Reply #13: Hardly. [View All]

Promising to outlaw the most popular civilian rifles in the United States was a really dumb move, and Gore lost at least three swing states on that issue---including Florida, which would not even have been close enough to recount had the gun issue not have been one of the major issues of the campaign in that state. Heck, the official margin in FL was less than the number of registered shooters at the one NW Florida shooting range I belonged to, and our population was nothing compared to the peninsula.

You just don't waltz into most states, promise to enact the most sweeping gun bans in history, and then expect gun-owning Dems and indies to obediently support you anyway. That message might fly in Dianne Feinstein's hometown, but not in most blue-leaning swing states. Fortunately, the party had mostly figured that out by 2006, and the new-bans zealots were mostly marginalized by 2008.