Al Gore for President? Party Like It's 1924!

Who is laughing at a brokered Democratic convention now? Fans of Al Gore - and certain cable TV pundits only interested in a wild news event and ratings -- have raised the scenario for months, but the idea has been widely mocked. Now, as the media turn on Obama, after turning on Hillary, and we lament that the mud will fly and anger rise for many more weeks, is this really so implausible? See Bob Herbert's column in The New York Times today for the kind of pox-on-both-their houses that seems to be all the rage.

I'm not saying the brokered convention is now likely, or desirable -- please, no hate mail -- but if Hillary does very well from now until June, and the fight gets even nastier, try to imagine what the atmosphere might be like after that. With Clinton already fostering an anti-Obama attitude, and Obama backers ready to resent the nomination being "stolen" by Hillary, is it impossible that a "third way" will at least be considered?

I'm far from ready to go to deeply into this now, or make any predictions, but as a historian of American campaigns (with a couple of books on the subject to my credit), let me briefly recall the 1924 Democratic convention, when a compromise candidate indeed came out of nowhere and earned the nod. This was the gathering that inspired the famous Will Rogers line, "I don't belong to any organized party, I'm a Democrat."

The convention was held in New York City from June 24 to...seemingly forever. Two powerful candidates headed the field - Gov. Al Smith of New York and William G. McAdoo, former Secretary of Treasury. There were some parallels to Obama and Clinton, with Smith deemed unelectable by many because he was a Catholic and McAdoo having a close familial relationship to a former president, as son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson.

They each had strong, very separate constituencies. McAdoo had the backing of Protestants, farmers, the vast majority of delegates from the South, Midwest and West. Smith, of course, was favored by Catholics, ethnics, liberals, those in big cities, especially in the Northeast. McAdoo's people favored Prohibition and refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan; Smith's fans were against both.

Now here's a key difference: A nominee then had to gain two-thirds of the delegates to win the nod. If that were true today, a brokered convention would probably be inevitable. McAdoo got a majority on the first ballot, 431 votes, not close to the two-thirds needed,. with Smith gaining 241. Will Rogers, who would have been my candidate, got one vote; Franklin D. Roosevelt earned two. With so much anger on both sides, neither candidate backed down, and the balloting went on, and on.

By the 100th ballot, Smith was in first place but Gov. John W. Davis, the obscure former congressman and "compromise" candidate, had now overtaken McAdoo in the number two slot. It was now July 9, more than two weeks into the affair - no wonder today's cable news gasbags are salivating - and Will Rogers was exclaiming that New York had invited the delegates tot visit the city but not move there permanently. On the 103rd ballot, the delegates threw up their hands and nominated Davis.

He would be trounced by the seemingly weak Republican - a successor to the unpopular, disgraced, Warren G. Harding -- "Silent Cal" Coolidge. But Davis did not have nearly the name value or accomplishments of an Al Gore or John Edwards or....you name it.

Anyway: There's your history lesson. Now what? Your comments below.
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Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President - Failed on Iraq. It has been hailed by Bill Moyers, Glenn Greenwald, Arianna H and others. His previous books include volumes on the Nixon/Douglas race in 1950 and Upton Sinclair's amazing campaign for governor of California in 1934.

Comments

[SouthAmerica]

April 27, 2008

SouthAmerica: We are the Al Gore die-hard supporters and have been discussing since August 2006 about Al Gore becoming the next president of the United States – and we still have not given up on that possibility.

I have no doubt on my mind that enough damage has been done to both current candidates of the Democratic Party that are irreversible by November 2008.

If the Democratic Party wants to win in November 2008 then the party elders should read the following info on this forum:

Al Gore - Democratic Party candidate in 2008.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74835&perpage=6&pagenumber=102

.

[XXYR]

"Threw up their hands", not "through up their hands".

Spell-checkers do not effect literacy. Nor do they affect the appearance of literacy. (see what I did there?)

Is our children learning yet?

Anyway, no, Al Gore would not run. He's done. And good - he doesn't have the political instincts necessary to succeed in America's proto-fascist climate. To his credit, I think he knows this. Hillary has those instincts. But only Obama has the instinct to turn the tide away from the profoundly un-democratic and un-American trends infecting our nation.

[CornellRedneck]

Yikes, what a disaster that would be! I'm afraid Weird Al still has a lingering stench of defeat around him.

At the very thought of it, the MSM is salivating!

[Gibbons]

I can't imagine Al Gore taking a demotion to become president.

[tcagle]

I think Hillary needs to 23 skidoo.

[StrategicThinker]

If Democrats want to win in November they will go with someone other than a Clinton, especially a female Clinton, or a black Hussein.

Ultimately, voters in this country will not elect either a Clinton or a Hussein.

The RepubliCONS have known this from the beginning, and couldn't wait to face either in a year when they had nothing else going for them.

[RedDogBear]

What exactly is a "Hussein"? Are you saying that Americans are so stupid they won't elect someone whose middle name is Hussein? I'm not saying thats an indefensible position, they let George Bush steal the presidency twice so we can't give them credit for lots of brains. However, I think that people aren't quite that stupid. To be honest though I think what you really mean is that Americans (including you) won't vote for a black man.

[mcthorogood]

Many people are just ignorant. My local paper recently published a column that cited the Obama chain-email as fact. The columnist did not research anything, just swallowed the whole thang, hook, line and sinker. It's too bad that some ignoramuses would not vote for Obama, because his momma was an atheist.

[StrategicThinker]

Stupid Americans? No, GULLIBLE is more like it. They will focus on whatever the DC INSIDERS in the ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA dangles in front of their faces, and THE FACT IS, a female candidate or a black candidate will have to do EVERY SINGLE THING RIGHT in order to win in this country. They have a smaller window to crawl through in order to reach the Oval Office.

Like I have said since FEBRUARY 2007, when that female is named CLINTON and hated by half of the population, she has NO CHANCE in November, because she starts off TOO FAR from being able to do everything right to win. When that black candidate is named Barack HUSSEIN Obama (sounds like oSama), he starts off too far away from the "EVERYTHING" that he needs to do right in order to win, especially after they begin pulling out his "ASSOCIATES," as I have been saying since last year.

The Republicans had NOTHING going for them this year...exc­ept Clinton or Obama being the Democratic nominee, and so that's who the DC INSIDERS working in the CORPORATE MEDIA to try and manipulate the public into supporting what DC WANTS decided to inundate "GULLIBLE" voters with to make sure that that's who the Democrats nominated.

And what makes you think I'm not a "BLACK MAN"?

[yardman5508]

Having been a government teacher for 30 years, and viewing the trends in politics from a somewhat neutral position, I believe that the American voter is EXACTLY that stupid! And I think that the "powers that be" want them that way to keep them from, to quote Frank Zappa, "...murder­ing them in their beds". The change is coming, but can it be rapid enough to overcome what has already happened? I guess only time will tell. Keep the faith.