GORE & OBAMA: MY DREAM TEAM
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By Deborah Leavy*
philly.com
Posted on Mon, Dec. 18, 2006
Overcome by the thrill of victory, Democrats are already buzzing about the presidential elections in 2008.
My own personal dream team? Al Gore and Barack Obama.
Sure, Gore made plenty of mistakes when he ran for president in 2000 - but he still won the popular vote, and might be president today if the Supreme Court hadn't stopped the count in Florida. Just think of all that would have been different. We wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq - almost 3,000 Americans wouldn't have been killed there, thousands more maimed for life. Don't get me started.
Buyer's remorse: The 2006 election showed that most Americans are sorry that George Bush is president. Why not give them a second chance and let them get it right this time?
What we will get is an Al Gore who has been through the wringer and come out the other side.
He's no longer the wooden puppet who can't connect to people. He is, finally, comfortable in his own skin. In the movie "An Inconvenient Truth," in which he explains the problem of global warming, he talks easily, with passion and humor, and you can sense the warmth between him and his audience. He's the Al Gore we were hoping for in 2000, and 2008 may be his time.
I only hope he can be persuaded to run. He might dread bringing back the memories of his narrow defeat - one can only imagine what he went through. But I think he might be willing to run if he feels he has been called, by his party and his country. I hope so.
Sen. Obama would make a fantastic running mate. Obama is the brightest light in the country right now, catapulting this first-term senator into the pack of would-be presidential hopefuls.
I had the opportunity to hear him speak and to talk with him, and he has true star power. But aside from his great charm and good looks, which he has in abundance, he radiates hope and optimism. It's what the country needs. He wants to help us attain the goals he so eloquently describes: health care, education, the chance to make a decent living - for all Americans. He was against the war in Iraq, right from the start. He makes you want to stand up and cheer, and they do.
Many say Obama lacks the experience, both to campaign for the presidency and to be president. That should be less of a concern if he has the second spot on the ticket. It would also make his race somewhat less of a factor, and no one knows how many in this country are ready to vote for an African-American for president.
Plus, if Obama were vice president, he could avoid the jinx of running for president as a senator, which hasn't worked since JFK. And as vice president, he could gain the experience to run for president eight years later.
Besides all those advantages, another plus of a Gore-Obama ticket is that it avoids the Hillary problem. She is smart, has raised a ton of money and is married to a legendary political strategist and campaigner. She is trying to position herself as the inevitable choice.
But she starts out with high negatives: Many hate her, and many more just don't like her. She's worked hard to change that, but there's still a lot to overcome.
She seems to be trying to remake herself as a moderate, and it comes off as phony when voters are looking for politicians who stand up for what they believe in. And she voted for the war in Iraq. The last election showed that voters don't like the war, and Clinton's vote might come back to bite her in 2008. Although I'd love a female president, I'm too wary to be enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton.
Al Gore and Barack Obama - that's a ticket that could inspire the nation.
*Deborah Leavy is a public policy consultant who contributes regularly to the Daily News. |
