Big Al Gore and the Clinton Green Machine on the Loose in Florida
For Clinton, the journey she began in 2000 with her successful run for New York Senate is what set her on the path to where she finds herself now -- roughly a month from Election Day, and leading her Republican rival by a substantial margin. For Gore, the 2000 election -- which he lost after the Supreme Court decided to discontinue the Florida recount -- marked an unbelievable ending to a career in politics and a retreat from political life.
This year, Gore, now a Nobel peace prize winner and a leading voice on climate change, was one of the last big-name Democrats to stay mum on the 2016 election. He declined to offer an endorsement in the primary, and quietly issued a written statement in support of Clinton before the Democratic National Convention last July -- which he did notably not attend.
The campaign has been highlighting in web commercials its “squad,” which includes President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But until now, Gore has remained far, far away from that in-crowd.
On Tuesday, however, Gore will break his silence and help his former rival achieve his onetime dream when he joins Clinton in Southern Florida for a voter registration rally.
Gore no longer has the political stature -- and he never had the natural skills on the stump -- to be a closer in the same way that President Obama or the popular First Lady are performing for Clinton. But his participation in politics is rare and it becomes more valuable because of it -- in addition to the symbolism he carries. Gore's appearance alone in South Florida, the site of the 2000 recount, will be a powerful reminder to voters in the critical battleground state that every vote matters.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta -- who played a central role pushing President Obama’s most aggressive environmental policies and has worked with Gore on climate change issues -- reached out to Gore’s camp on behalf of Hillary Clinton, an aide said.
Gore will also be making the case about climate change, an issue that motivates millennial voters, especially in Florida, the state with the most property and the biggest population currently at risk from rising sea levels.
Gore might be there to enliven the youngest voters, but for the boomer generation, the tableau of the two aging Democrats will also bring back memories of the 1990s, two days after Donald Trump revisited the decade by bringing up the sex scandals of Bill Clinton’s past at the second presidential debate.
But the anger -- Gore was reportedly furious that Bill Clinton had never personally apologized to him for the Lewinsky affair -- wasn’t directed only at the president.
One former White House staffer recalls Gore going “ballistic” that Hillary Clinton would run for Senate in New York while he was running for president, taking away money and oxygen from his campaign. He harbored a deep mistrust of the First Lady, even interpreting her foray into politics as a deliberate move against him, the person she had tried to push out of the sphere of influence and replace as her husband's real no. 2.
Hillary Clinton, in return, was “generally caustic about him,” the former adviser said. The irony of the tension is that Hillary Clinton and Gore appear, on some level, to be cut from the same political cloth. Both are introverts, more comfortable enmeshed in policy details and briefing books than on the campaign trail.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/hillary-clinton-al-gore-florida-229580
more @ link
For Clinton, the journey she began in 2000 with her successful run for New York Senate is what set her on the path to where she finds herself now -- roughly a month from Election Day, and leading her Republican rival by a substantial margin. For Gore, the 2000 election -- which he lost after the Supreme Court decided to discontinue the Florida recount -- marked an unbelievable ending to a career in politics and a retreat from political life.
This year, Gore, now a Nobel peace prize winner and a leading voice on climate change, was one of the last big-name Democrats to stay mum on the 2016 election. He declined to offer an endorsement in the primary, and quietly issued a written statement in support of Clinton before the Democratic National Convention last July -- which he did notably not attend.
The campaign has been highlighting in web commercials its “squad,” which includes President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But until now, Gore has remained far, far away from that in-crowd.
On Tuesday, however, Gore will break his silence and help his former rival achieve his onetime dream when he joins Clinton in Southern Florida for a voter registration rally.
Gore no longer has the political stature -- and he never had the natural skills on the stump -- to be a closer in the same way that President Obama or the popular First Lady are performing for Clinton. But his participation in politics is rare and it becomes more valuable because of it -- in addition to the symbolism he carries. Gore's appearance alone in South Florida, the site of the 2000 recount, will be a powerful reminder to voters in the critical battleground state that every vote matters.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta -- who played a central role pushing President Obama’s most aggressive environmental policies and has worked with Gore on climate change issues -- reached out to Gore’s camp on behalf of Hillary Clinton, an aide said.
Gore will also be making the case about climate change, an issue that motivates millennial voters, especially in Florida, the state with the most property and the biggest population currently at risk from rising sea levels.
said Democratic strategist Robert Shrum, who helped guide Gore’s 2000 presidential bid. “He thinks Donald Trump is a big deal and electing Hillary Clinton is essential to making any progress on climate change.”
Gore might be there to enliven the youngest voters, but for the boomer generation, the tableau of the two aging Democrats will also bring back memories of the 1990s, two days after Donald Trump revisited the decade by bringing up the sex scandals of Bill Clinton’s past at the second presidential debate.
But the anger -- Gore was reportedly furious that Bill Clinton had never personally apologized to him for the Lewinsky affair -- wasn’t directed only at the president.
One former White House staffer recalls Gore going “ballistic” that Hillary Clinton would run for Senate in New York while he was running for president, taking away money and oxygen from his campaign. He harbored a deep mistrust of the First Lady, even interpreting her foray into politics as a deliberate move against him, the person she had tried to push out of the sphere of influence and replace as her husband's real no. 2.
Hillary Clinton, in return, was “generally caustic about him,” the former adviser said. The irony of the tension is that Hillary Clinton and Gore appear, on some level, to be cut from the same political cloth. Both are introverts, more comfortable enmeshed in policy details and briefing books than on the campaign trail.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/hillary-clinton-al-gore-florida-229580
more @ link
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