Al Gore, Compromise Candidate?
Wed, 03/26/2008 - 12:00pm
Who will get the nomination, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) says the answer could be "neither."
If the nomination isn't decided by the convention in August, Mahoney predicts that the party may decide on a different candidate, someone like Al Gore. Even by 2008 standards, the idea sounds far-fetched, but Mahoney seems confident in his prediction.
Mahoney says that party leaders would accept a Gore/Obama or Gore/Clinton compromise if either candidate suggested it. More importantly, would voters accept it? Obama and Clinton have drawn fervently loyal supporters who are intent on seeing their candidate take the nomination. It seems unlikely to me that such a move would not cause at least some backlash. Of course, it may never come to that, if Harry Reid has anything to say about it.
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I Can't Fathom It
By Patrick M McLeod
Wed, 03/26/2008 - 2:16pm
I can't even wrap my head around this one.
Visiting the various Obama sites and various Clinton sites, I get the impression that Al Gore would be even less welcome than Obama (for Clinton supporters) or Clinton (for Obama supporters).
So many of the arguments between the two camps are based on electability (Obama has post-partisan appeal/Clinton has the 3AM appeal) and viability (Obama is ahead in pledged delegates and the popular vote/Clinton would be ahead in pledged delegates and the popular vote if we counted FL and MI) that I can't imagine either camp accepting a completely new candidate who hasn't been tested to hell and back in this primary campaign.
I'm warming up to the idea of a superdelegate primary. One of these two candidates is going to walk away from this angry and feeling poorly done by no matter what happens. Let's hope their supporters take Josh's advice to heart.