Jencunas: Gore in 2016?
Friday, March 20, 2015
Back in 2004, the telltale sign of a far-left liberal was a "Reelect President Gore in 2004" bumper sticker. Some Democrats want to update that slogan for 2016. Liberal pundit Ezra Klein urged Gore to run in a column on Vox.com and articles discussing a potential Gore candidacy appeared on CBS, National Journal, and other media outlets.
Gore was a bad candidate in 2000 and would likely be a worse one if he ran in 2016. Recounting all of Gore's bizarre decisions during the 2000 campaign would require well over my column's word limit, but here are a few of his biggest mishaps: insisting on distancing himself from Bill Clinton, who had job approval ratings above 60%; awkwardly invading Bush's personal space during a debate; and briefly dressing in earth tones on the advice of Canadian feminist author Naomi Klein.
If Gore runs in 2016, he'd be an even worse candidate. In 2000 he was a moderate Democrat who could claim credit for the prosperous economy of the Clinton years and popular Clinton-era policies like welfare reform.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNow, Gore's brand is the high priest of environmentalism. That's earned him fervent support from other environmentalists, but polling shows year after year that climate change is among the least important issue for American voters. Even most Democrats are more concerned about economic and foreign policy issues than they about climate change.
To make matters worse, since leaving politics Gore has lived more like a plutocrat than a populist. He enjoys the luxurious life of an elder statesman - world travel; lucrative corporate board memberships that have made him richer than Mitt Romney; and prestigious speaking engagements at international conferences. These are hardly experiences the average voter can relate to, and they make Gore easy to caricature as an out-of-touch liberal elitist.
Even worse for him, there's the obvious contradiction of his environmental message and his gas-guzzling, private jet flying lifestyle. Hypocrisy is one of the most effective attacks to make against a politician, and Gore serves himself up for the criticism on a silver platter.
The hype about Gore's campaign is as synthetic as the turf at the AstroDome. Either his publicists are pushing it to keep him relevant or, more likely, anti-Hillary Democrats are trying to show that liberals are yearning for an alternative to Clinton.
Regardless, the merits of a 2016 Gore campaign are an academic question, since he isn't going to run. Gore's supporters floated him in 2004 and 2008, and both times he declined to run despite having a clearer path to the nomination. Most Democratic primary voters are happy with Hillary, which is why she trounces opponents like Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden in early polling. Gore isn't going to give up his enviable lifestyle to embark on a futile campaign. So if you have an Al Gore button in your drawer, don't expect to be wearing it anytime soon.
Brian Jencunas works as a communications and media consultant. He can be reached at [email protected] and always appreciates reader feedback.
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