WASHINGTON, 17 December 2002 — Former Vice President Al Gore, who won the popular vote but lost the presidency in 2000 after a historic 37-day recount battle, announced Sunday that he would not seek the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
In an interview on CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes,” Gore announced his surprise decision not to run a third time for president.
Characterizing the 2000 campaign as “difficult” Gore, 54, said a rerun between himself and President George Bush would not be in the nation’s best interest. “It would focus on the past instead of the future.”
Many Democrats still blame Gore for losing 2000, and believed the party needed a fresh face for 2004. Gore spoke of this Sunday night, saying: “The last campaign was an extremely difficult one… I think that there are a lot of people within the Democratic Party who felt exhausted by that.” He added: “I’m frankly sensitive to that.”
Republicans’ responses were not so sensitive. “Gore wants to keep his position in history as the guy who should have been president… and to run again and get trounced would diminish that,” a senior Republican official volunteered — anonymously.
Gore’s friends speculate his decision was clinched by weak sales of his new book, “Joined at the Heart,” a photography book which he and wife Tipper recently published.
Where does this leave the Democratic Party? According to Professor Theodore Lowi, professor of government at Cornell University in New York, the Democratic Party thinks it needs new faces.
“Generally, when the party that doesn’t possess the presidency gets to this point, it finds itself wondering who will run for them. There’s always the sense of uncertainty and feeling of being bereft.”
Next, according to Lowi, an interesting phenomenon takes place: “There are always three or four candidates who come forward — they are out there now out sampling the various states beyond their own home stares to see if there is any support for them.
“Most of the time, the more prominent of those — such as the current Democratic frontrunners Sen. John Kerry (Massachusetts), and Sen. John Edwards (North Carolina) and Sen. Lieberman (Connecticut) — usually dissipate themselves, not because they alienate anyone, but because it becomes clear that they can’t extend their delegate support beyond their base. So it’s an ironic appearance that those who are running out front first, tend to be sacrificed. It seems democracy hates leadership, if the guy gets a head start, he ends up losing.”
So the person who gets the (party’s presidential) nomination is usually not the front-runner, according to Lowi, who says the nominee usually ends up to be the most widely shared second choice. Abraham Lincoln, and Warren Harding were excellent examples of second choices, said the Cornell professor.
Asked why he thought Al Gore chose to step down now, Lowi said: “I don’t know what happened to Gore, I can’t psychoanalyze him.
“My own feeling is that Gore could end up becoming the (presidential) nominee (for the Democratic Party), for by withdrawing, he could end up becoming most widely shared second choice for his party, and thus end up running for president after all.”
