Bill Clinton was popular at the end of his term; Barack Obama is popular at the end of his term...

[brooklynite]

Al Gore pushed Bill Clinton away during his Presidential campaign; Hillary Clinton is embracing Barack Obama during her Presidential campaign.

What can we learn from this?

[bunnies]

1. It was a different situation with Bill.

I think Gore was between a rock and a hard place.

[lunamagica]

5. Gore was trying to please people who were never going to vote for him anyway. Keeping

Bill away, when Bill was so popular, was a big, big mistake

[charlyvi]

6. As was Lieberman. eom

[lunamagica]

7. Yes, absolutely. Why did he pick him, anyway?

[Lord Magus]

13. Well in retrospect, Gore getting robbed of the presidency was a double whammy.

Not only did we end up with Bush as president, we were also still stuck with Lieberman in the Senate.

[Drunken Irishman]

15. Had he sent Bill to Florida the final week of the campaign, he wins that state by a solid margin.

[bunnies]

16. Yeah.

He went s little too far with the family values stuff when it wasn't necessary. Dems didn't care about the Mighty Clenis. But he wagered that the elusive vast center did.

If he'd had Obamas oratory skills, I think he could have pulled it off though.

He never should have ended the recount.

[robbedvoter]

25. Tad Devone was his adviser, so

[democrattotheend]

17. Agreed

Bill was popular but also scandal-plagued. Maybe Gore shouldn't have run from him, but it's easy to see why he did.

Plus, Bill is such a loose canon on the campaign trail that Gore might have been better off without him. I believe he played a huge role in costing Hillary the nomination in 2008. I'm sure he meant well, but some of the stuff he said about Obama hurt her campaign a lot.

[msongs]

2. al actually won then folded by not demanding a recount in FLorida nt

[cynatnite]

3. There was a recount in FL....

The Supreme Court stopped it and handed the WH to bush.

[brooklynite]

4. Al lost TEN STATES that Clinton had won four years earlier...

...any ONE of them would have made Florida irrelevant.

[onehandle]

8. That Ralph Nader sucks? I kid... I kid...

No, wait...

Ralph Nader Sucks.

[PeaceNikki]

9. Gore's campaign was an epic failure.

[Todays_Illusion]

10. Maybe you didn't intend to remind me of how disgusting that zipper problem was, but you did.

[bigwillq]

11. Gore-Lieberman was not a good ticket

Two terrible candidates, imo.

I think Bill's actions helped usher in the "compassionate conservative" wave of "morally correct (lol)" candidates.

Gore was probably going to "lose" even if Gore embraced Clinton.

[RockaFowler]

14. He should have picked Graham from Florida

That would have all but guaranteed Florida. Bob Graham was so popular at that time and he would have made an excellent VP!!

[tonyt53]

12. You nailed it - Al Gore pushed Bill Clinton away.

[eastwestdem]

18. I guess we'll see! nt

[think]

19. She'll sign the TPP without revision?

[aikoaiko]

20. The Clinton aura was a wee bit different than the Obama aura at this pint.

Clinton His acquittal wasn't until February of 1999. Even a year later there was a lot reasonable uncertainty about how Bill would affect Gore's campaign.

Had Clinton not given the GOP the ammunition to impeach him, I think Clinton-Gore would have been a lot like Obama-Clinton.

[robbedvoter]

24. 67 % approval. The "aura" was 🐘 media

Gore should have paid attention to people not pundits. I mean, Tad Devine who still thinks "votes are not always an accurate measure"

[aikoaiko]

26. I probably would have responded as approving too, but it was a conflicted approval

I was really angry about Bill's poor judgment and letting the Republicans box him in a legal corner over a tryst, but I still supported him.

Maybe not you, but I know I wasn't alone. Lots of middle of the road people were troubled by the affair and the apparent lying under oath.

[Jamaal510]

21. That only

Republicans should be ashamed of modern presidents within their own party.

[joshcryer]

22. Don't forget that many Dems ran from Obama in 2010 and 2014.

And many of them lost because of it. Especially in 2010.

American's respect loyalty over perfection. That's one reason that Trump is getting such a bad rap, other Republicans aren't loyal to him because he's not loyal to the Republicans.

[robbedvoter]

23. I believe Tad Devine was advising Al Gore

so, there's another lesson. (PS: Gore won anyway, but it might have been harder to steal had bill gotten more adoring Floridians at the polls)

[beachbum bob]

27. gore and his campaign weren't very smart....

won't be saying that about hillary and obama

[BeyondGeography]

28. In fairness, Gore was Bill's two-term VP so he needed to create some distance

I think he overdid it, but two-term VPs are always fighting the "more of the same" image battle. And Bill did have good numbers but he was coming off a major scandal that Gore was disassociating himself from for obvious reasons. The President should have been used selectively to drive turnout but that didn't happen until it was too late and even then he was limited to Arkansas if memory serves. I guess the lesson is non-VPs have more freedom of movement, particularly when the incumbent is clean.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. What can we learn? If you want to motivate Democrats, don't pick a crappy

overly sanctimonious, moralizingly preachy, far right Democrat-in-name-only to go on your ticket in the veep slot, in some futile effort to win over "values voters" and "megachurch moms".