta measure the temperature every five seconds and we still have

30 months to go.

[bklyncowgirl]

62. Love 'em both but go with Gore on the experience factor

I think that Gore with his experience as the overseer of Clintons "Reinventing Government" project has the knowledge and experience to have the best chance of turning this country around even though I may not agree with every one of his stands on the issues. In short he won't have to learn on the job.

I love Russ Feingold and if he had some serious administrative experience he'd be my #1 choice because I don't think I've found any issues where I have a serious disagreement with him on.

As for electability--both have problems. Gore's damaged goods--who just might be able to rehabilitate himself & Feingold a twice divorced Jew but hey, nobody's perfect.

[SunDrop23]

67. Gore, if picking between those two.

But I don't think either could win.

[lojasmo]

68. Either/both....I don't care....as long as it's one or the other EOM

[RedTail Wolf]

73. Great ticket Gore/Feingold must be less stiff NT