Al Gore endorses Howard Dean.
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| Tue, 12-09-2003 - 9:17am |

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/09/elec04.prez.gore.dean/index.html
Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean's bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on Tuesday, substantially deepening Dean's fast-developing drive for dominance in the nine-candidate field of would-be challengers to President Bush.
"I'm very proud and honored to endorse Howard Dean as the next president of the United States of America," Gore said.
The announcement in Manhattan's Harlem, coming on the morning of another debate between the "'04 Dems," as they're called, could cement Dean's status as the leading Democratic candidate heading into the kickoff contests now just weeks away in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"We need to remake the Democratic Party, we need to remake America," Gore said.
"This nation cannot afford to have four more years of a Bush-Cheney administration," he said.
Prior to Tuesday's endorsement, a source told CNN that Gore -- the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 2000 -- thinks a protracted primary campaign would serve only to help President Bush.
"In a field of great candidates, one candidate clearly now stands out and so I'm asking all of you to join in this grassroots movement to elect Howard Dean president of the United States," Gore said.
Dean thanked Gore for his leadership: "We have needed a strong steady hand in this party and I appreciate Al's willing(ness) to stand up and be one," Dean said.
Gore said part of the reason he chose to endorse Dean was his ability to appeal to the nation's "grassroots" elements, a reference to Dean's success in organizing and raising funds on the Internet and in small voter gatherings.
Gore also praised Dean's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The former vice president called the Iraqi war a "catastrophic mistake" by the Bush administration, a move that leaves the United States less effective in the nation's battle against terrorism. He said the United States is now in a "quagmire" in Iraq.
Gore said that he and Dean would travel together to Iowa following the announcement. Gore was to give a speech later in the day in Cedar Rapids. The Iowa Caucus is set for January 19.
Dean was expected to travel on to New Hampshire for Tuesday evening's Democratic debate s-sponsored by ABC News and WMUR-TV. The New Hampshire primary is scheduled for January 27.
The announcement came nearly three years to the date from Gore's concession in the 2000 election, when he won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, Gore's vice-presidential running mate in 2000 and a current presidential hopeful, said he would continue to "to fight for what's right, win this nomination, and defeat George W. Bush next year."
"I have a lot of respect for Al Gore -- that is why I kept my promise not to run if he did," Lieberman said.
"Ultimately, the voters will make the determination and I will continue to make my case about taking our party and nation forward," Lieberman said in a written statement.
A source close to Lieberman said Gore, who was Clinton's vice president, did not call Lieberman to inform him of the decision.
Dean pulling ahead
With the Dean campaign gaining momentum, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows Dean widening his front-runner status among the eight other Democratic candidates.
The poll showed that 25 percent of registered Democrats surveyed support Dean as their nominee, with retired Gen. Wesley Clark coming in second with 17 percent. (Poll: Dean's New Hampshire lead increases)
In an interview before the news broke on CNN's "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics," Dean played down his front-runner status.
"The pundits in Washington have been talking about me as the front-runner for a long time," Dean said.
"Well, guess what, the people of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Arizona and so forth get to decide who the front-runner is. So, it's nice talk but I'm not buying it."
Caught off-guard
Erik Smith, a campaign press secretary for Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, sounded as if the Gephardt team was caught off-guard by the news, as were Dean's other rivals.
Dean and Gephardt are the top two candidates in Iowa. (Gephardt calls for increased homeland security funding)
"Dick Gephardt fought side-by-side with Al Gore to pass the Clinton economic plan, pass the assault weapons ban and defend against Republican attacks on Medicare and affirmative action. On each of these issues, Howard Dean was on the wrong side," Smith said.
Saying he respected Gore and fought for his campaign four years ago, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said, "This election is about the future, not about the past." (Kerry: Bush administration arrogant, reckless)
"This election will be decided by voters, across the country, beginning with voters in Iowa," he said.
Paul Begala, a political adviser to President Clinton and now a host of CNN's "Crossfire," called the endorsement an "enormous boost" that would clearly give Dean momentum going into Iowa and New Hampshire.
"It's very good for him," Begala said. "I wouldn't go so far as to say it locks anything up, though, because people want to make up their own minds."
cl-Libraone


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Yeah I heard him say that stuff. I thought it was amusing considering about 5 years ago I distinctly remember him praising Clinton for bombing Iraq. I guess he is either a)lying now, to make Bush look bad, or b) lying then to support Clinton, or c) both. I guess I would say probably c....he wants to make Bush look bad, and he was doing anything he could to get Clinton out of his adultering scams. When will Gore go away? His 15 minutes has long been up.
Lieberman offered a curt description of the telephone conversation he and Gore had Tuesday. "It was four or five minutes in length -- and too late," he said. He also drew a pointed distinction between Gore's sense of loyalty and his own.
"I don't have anything to say today about Al Gore's sense of loyalty, I really don't," he said, "and I have no regrets about the loyalty that I had to him when I waited until he decided whether he would run to make my decision because that was the right thing to do."
Renee
>"A heads up wouldn't have been misplaced."<
I agree.
I think that even the most partisan among us can see a difference between strategic strikes and a wholesale invasion and occupation. Besides the cost in both lives and money, we now have a military commitment that will last five to ten years, and a huge responsibility to stabilize the Middle East. It's not as simple as Gore robotically chanting "war is good" five years ago, and switching to "war is bad" once the Dems are out of office.
I agree as well...but it's done now.
Sorry I am not buying it. The only thing strategic about Clinton's strikes 5 years ago were to strategically divert attention from his legal and adultering problems. If he would have really been wanting to stop Saddam like he said he wanted to, he would have finished the job. Instead he dropped a couple of weapons...WOW BIG DEAL. Maybe if he would have finished the job Saddam would not be an issue today. No one said Gore was robotically anything...I stated that just like DEAN....Gore tends to agree with whatever his fellow democrats are agreeing with at the moment. Dean can't seem to keep an opinion on anything.
I'm not sure if Suemox is around today to jump into this, but a few weeks ago we had a conversation about the state of Canadian military. A devastating military report came right out and said that it was on the verge of collapse. They no lonoger have a functioning navy. It concluded that Canada was in jeapardy of loosing it's soverignty since it could no longer defend itself. Unless they spend massive amounts on it for the next 20 years (which they seem unlikely to do), either the UK, the US, or some coalition of the anglosphere will have to take over the job.
Renee
Renee
Sorry I am not buying it. The only thing strategic about Bush's Iraq War is to strategically divert attention from the real war on terror. If he would have really been wanting to stop terrorism and groups like Al Quaida like he said he wanted to, he would have finished the job in Afghanistan and used some of that $87 billion to increase domestic security, find Bin Ladden and root out terrorist cells internationally with cooperation from the international community. Instead, he used 9/11 as an excuse to finish the job his father didn't.
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