Ok, I may not like Gore, but he did do what was right tonight.
I could tell he was going through hell as he came out, but he sucked it up and did the right thing. I never thought he was capable of what I saw tonight, and he went up many notches in my opinion. I think he secured his place in the 2004 primary battles, and the next time around I doubt he will raise the same level of disgust in me.
Thank you Al Gore.
I will now shut up and not bitch about him for a long time.
He did an impressive job with his speech and may have (dare I say) stolen some of W’s thunder, so genuine and eloquent were his final words. I don’t know about 2004 (I think he’s probably better off bowing out for good), but you gotta admit the lasting impression he’s left was a positive one.
Thank you for your concession Freedom. Hope what you say is true!
I largely agree with Freedom2. I will never support Mr. Gore for public pffice, for reasons I’ve discussed enough here over the past months, but I was impressed with his concession speech. It was indeed statesman-like, and while I doubt his partisans will heed what he said, he did get points for it in my book. I didn’t think he had it in him; on that I was wrong.
The final irony…if Gore had managed to rise to this level during the campaign, he would now be preparing to become the 43rd President of the United States. I have no question about that.
Now we’ll see if Mr. Bush can come out with something half as good.
And from you, a gracious concession I didn’t expect. Well done.
I have been especially rough on Gore, so I felt I needed to give him his very own pro-Gore thread started by ME.
How many people would have predicted that?
I laid out 4 clear things I expected, and he hit them all. There is not a word of critism of Gore from me. I expect Bush to be gracious as well, as I think he has been all along.
And to be fair, here is what I expect of Bush:
No gloating.
To state that Gore had a right to pursue the legal means he did.
I can’t really think of any other things he could do TONIGHT, but in the future I would like to see either a halt to the Clinton/Gore investigations. (or at least a pardon:))
I would like to see him push for election reform, lets get rid of those punch card ballots for goodness sake.
I’m not a fan of appointing democrats to his cabinet, but I am sure he will.
I am not a fan of power sharing in the Senate, but I think they will push a moderate platform through that will appeal to the moderates in the Repub and Democrat ranks.
He claimed he was a uniter, so I expect him to unite.
Um, bare, in case you haven’t noticed, Freedom2’s candidate won. He has no reason to concede.
And yes, I did vote for Bush. No more threatening gun control, privatized social security, tax cuts, etc. Ah, this is almost good enough to make a skeptic believe in Heaven.
You know…Dole was the same way. He got on Staurday Night Live and was actually FUNNY. I gotta think that the stress of running for president is unbelievable. I think Gore will have the best weekend he has had in over a year now that the stress is gone.
My read on him tonight was that the stress finally broke through that “robotic-like” Gore we made so much fun of. He reverted back to it several times in the speech, but I finally saw a human being in there. I wonder if this will change him for good. I was afraid he was going to cry.
I say afraid because I think that may have swayed all public opinion back to him. Gore did himself (and the democratic party)a huge favor tonight. My guess is that he will be helping the democrats try to regain the house and Senate in '02, and then will run again in '04.
Personally, I think a re-match would be cool.
I DID know he had it in him, and I’ve felt since long before election day that he was a misunderstood man who had a terrible time coming across publicly. He finally did tonight, hopefully he can hang on to whatever it was that allowed him to come through tonight and use it in future.
And I surprised myself. I didn’t think I had any tears left for this election, but I sat here and cried the whole time he talked.
I’m proud of him, proud to be among his supporters, and terribly sad.
Let’s see how Dubya does.
stoid
Gore in '04!
While this is little more than a “me too”, let me add in that Vice President Gore’s speech tonight was amazingly gracious and high-toned. I was stunned, honored, and humbled.
Um,**jenkinsfan[b/], I was thanking Freedom for his concession that Gore wasn’t all bad. I am also looking forward to seeing an end to all the mean-spirited threads and replies by Freedom.
And yet, it was exactly what he has been saying he would do for the past 5 weeks. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised.
Al Gore, I salute you. Truly, you are a man who would have done this company proud.
Seems like the spirit of the evening has passed you by.
Dear Mr. Gore,
Congratulations
You are an asshole
See you in four years
Gee, Lyll…are you sure you don’t wanna tell us how you * really * feel? We can take it, honest!
I didn’t see too many mean spirited threads started by Freedom:)
Though I have to admit that I never followed the election off the television. The only coverage(which was sparing at best) I saw was when The Daily show did something on it.
Asmodean, you mean to say that your only source of information in the last 5 weeks was “the Daily Show” and yet you feel justified in coming in here and arguing an opinion of any kind?
Just checking.
stoid
Bush did very well too, I thought. One is left to wonder…if both sides had come off during the campaign the way they came off tonight, could we as a country perhaps have likedour choices in this election?[/attack of whimsy]
I personally doubt Gore will be the nominee in 2004–it doesn’t work that way in politics, and hasn’t for quite some time. He has too many negatives, and there are too many Democrats waiting in the wings–Dick Gephart, for instance. While there is a certain historical attraction to the idea of a rematch–Harrison/Cleveland II, in a sense–I agree with ArchiveGuy that Gore would be best served by bowing out of politics now. His concession speech went a long way towards rehabilitating him in the eyes of the public; he can now serve as an Elder Statesman of a sort, and he’s still young enough to enjoy the role. Besides, there’s surely a book deal waiting out there–he can get rich and push his political views at the same time. I myself would much rather be in that position than be president for eight years. (Not that anyone’s offering me either of those options.)
Ah well, now we’ll see if the Electors do something wonky. (It’s possible, you know.)
(Yeah, there are a few people in here who aren’t quite into the spirit of this thread, aren’t there? Not to name names or anything…)
Well I was wrong.
(yes I know…AGAIN:))
Bush had a Democrat introduce him. Small, but it was something. He has already started the outreach, I expect him to keep it up for the next 4 years.
I’m going to do my part to help in the healing. I’m going to shut my mouth on the election threads. (at least I’m going to try:))
And Stoidela…
I’m sorry about the C*** comment awhile back in the pit. I was heated and got a little carried away. I always leave the SD fired up and carry it into the real world. (about this election anyway) I gotta let it go here so that I don’t run around bashing liberals in the real world. I’m going to try and make it through the holidays anyway.
[Not-very-veiled threat against the life of President-Elect Bush deleted. DO NOT THREATEN PEOPLE ON THIS MESSAGE BOARD. --Gaudere]
[Edited by Gaudere on 12-14-2000 at 09:00 AM]