How Gore could be our nominee--A Deadlocked convention

[CMT]

The only way I think Al Gore could win his second democratic nominatin at this point is if no one arrives in Boston next July with a majority of delegates.

I doubt with the compressed primary season this will happen, but hypothetically anything is possible. Let's say Gep wins Iowa, Dean wins New Hampshire, and Clark or Edwards win in South Carolina.

This would give each of these gentlemen some momentum. I could see Gep doing reasonably well in the farm/industrial midwest, Clark and/or Edwards in the South, and Dean in northeast. I think Clark and Dean are pretty evenly matched from the polls in the West.

So it is possible that these three or four men could go all the way and as such no one has enough delegates to win the nomination outright. Now probably the party would put the pressure on the candidates to resolve this, but if they can't it is possible that someone might decide to nominate the true winner of the election of 2000--Al Gore. If the convention is deadlocked, Gore could be drafted as a compromise candidate.

Highly unlikely to happen, but not out of the realm of possibility either.

[MGKrebs]

1. Gore for Dem Party Chairman!

[CMT]

2. well we certainly could use a new one

imo.

[tsipple]

3. I Know the Deadlocked Convention Idea...

...causes pols everywhere to hyperventilate every four (or eight) years. But it just isn't going to happen. Somebody's going to win this thing.

[virtualobserver]

4. probably not......

but I do like the Gore endorses Dean rumor.

[tsipple]

5. Where's that rumor?

Hadn't heard that one. I thought Gore was waiting until after the primaries.

[robsul82]

7. The rumor is...

...that Gore's waiting until Lieberman drops out to endorse Dean. He still has a sense of honor towards that puke, imagine that.

Later.

RJS

[elperromagico]

6. I doubt it will happen that way

I think either Clark or Dean will emerge victorious well before the convention. Of course, anything is possible, and probably the only way Gore would run would be if he were persuaded by the party that victory in November depended on him.

Of course, this could potentially be Gore's last chance. If a Dem wins in '04, he/she will almost certainly be renominated in '08. That would mean that Gore couldn't seek the nomination again until '12, by which time he'd be 64 years old. If a Dem is elected in '04 and serves for two successful terms, that will make his/her VP the candidate to beat in '12. Then Gore couldn't run until '16 or '20, by which time he'd be 68 or 72.

I fear Gore's window of opportunity has passed, unless he's hoping to run in '08 (after the Dem nominee in '04 is defeated). I'm going to generously assume that that is not what he is hoping for.