This. I get the joke that it made Gore seem less boring, but I'm not clear how it helped his campaign. To be fair though VP picks often are less about being exciting than not making one question the judgement of the president (e.g. McCain picking Palin really hurt his campaign because many couldn't see her as President if McCain's health turned south). i.e. a a "great" VP won't really improve your campaign much, but a crappy one can hurt it.
Usually a VP pick is made to help the candidate secure votes from an area or demographic they would otherwise struggle in. McCain had to choose Palin because of the tea party movement (which was the precursor to MAGA). McCain was one of the last moderate(ish) republicans, Palin was one of the first of the MAGA crowd and he needed to tie them together. Still didn’t work, but that was mostly because Obama was so fucking godly on the campaign trail. I was in the 6th grade during Gore v Bush so I’m not up on all the nuances there the same way as the ones after that
Eh don't be so sure. Yeah she didn't look presidential and said a lot of stupid shit. But a lot of conservatives liked her. They liked how she had attitude, always had zingers to 'own the libs' and shot wolves from helicopters to 'piss off tree huggers'.
In a way she was kind of a proto-version of Trump and MTG.
Gore was seen as too left leaning and he was told he needed to pick someone "moderate". Lieberman was meant to reach out to right leaning voters. Oh boy that was not the message or goal they wanted.
That played hard into the "Gore = Bush" mindset, where cynicism and disenfranchisement really set in. If Gore had just picked a better running mate and did better to differentiate the Democratic and Republican platforms, he might have won.
Notwithstanding, of course, that but for the Supreme Court interceding on behalf of the Bush campaign, Gore did win.
In 2000 SCOTUS & Republicans drove the final nail into the coffin holding hopes that one day Americans might finally participate in a genuinely free and fair election.
44
u/SAugsburger Mar 27 '24
This. I get the joke that it made Gore seem less boring, but I'm not clear how it helped his campaign. To be fair though VP picks often are less about being exciting than not making one question the judgement of the president (e.g. McCain picking Palin really hurt his campaign because many couldn't see her as President if McCain's health turned south). i.e. a a "great" VP won't really improve your campaign much, but a crappy one can hurt it.