If Gore was President...

[Alerter_]

- No 911. Al Qaeda and Bin Laden and sympathetic groups would still be hitting our military overseas, and we may have even had a truck bomb or three. But there is no way we would have had four hijacked planes flying around for hours, destroying the entire WTC and hitting the Pentagon, the tapes of the air traffic controllers talking to the pilots destroyed by "management consultants", while our President was reading children's books.

- We would still be in Iraq. But we would be in with at least half the troops from NATO, the EU, and the UN. We wouldn't be paying for the entire war ourselves, and Halliburton would not be allowed to use our troops as cannon fodder to defend their empty trucks while they scam the taxpayers.

- No massive public debts. We would have had a recession, but without the massive jobs losses and purposeful outsourcing of jobs to "discipline" the middle class. Gore was always a free-trader, but enough of a Democrat to provide some band-aides.

In general, we would all be a lot better off.

[burythehatchet]

1. whaaaa@!!!!!!!!!

We would still be in Iraq.

huh?

yeah, our diplomats, our inspectors, and a humanitarian aid contingency would be in Iraq. And there would not have been a war.

[Alerter_]

3. I think Gore would have taken down Hussein

Remember when Clinton/Gore sent Albright on a "tour" of college campuses to promote a "humanitarian" war against Iraq? Gore, with the help of the global establishment, could have taken down Hussein and turned over power to the cooperative Baath leaders and some corporate executives. The US, Republicans and Democrats, was always clear about wanting a "strongman" in Iraq that was not Saddam Hussein.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

2. He would have been impeached...

... for soliciting donations from the White House as VP.

There would only have been 4 more years of the same thing they did to Clinton.

Instead, we have almost 4,000 dead and apologists out the kazoo for the PNAC Administration.

[AlGore-08.com]

4. Gore has ALWAYS opposed the invasion of Iraq

And said many times that he would not have invaded Iraq.

9/11 probably would not have happened if Gore were serving, because he and the rest of the National Security Team were meeting weekly to deal with Bin Laden's activities. If Gore had been given a PDB that said terrorists were planning an attack on American soil, he would have broken his neck trying to stop it.

But Gore has said that if he had been President during 9/11, he would have used the feeling of national unity and desire for sacrifice to fix some major problems that Congress has refused to address, especially getting us off of fossil fuels so that we were no longer dependent on the Middle East.

There would be no Patriot Act - - Gore would have vetoed it (he has spoken out against it repeatedly).

Social Security and Medicare would not be threatened, because the budget surpluses would be a reality.

Aaaaahnold Schwartzenegger would not be Governor out here, because Gore would have imposed price caps on Enron, and set his Justice Department looking into why Enron was trying to loot Cali. (Kenny Boy might actually be in jail.) Millions of dollars lost in the last round of wildfires would have been saved, because Gore would have agreed with Davis that preventive fire control was necessary (Smirk wouldn't release the funds as a way to get back at Davis for daring to stand up to Smirk).

There would be more national monuments and national parks.

There would be NO right wing looney toons appointed to Federal judgeships, because Gore would not nominate them.

There would be more Federal money spent on first responders, schools, public health and job creation. If there was a recession, the President would be fighting for unemployment insurance and retraining, not against them.

Civil rights for minorities, women and GLBTs would be expanding, not contracting.

The First Lady would be working to improve mental health care and fighting for the homeless.

The Attorney General would not be an religious wack job who had never been formally introduced to the Bill of Rights.

The White House would be full of competent professionals.

There would be actual Presidential Press Conferences where the President actually answered any question asked him.

You might actually get to meet the President in person and discuss national policy with him, since Gore was planning to hold regular town hall meetings with regular folks. And throughout his career, he always stayed at every town hall meeting until everybody who had a question or comment had a chance to speak to him. And he tried to solve every problem that was brought to him in those forums.

You wouldn't have to be embarrassed to admit you are an American to foreigners.

There's a lot more that would be better under a Gore Presidency, but I have to stop somewhere...

[Alerter_]

5. let's not forget, Gore would be cheered around the world

Like Clinton, Gore would have been a very popular world leader and would be welcomed and cheered around the world, by allies and opposition alike. Unlike Bush, who has to order military officers to cheer during his speeches, and cannot even appear in public without a major fiasco.

I think enough powerful groups wanted the war in Iraq - oil companies, defense contractors, AIPAC, Christian fundies, Neo-Cons, and some parts of the international community that Gore would have been dragged into Iraq, willingly or unwillingly. But there is no question that almost everything in America would be better under Gore. Of that I have no doubt.

[Cheswick2.0]

7. No way would he have been dragged into Iraq

nope

[Alerter_]

21. maybe you're right

After Gore's speech, I know I pegged him all wrong. I hope Gore keeps talking, I'm his biggest fan right now.

[Cheswick2.0]

6. You are correct

About everything.

[Gothmog]

8. Richard Clarke's plan would had been adopted earlier

Bush and Condi took 9 months to review the plan. If Al Gore had been president the plan would had been adopted much earlier and there would had been a better chance of heading off 9/11 before the event.

[Alerter_]

9. the Bush crew just DROPPED the ball on Security and Terrorism

We were attacked all through Clinton's terms, and we met those attacks. Bush just shut the whole anti-terrorist operation down and let the Saudis sucker him. No way that would have happened under Gore, not a chance.

