Gore is a...

...pragmatist. So am I. I respect his opinion, as do many here at DU. I only hope that everyone who now respects his opinion as I do continue to do so, if because of his pragmatism he were to change his mind about supporting Dean for president and withdraws his endorsement in the future if it begins to appear that he can't beat the Chimp. I hope this does not happen, and I have still not made a choice as to who I support yet.

I am not posting this as flame bait. I am posting this because if anything can be said of this race for the Dem nomination, it is that nothing seems to be predictable. We are seeing something very unique developing before our eyes. I think we had all better be prepared for anything.

Don

Al Gore dropped his own ego and stepped out of the race so, as he put it, the contest would be about the future, not the past.

Al Gore, like a great many of us, has sat on the sidelines and watched the nine candidates prancing about as if there were no goal post or time clock. He knows that it is imperative that the Democrats and hopefully the Greens will gravitate to a single candidate now, not later so that we all focus on the real goal of removing Bush and Cheney from the Executive Branch of power.

Once again, Al Gore has put the nation before his personal interests.

His endorsement of Howard Dean was a signal to all rank and file Democrats to come together.

Al Gore is indeed a pragmatist, but also a patriot.

Bravo!

I'm a Kerry backer, but I have no problems with Al choosing whomever he wishes to endorse. Al, more than anyone else, I suspect, wants to beat the Republicans bad. I think he see's a Dean organization that has an energized grassroots organization and who's leveraged the power of the internet extremely well.

I wish he had waited until the first couple of primaries, but I can live with this....

...the pissy attitudes of the Clark supporters over Gore's endorsement and their self-absorbed whiny bitching about how unfair it is have definitely made me reconsider supporting Clark. They say you will know a tree by the fruit it bears and I find myself definitely thinking that maybe Clark is not the type of person I want to support because of the type of people he is attracting.

:eyes:

Primarily from the Clark supporters? It's been nothing but incessant whining for the last 24 hours because a private citizen decided to support a specific candidate as is his right as an American. I started out as mostly an unconfirmed Dean supporter and then decided to wait and see after it became clear Clark was going to run, but this attitude of entitlement has definitely soured me on the Clark campaign.

I am sorry if that bothers you, but I call them like I see them.

and some Dean supporters urging everyone who supports a different candidate to give up. I did a 6 or 7-hour DU stretch last night so I think I know what I'm talking about.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, both sides have had their "moments" - and there's no need to judge campaigns by their supporters (although it's tough to do, I know...)

...because an endorsement, whether it be from an individual or a union or group is a good thing for a candidate that people should feel proud of and celebrate the positive. I agree that it is bad form to tell someone they should just give it up before the primaries, but we have 8 fine candidates (sorry, but Lieberman is a "hold your nose vote") and we should celebrate one another's successes, not bash each other.

citizen of the United States and member of the Democratic Party who announced support for a candidate. Which is, you know, his right as an American. Which, you know, I see people do in GD and the Lounge every day.

IMUS asked Nora O'DONNELL the other day what she hears at the White House about who they really want to run against, who they think would be the easiest to beat. She said that the old story about ROVE cheering for DEAN has run its course, that they see DEAN differently now, they see him as UNPREDICTABLE, that in the debates he just might trigger something to "get under (Shrub's) skin"---and that this concerns them. IMUS continued his trouble-making philosophy, that this scenario would be "fun". This is the same tack comedians take, that they preferred to have Shrub-the-goof win in 2000 because he would provide endless easy material. For weeks before the Iraq attack, IMUS thought it was cute to say the attack should happen "because we CAN".

As to the other points in the original post, pragmatism is one thing, but is it really imaginable that somebody would endorse on this big a scale and later reverse the endorsement? And I respect GORE's right to express a choice and to exert his leadership role, but I sure wish he had let the vote happen. My bottom line is that HE SHOULD HAVE RUN HIMSELF if he wanted to lead, but barring that he should have let these candidates who have worked SO HARD have their fair shot at it. SHARPTON just called the endorsement "bossism".

Whenever somebody brings up the possibility of Senator CLINTON's jumping in at the last minute, the reply has always been that this would demean the 9 and 10 candidates that have worked so hard. Same goes with the endorsement.

He's as emotionally calculating and hollow as ever. He's actually made Lieberman a sympathetic figure, and has insulted supporters of every other candidate. To hell with him.

He's as emotionally calculating and hollow as ever. He's actually made Lieberman a sympathetic figure, and has insulted supporters of every other candidate.

Gore's endorsement was no more insulting than Bill Clinton's saying there were "two stars" in the dem party. actually it was far less insulting, since Gore went to great pains to emphasize that this was just his personal opinion as a private citizen. Gore has as much right to endorse the candidate of his choice, as any of us here on DU does, or any of the celebrities or politicians who have endorsed Lieberman, or Clark, or Kucinich, or whoever.

Lieberman, sympathetic? he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Gore owes Lieberman zip.

I chose Dean and welcome Al's endorsement. I worked for Gore in 2000 and would do so again if the occasion were to arise.

Much disinformation is posted and written about the Dean campaign here and elsewhere. My experience of his campaign and the people involved is sufficient to convince me as a supporter and I suspect, from Al's comments, the experience was sufficient for him as well.