How did we end up with Lieberman on the ticket with Gore in 2000?

[hedgehog]

[Armstead]

1. Because he is a social conservative who criticized Clinton

One of the amazingly stupid moves by the Democrats in 2000.

[ThomWV]

4. Beats the hell and all out of me?

[marmar]

2. I think Al Gore is wondering the same thing....

:beer:

[radio4progressives]

15. lol!

:toast: :beer: :hi:

[Raine]

3. It's thanks to Clinton and his womanizing

that Gore had to find a running mate who had good morals. x(

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. sexuality is not the only moral compass

i think lieberman is bereft of many morals...just cos he doesnt fuck around doesnt make him moral

[Raine]

40. I definitely agree

there's lots of things that are more immoral than fucking around. I guess that choice was to appeal to those who think you're only immoral if you screw around.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

5. .......

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[Wilms]

6. That was done so Nader would not be the reason we lost. n/t

[scot]

7. Ask Al.

[JanMichael]

8. We needed to shore up the chinless vote.

Seriously.

Edited to avoid being called an anti-semite.

[hedgehog]

9. Too bad no one checked the butterfly ballots ahead of time instead.

[JanMichael]

10. True. Or better yet kept Nader off the ballot along with several other...

...Leftist candidates.

Even better we coulda prevented the bleeping felon voter purge that was entirely bogus and prevented thousands of people from voting.

[hedgehog]

12. I think your first posting was correct.

I think people who thought they could pander to Jewish voters by nominating Lieberman were at fault. It was an insult to a group of voters who have been a solid foundation of the Democratic Party for years.

[JanMichael]

19. Very true. It was a slam on a 90% Dem voting group.

Like they'd vote en masse for Bush or sadly Buchanan.

[saltpoint]

11. Gore sought in part to position himself as a candidate who might

appeal more to the "morally conscious" voter, which could be anything from those who felt Bill Clinton betrayed his marriage vows all the way to people who think rock or rap music are decadent. Lieberman had railed for a long time about "decadent" Hollywood and the moral decay of young people, etc., and Gore's wife Tipper launched a Congressional panel to examine the evils of rock lyrics. Frank Zappa testified before that committee, among others. The strongest anti-censorship talk was by John Denver, of all people.

Gore was advised that he needed a little eastern establishment Democratic credentials and a high-profile Democratic Senator from Connecticut would help. Hence, Lieberman and Kerry were on the final short list for veep choices.

Not least, Florida mattered even in the early going, and Lieberman, who is Jewish, had strong appeal to the Palm Beach/Broward Jewish vote -- very arguably enough to win in Florida (were it not for the stealing of that state's election by Katherine Harris and others).

At the time, and for some pretty good reasons, Lieberman wasn't a bad choice.

I was rooting for Kerry that year, but nobody called me for my input!

[hedgehog]

14. IMO, this is a classic case of selection by poll rather than by

conviction. If Gore had gone for conviction, he would have done better all around and Florida wouldn't have mattered.

[Horse with no Name]

13. It was the "Consultantocracy"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=180&topic_id=29957&mesg_id=29957

[hedgehog]

22. Horse With No Name, you're a genius!

You must be, you agree with me on every aspect of this issue!(LOL)

[Horse with no Name]

25. Hey then

I guess you are a genius too! I love this article on it and I love the name it was given. That is sheer genius.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Gore and Lieberman were once very close ideologically

They were the only two Democratic Senators to vote for the first Gulf War.

Don

[seabeyond]

17. that was before his religious war. i do believe the reason

lieberman is behaving like this is because he is jewish and this war fits with his religious beliefs. they have just taken forefront instead of reason on this. otherwise lieberman had in the past been a good dem

[cali]

39. Huh?

What do you mean by your statement that "lieberman is behaving like this is because he is jewish and this war fits with his religious beliefs. they have just taken forefront instead of reason on this"? I assume you're referring to the war in Iraq. What religious ideas would motivate him to support the war?

The truth is that Lieberman has always been a hawk, in the tradition of many dem hawks who came before him.

[dsc]

18. Lieberman was a masterful choice at the time

He was historic since he was the first Jew. He was immensely popular with the press who hated Gore. He figured to be a huge help in Florida, PA, IL, MI, OH, and NJ all of which have huge Jewish populations. He won every state in that list save Ohio.

[JanMichael]

27. He didn't win those states the ticket did.

And if you think the Jewish vote was going to Bush anywhere on a scale that would lose the nation you're smokin' good shit.

Now you also forgot that they won Florida too however the bigg killers there were the felon voter purge, the Greens and butterfuck ballots that confused the shit outta the old folks in Century City.

[dsc]

36. The Jews voted in massive numbers

numbers much higher than they otherwise would have. There is another option in every election called staying home.

