When I was just a little boy
I asked my Mother, who's Kennedy?
Was he a Bastard, was he a Mensch?
Here's what she said to me...
Que' Sirhan Sirhan
He shot Robert Kennedy
Set Nixon and Hoffa free
Que' Sirhan Sirhan
And so it was, that on 5 June 1968, the path was cleared for Richard Nixon to become the GOP Nominee for President instead of the divorce-crippled, Liberal Nelson Rockefeller or the divorce-tainted, conservative's darling, the governor of California, Ronald Reagan. The simple reason being that the GOP faithful, both left and right, would not take the chance of running Nixon against another Kennedy.
And as History is well known to repeat itself, the question of Al Gore and 2008 arises. As it stands now, the 2008 election looks like "Go for it, or forget it forever" to Al Gore. Albeit with a rather large 'complication' named Hillary.
Quite like Nixon in '68, Gore is perceived as having been robbed of an election, and then redeemed by subsequent political events. But Gore runs a great risk of being locked out for another 8 years by a Clinton victory in 2008 as well as the very real prospect of being pitted against another Bush (Jeb)in '12 or '16.
Thus for Al Gore, 2008 appears to be "all or nothing".
But then Politics has a funny way of making predictions look foolish. It could be that a young, non-cancerous GOP nominee (George Allen?) will trounce Hillary in 2008, removing the specters of both her and another Bush for 2012. Gore will be 64 that year, young in comparison to the majority of voters by then.
So Gore must either run and win in 2008, eclipsing both Hillary and the GOP nominee, or hope (and help?) that Hillary is decisively defeated.
So far as one can tell right now, he is doing both.
stephenhsmith 5Jun2006
