Could Gore Overcome Clinton?

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize has sparked a lot of interest in Al Gore as a presidential candidate in 2008, but he overcome Hillary Clinton's seemingly insurmountable lead? Bill Boyarsky at TruthDig tackles this question.

Something like this almost happened nearly 40 years ago when Robert F. Kennedy became a late entrant in the 1968 presidential primaries.  Today, it is only a remote possibility.  The nation has changed greatly since then.  And Gore is a different man from Kennedy.

Still, it is impossible to avoid thinking about a man who won the popular vote when he ran for president in 2000 but was cheated out of his victory by a Republican-controlled Supreme Court.

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To visualize a Gore candidacy, you have to throw out everything that is being written or said about the importance of the first two Democratic contests, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.  First of all, why should we give a damn about them?  These two small states are of interest only to their residents and to the political writers who flock there.

Thus Gore should let Clinton, Obama and Edwards damage themselves in these small outposts of democracy.  The most important date is Feb. 5, 2008.  That’s when the big states, and some small ones, hold primaries.  It’s being called “Super Duper Tuesday,” the closest thing we have to a national primary.

They include California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.  Also among them are smaller states that are much more reflective of the nation than either Iowa or New Hampshire, including Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Montana and North Carolina.

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Right now, the political correspondents and analysts are awarding the nomination to Clinton.  But her lead is a product of polls and spin, ephemeral in a country bogged down in the Iraq war.  Before the candidate is chosen, Democratic eyes may turn elsewhere.