[0007]

34. .....and I believe it was to separate himself from Clinton.

I also think Tipper had a big say in this move.

[killerbush]

20. That's the best thing Gore did in 2000

Was to bring Lieberman on board. Gore blew the election himself, not Lieberman.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

21. The play it safe stratergy. "Mr. Safe Choice" Lieberman stabbed Gore

in the back when he said that 'he should quit the race for the good of the country'; not an exact quote. See what the safe candidates do?

:popcorn:

[NYCGirl]

33. Actually, when Lieberman was chosen, it was considered a very bold move.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/07/ip.00.html

[Rocket Surgeon]

24. I think it was the combination with Tipper...

If anyone remembers, Tipper's PMRC group waged a "war of decency" against The Dead Kennedy's cover art for Frankenchrist.

Lieberman didn't help as he was on the board of the Parents Television Council.

A lot of progressives were turned off by Tipper and Joe's affiliations. It was a deadly combination of anti-free speech that would give the folk over at Focus on the Family a hard-on.

PROGRESSIVES DO NOT APPRECIATE HAVING HIGH PRESSURE GROUPS SHOVE THEIR VALUES DOWN THE THROATS OF OTHERS!

[ecstatic]

26. Gore chose him! I hate to beat a dead horse, but why do y'all want Gore

back?! He screwed up the VP choice, and he screwed up the part where Dems were supposed to stand up and demand justice for having our votes stolen.

[hedgehog]

31. I don't think back then anyone had any idea how badly Bush

could screw up this country. Gore had too many people telling him to concede for the good of the nation and he believed them. I didn't really understand how crazy Bush really is until the Memorial Service September 16, 2001 when Bush gave his speech and the final hymn was the Battle Hymn of the Republic. When I realized he was treating this event as an act of war instead of as a crime, that's when it really hit me how much trouble we were in.

[mondo joe]

28. I like Al Gore, but I think he fucked up his campaign in many ways, not

least of which was selecting Lieberman.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

29. exactly

i liked gore too, would have made a solid president...but he cant play politics

[mondo joe]

30. Despite what the GOP did, it's a disgrace that Gore came in the way he did

given where he started.

:-(

[ldf]

35. we don't need anyone to "PLAY" politics.

i think the hole that we are in is deep enough, thanks to those "playing" politics.

and kudos to clinton, who set such a playing field that "moral", "truth" and "integrity" were allowed to be waved as the standards of the republicans, so much so that gore had to actually run FROM clinton, rather than take pride in what they did together.

does no one REMEMBER the media hysteria that was going on at the time? my, everyone has such short memories, yet can now say with certainty that gore made every mistake he possibly could.

gore did not act in a vacuum. unfortunately, he listened to his advisors, BIG mistake. but he knows that now.

he has learned a LOT since getting his nose rubbed in it, the least of which is that the democratic leaders haven't a spine amongst them, and the DLC is the death of the democratic party.

give the man SOME credit for learning.

and other than asking his supporters to literally take to the streets, which would have meant bloodshed, there wasn't much else he could do. he was already dealing with the gangs of freepers outside his house screaming that they (the gores) should GET OUT OF CHENEY'S HOUSE. it would have only gotten a lot worse. he was concerned about this nation AND his own family.

as far as the vote count, there sure wasn't a higher court to take it to, since apparently GAWD was too busy grooming W to try to help gore out. :sarcasm:

as far as lieberman, that backstabber, he will NEVER get my support again, for anything. he was one of the first to tell gore to concede. and he has reaped the reward for it, hasn't he, since he is now the darling of the republican party.

the gore bashers here refuse to remember the full picture of what was going on, and just continue to reduce it to "he should have done this" or "he should have done that", remembering absolutely NOTHING about what gore was dealing with. and its not because it hasn't been repeated here, ad nauseum. some just have a bone to pick, and won't stop until that bone is nonexistent. (usually so they can push their own candidate.)

gore may be the only one intelligent enough, with such an incredible grasp of the BIG picture, that he may really be able to address this mess.

he is my first, second and third choices. he IS the president, and should take his rightful place, and kick that pathetic excuse of a human OUT of his house.

rant/off

[alphafemale]

32. Gore needed a running mate who wouldn't eclipse his personality? nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

37. I think you would need to look at Lieberman "then", not Lieberman "now"

to obtain the answer. The 2000 election was well before Lieberman began his "crusade" to attempt to please the masses.

During the cloture vote, I thought-for a mere second- he was returning to his roots. How wrong I was.

[killbotfactory]

38. It was a strategic move to alienate young voters

who grew up and lived with video games and movies Lieberman objected to.

As if having Tipper(PMRC) as a wife wasn't enough.