pragmatic liberal
Jr. Member
Posts: 520
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« on: February 21, 2010, 01:55:14 PM » |
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I don't know that Al Gore would have run anyway - his decisions not to run seemed to come independently of 9-11 and the Iraq War. It was more that he was just tired of politics and didn't want to go through the process again. Remember too that Kerry had been seen as the non-Gore frontrunner for some time.
My guess, though, is that John Edwards would have won the nomination absent 9-11 and maybe picked John Kerry as his running mate.
It's interesting to speculate as to whether no 9-11 makes Bush's reelection more likely or less. On one hand, Bush's approval ratings were sinking pre-9-11, and he was able to win a narrow reelection as a "war president." OTOH, without 9-11 and without the Iraq War, Bush may not have been as polarizing a president and in a weak-but-growing economy that may have been enough for a comfortable reelection in a low turnout race.
Of course, the Neocons wanted to go to war with Iraq even pre-9-11, so maybe there would have been an Iraq War anyway, just on a different pretext.
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