Josh Chafetz says Gore’s speech Monday was worse than stupid — it was politically stupid:
What he did in his speech was not only take a wildly unpopular position against a wildly popular president. He also gave Lieberman, Edwards, et al. a way to distinguish themselves by taking a more popular position than Gore did. In other words, Lieberman can now grab headlines (“FORMER RUNNINGMATES FEUD OVER IRAQ”) by telling voters what they want to hear: that we should pursue regime change in Iraq, and we should do so now. And Lieberman has done exactly that.
Chafetz is right — but then again, Gore hasn’t made a politically smart move since signing on as Clinton’s runningmate in ’92. Anyone who campaigns — as an incumbent! — against eight years of peace and prosperity has demonstrated all the political savvy of, ah, some politically very unsavvy thing.
Sometimes, metaphor fails me.
Two years ago, I joked that I could vote for a Lieberman/Cheney or Cheney/Lieberman ticket with joy, but that I could hold my nose and vote Bush/Cheney, if that’s what it took to keep Gore out of office.
Except I wasn’t really joking.
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