Interesting. Clinton was clueless.
December 9, 2003
Gore to Endorse Dean, Remaking Democratic Race
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JODI WILGOREN - New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 — Al Gore has decided to endorse Howard Dean for president, aides to the men said Monday, a move that rocked the Democratic presidential field and hastened Dr. Dean's evolution from a long-shot maverick to a leading candidate of the Democratic establishment.
Mr. Gore will announce his endorsement of Dr. Dean on Tuesday at events in Harlem and in Iowa, Democrats close to both men said.
The decision by Mr. Gore, the former vice president who opened the floodgates to this crowded Democratic nomination contest by declaring last December that he would not run again, stunned Democrats and emboldened the Dean campaign, which chartered three jets to carry Dr. Dean, Mr. Gore and dozens of reporters to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"This is huge," said Donna Brazile, who was Mr. Gore's campaign manager in 2000. "It gives Dean what Dean has been missing most: stature. Gore is a major-league insider, somebody with enormous credibility that Democrats respect, who can rally the grass roots and who's been speaking very strongly in the last few months about the direction he wants to take the country."
Gerald McEntee, the president of the municipal workers union, which endorsed Dr. Dean last month, said: "I think this may be the beginning of the end for the other candidates."
Mr. Gore's decision put him in the odd position of supporting an insurgent candidate who has built his campaign attacking the centrist Democratic positions that the former Vice President has espoused for two decades.
It also came as a devastating surprise to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who was Mr. Gore's running mate in the disputed 2000 election. Mr. Lieberman delayed entering the 2004 race until he was sure Mr. Gore would not run, a show of courtesy to Mr. Gore that Democrats later blamed for Mr. Lieberman's slow start in the race.
Mr. Lieberman vowed to remain in the race, saying he was "more determined than ever to continue to fight for what's right for my party and my country."
Mr. Lieberman's spokesman, Jano Cabrera, said Mr. Lieberman had learned of the decision after reporters called for comment. Asked if Mr. Gore had called his old friend to inform him, Mr. Cabrera responded: "No. That's my only response."
Mr. Gore's endorsement was also a setback for Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and seemed likely to complicate his efforts to defeat Dr. Dean in Iowa, a state where Mr. Gore is popular.
It was also a rebuke to Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who has surrounded himself with former advisers to Mr. Gore and to former President Bill Clinton in an effort to appear as the candidate with the implicit support of the last White House.
The support of Mr. Gore should go a long way in addressing one of the questions that has clouded Dr. Dean's candidacy: Is he too far out of the mainstream to be taken seriously in presidential politics?
At a late-night fund-raiser at the Roseland Ballroom in midtown Manhattan, the crowd interrupted Dr. Dean's speech with chants of "Al Gore, Al Gore," but the candidate just shrugged and said, "I cannot confirm or deny."
Mr. Gore did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
But his associates noted that Mr. Gore had long said he wanted to make an endorsement that would have an impact on the race and said he had been unimpressed with what one described as Mr. Lieberman's tepid campaign.
By contrast, they said, he had been enthralled by what he saw as the huge surge of interest in Dr. Dean's campaign and had taken notice of the turnout for a speech Mr. Gore gave in Washington last month on civil liberties. The speech was sponsored by MoveOn.org, a progressive Internet group that provided a major lift to Dr. Dean's campaign.
"There's something that Gore finds very appealing about Dean energizing the Democratic base," one of his associates said on Monday. "I would say it's wistful, but when Gore gave a speech to MoveOn, he got 3,000 people there. There were times in the race when we couldn't get 3,000 people to turn up, and he was the nominee. He sees an energy and vitality here."
The aide said Mr. Gore also was struck by Dr. Dean's position as an opponent of the war in Iraq and was distressed that his former running mate, whom he had warmly described in 2000 as the most qualified person he knew to be vice president, had become such a strong supporter of the war.
In 2000, Dr. Dean, then the governor of Vermont, considered running for president and met with Mr. Gore, who dissuaded him in what one former Gore aide described as "awkward conversation." At the time, the aide said, Dr. Dean told Mr. Gore that "he's going to challenge him for the presidency."
"Obviously, between then and now, things have changed," the aide said.
Dr. Dean endorsed Mr. Gore in January 2000, a few weeks before the New Hampshire primary. At the time, there were discussions about Dr. Dean's being named secretary of health and human services, the aide said.
But after Mr. Gore decided not to run, Dr. Dean began what an adviser described as a "long courtship" of the former vice president.
And aides to Dr. Dean said they regularly spoke to senior advisers to Mr. Gore and his wife, Tipper, as part of the effort to enlist one of the most sought-after endorsements.
Mr. Gore has in recent weeks told friends that Dr. Dean's policy positions were closest to his own.
The decision caught most Democrats flat-footed. Mr. Clinton, appearing in San Francisco on Monday with the Democratic candidate for mayor, Gavin Newsom, said he had been unaware of Mr. Gore's decision and did not intend to issue an endorsement at this point. "I feel obligated to all of them," Mr. Clinton said of the Democratic candidates. "I don't intend to take a position until the voters decide who the nominee is."
The office of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts sent a response by e-mail, with a staff member's notation inadvertently left on the top: "Here are some options: I don't think Kerry should comment unless asked at a press event."
In the statement itself, Mr. Kerry said, "This election will be decided by voters, across the country, beginning with voters in Iowa."
Aides to Mr. Gephardt seemed equally surprised, noting that Mr. Gephardt had put aside his own bid for the presidency in 2000 to endorse Mr. Gore.
Steve Murphy, Mr. Gephardt's campaign manager, said: "Al Gore and Dick Gephardt fought side by side to pass the Clinton economic plan, to defend against the Republican efforts to cut Medicare, to pass the assault weapons ban and to save affirmative action. Howard Dean was on the other side of every one of those fights."
Aides to other candidates noted that in the 1980's Mr. Gore had been part of the effort to move his party to the center, particularly on military issues, and suggested an incongruence in the military views of Mr. Gore and Dr. Dean.
Some said this was the latest manifestation of the struggle for influence over the Democratic Party between Mr. Gore and Mr. Clinton, who has had warm things to say about General Clark.
One person close to General Clark suggested that Mr. Gore was supporting Dr. Dean in the calculation that Dr. Dean would lose to Mr. Bush in November and that Mr. Gore would then enjoy the good will of Dean supporters "when he runs against Hillary Clinton in 2008."
General Clark, in an appearance on Monday evening on the MSNBC news program "Hardball," said he was unconcerned with Mr. Gore's decision. "I don't pay attention to endorsements, unless they are for me," he said.
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