[Bubbaslug]

10. Disagree

I have to disagree with your assertion that had Al Gore been president, 911 wouldn't have happened. Bush was in office for just 9 months prior to 911. It takes a whole lot longer than 9 months to plan that kind of attack. Terrorists don't just hate Bush, they hate all Americans. If they had found Al Gore wandering around in the desert, they'dve cut his head off, too. I agree there's more we could've done to avoid 911, but you can't pin it on Bush alone. They hated us long before Bush came into office. Just trying to be objective here.

[w13rd0]

11. Interesting choice of when to be objective...

...and you'll find much disagreement. The millenium bomb plots were thwarted under Clinton/Gore. 9/11 would have likely been thwarted under Gore, and Ashcroft would have been screeching about infringements on his liberties. But no, we CAN pin it on the Bush administration. Take your pick:

a) 9-11 occurred because of a coincidental and catastrophic failure of our intelligence and counter-terrorism apparatus

or

b) 9-11 occurred because Bush had only enough political capital to get a massive tax cut and figured letting an attack happen would yield him a trifecta

so it's either gross and inexplicable incompetence or willfull negligence...

[Bubbaslug]

12. Good Point

There were intelligence failures, and lets say for the sake of argument that the counter-terrorism agencies under Clinton/Gore were rock solid. Is 9 months in office enough time to turn a rock solid agency into the keystone cops? Remember, a lot of the people in the CIA and FBI under Bush were there when Clinton was in office, and under Clinton there were policies that made it really tough for the CIA and FBI to share information. I'm not blaming Clinton. I won't play the Hannity hindsight game. I blame only the terrorists that did this. I'm just more interested in what we can do to assure this type of thing never happens again, not playing the blame-game.

[w13rd0]

13. 9 months isn't enough to turn the entire structure...

...into the keystone cops, but if the mayor is playing footsie with Bandar bin Sultan...

Many of the "would be keystone cops" have come out saying the Bush administration dropped the ball. They aren't much interested in taking the blame. That's because it was a top down failure. You can go ahead and not "play the blame-game", but many of us here have done enough research to know that the "terrorists did this", but they were given an open window and the mat to wipe their shoes on once they got inside.

How is it that an administration which advertised itself as "adults" bringing honesty, integrity, humility and accountability back to the White House can avoid all of those? No accountability. No one has lost their job. If this kind of monumental cluster-phuck had happened under Clinton, don't you think someone might have lost their job? Not so under Bush. They actually seem to REWARD the same sort of incompetence that failed to prevent 9-11 (see: 'intelligence' leading to invasion and occupation of Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, Robert Novak). If you were the boss of a corporation, would you reward a middle manager that lied to you about the earnings estimates so he could get a bigger bonus? Because that's what Bush has done.

[Bubbaslug]

15. Dropped the Ball?

Sudan offered bin Laden to Clinton. Clinton denied saying we had nothing with which to charge him. Couldn't that be considered "dropping the ball'?

[Bridget Burke]

17. "Sudan offered bin Laden to Clinton?"

Prove it.

[tritsofme]

20. I heard the audio

on my local rw radio on the way to work a few weeks ago.

[w13rd0]

18. Gee, how'd I know that turd might be flown eventually...

You might want to review your facts on that before advancing that notion. The claim that Clinton passed on an opportunity to "get bin Laden" is a RW fabrication. Sudan offered "files" on bin Laden, in a tit-for-tat intelligence exchange. Sudan EXPELLED bin Laden in May 1996, the same year that RW sources insist Sudan offered bin Laden to Clinton. In the spring of 1996, knowing that we didn't have the hard evidence for extradition of bin Laden, Clinton signed an order authorizing bin Ladens execution.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html

So let's review this right wing canard of Clinton "dropping the ball". Clinton refuses to exchange intel with Sudan (much of the intel Sudan offered we discovered later was redundant, thus they would have gained much and we would have gotten squat) and signs an order authorizing a CIA black ops to assassinate Ossama. And this equates in the RW mind with Clinton dropping the ball?

Sudan did NOT offer to hand him over to the US, they offered to extradite him to Saudi Arabia, who didn't want him anyway.

So, once again, how about you tell me why I shouldn't be blaming Bush...

[tritsofme]

19. All the people who testified to the 9-11 Committee from the Clinton

Administration said that we just got lucky with the millenium bomb plots.

It is very hard to thwart terrorists, and I firmly believe that 9-11 would have happened regardless of who was sitting in the WH.

[Alerter_]

16. Bush's uncle laundered the terrorist money through his Riggs Bank

Why don't you come back when you have a basic grasp of the subject? I'm sorry, am I allowed to say that under DU rules?

"It takes a whole lot longer than 9 months to plan that kind of attack."

Really, it does? Give me some specific please. We're supposed to believe it took years to plan to hijack planes with boxcutters?

"Terrorists don't just hate Bush, they hate all Americans."

Who are these terrorists? What are their names?

"Just trying to be objective here."

Okay, whatever you say.

[Curious Dave]

22. Not Bush Fault!

I guess Ronald Reagan gets a pass for causing the Aids epidemic too?

[Kazak]

14. We'd be...

apportioning massive resources toward sustainable alternative energy sources. Hmmm...doesn't sound so bad now, does it?