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With Gore, Democrats get same old tune
© St. Petersburg Times WASHINGTON -- The whole world, it seems to me, can be divided into two kinds of people -- those who admit their mistakes and those who don't. Al Gore is clearly among those who don't. On the New York Times op-ed page Sunday, Gore dismissed the criticism of those Democrats, including his former running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who say his 2000 presidential campaign was poorly conceived. He insisted his "people against the powerful" theme was -- and still is -- perfectly appropriate for the times. Lieberman, D-Conn., who has been remarkably deferential to Gore over the past two years, recently suggested that the 2000 Democratic standard-bearer should have campaigned on his considerable record as a centrist Democrat instead of trying to become a folksy populist. Gore responded with one of his usual starchy harangues about right and wrong. You already know on which side he placed himself. "Now is a time for truth and courage," he wrote. "And now is the time for all Americans to stand up to the powerful on behalf of the people." No doubt he heard the roar of marshal music in his head as he penned those lines. But Lieberman is right. The themes of the 2000 Gore campaign rang hollow at the time, and they sound even more ridiculous today. President Bush is too closely aligned with powerful corporate interests in the eyes of most Americans, as Gore notes, but a proliferation of new government programs as Democrats advocated in 2000 is not what people want either. Furthermore, even if Gore's "people against the powerful" message stirred Americans the way it seems to stir him, Gore is one of the last people on earth capable of making that pitch sound sincere. Even Bush, with his Harvard and Yale degrees, his oil money and his patrician heritage, is able to sound more like one of the people than Gore. Like all of us, Al is stuck with the skills God gave him. He has a creative mind, an extraordinary grasp of difficult subjects and an almost naive desire to do what's right. But even if he campaigned in bib overalls, a ragged T-shirt and work boots, he could never convince us he knows what it is like to be a middle class guy. In fact, one of Gore's problems is that he has an idealized view of middle class life, which he obviously has never experienced. In his Sunday op-ed piece, he talks about fighting for the "forgotten middle class" against the "forces of greed." Those who live in the real world know most of the middle class does not feel particularly forgotten, and at least some are striving to join the forces of greed. Gore is also the wrong guy to rage against Bush for siding with the rich and powerful. Remember, this is the same man who was up to his ears in the Clinton administration fundraising scandals. One of his top advisers in 2000, former Rep. Tony Coelho, is credited with making the Democratic Party more responsive to big business and more dependent on the business donors for money. I have my own theory why Gore is trying so desperately to be a populist. Like most sons, he wants to emulate his father, who was a genuine, up-from-the-bootstraps kind of politician. In order to do that, he must recreate American politics as it was when Al Gore Sr. was first elected. But the main thing I find disconcerting about Gore's response to Lieberman and his other critics is his inability to see his mistakes. He's had two years to take a hard look at the flaws in his presidential campaign, and he's still living in denial. He reminds me a little of Richard Nixon after Watergate. A man who does not recognize his mistakes, as they say, is doomed to repeat them. The important question for 2004 is whether the Democratic Party wants to make those same mistakes a second time. Gore is telling Democrats that, if they nominate him again, they will get more of the same.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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Times columns today Howard Troxler John Romano Sara Fritz |
