Brent Budowsky - New Hampshire Write-In for Al Gore

[Caro]

From The Hill’s Pundits Blog:

A New Hampshire Write-In for Gore Can Win

Brent Budowsky

Note: The following is an elaboration on an op-ed … published in The Hill’s edition of Tuesday, Oct. 16.

It is undoubtedly a long shot, but the voters of New Hampshire have a wonderful history of confounding the experts and changing the course of American history.

Dwight Eisenhower was enlisted in 1952 by voters in New Hampshire. Henry Cabot Lodge in 1964 won a pure New Hampshire write-in while serving as American ambassador to Vietnam, finishing ahead of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller, who were both on the ballot.

In 1968 Eugene McCarthy stunned the world and began the tortured path out of Vietnam with a breathtaking triumph in New Hampshire, and in 2000, John McCain electrified the political world with a dramatic victory in the Granite State.

It has been done before; it can be done again…

If the national Draft Gore movement and the significant, passionate and well-organized Gore supporters in New Hampshire roll the dice with a New Hampshire write-in campaign, the political dynamic creates a real opening for another New Hampshire stunner in 2008.

Here is why: From the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize award through Al Gore’s acceptance speech in December, he will carry the mantle of world statesman and moral leader while the presidential candidates will campaign in a frenzy of low-concept politics, heaping negatives on each other…

In one corner, the negative ads and campaign attacks that make Americans cynical about what our politics have become; in the other, the leader and the laureate speaking with conscience about saving the planet and building the peace…

If the believers in Al Gore roll the dice and reach out to New Hampshire voters to make their stand in the Granite State, they will be campaigning against everything the American people dislike in our politics and championing a leader with an extraordinary body of work for a lifetime, at the very moment he addresses the world and accepts the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Don’t bet the ranch, but it can be done.

Budowsky serves on the Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit and is a contributing editor to Fighting Dems News Service. He handled intelligence issues for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was originally passed, and was legislative director to Bill Alexander, then the chief deputy whip of the House. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at [e-mail].

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

The excerpt above is posted with the full knowledge and permission, even encouragement, of the author, who wants his essays to be read by as many people as possible.

[Tesha]

1. K&R...

Ahh, decisions, decisions.

Dennis Kucinich or write in Al Gore...
Dennis Kucinich or write in Al Gore...

Tesha

[Ravy]

2. As much as I would like to see Al in the race,

This would be used against our eventual nominee. If it comes to New Hampshire filing deadline, and Al isn't in, I will support someone else, at least until the second ballot of the national convention.

I don't want the Rs to be able to say how our candidate lost to someone who wasn't in the race. And the fact that Ashcroft lost to a dead guy isn't much support to say "Hey, it's okay. You can lose like that and still be the best for the job."

[Caro]

3. The Rs will say ...

... whatever they want to say. It's a losing proposition to base our actions on what we think they're going to say to attack us.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com