Who is most responsible for Gore's loss in 2000?

[A cowboy always follows his beard]

What about Ralph Nader?

[BugsBunny]

What about Ralph Nader?

Uh, no. Blaming third party candidates (especially those who got less than 5% nationwide) is an easy excuse.

[Fuzzy]

The Monica Lewinsky scandal made many Americans hungry for a morally sound leader. Bush appeared to be that.

The fact that Monica was even an issue shows you what a screwed up value system Americans have.

^^^^

[Chaddyr23]

The supreme court, Katherine Harris, and Gore for not embracing Clinton and his legacy

[Speaker Superique]

1. Ralph Nader and his voters.

2. Electoral college system.

3.  Butterfly ballot.

4. Clinton's libido.

5. Gore himself.

6. Data Base Technologies

7. Bush Friends

...

825. Lieberman.

Idea that Gore commited an electoral suicide and pulled the defeat out of the jaws of victory is wrong, in my opinion. People often try to blame everything on the candidate, it seems like every losing candidate in last 200 years blew an election by campaigning poorly or picking the wrong running mate (which is always the most overanalyzed campaign decision that rarely makes the difference between winning and losing). As a matter of fact, Gore ran a solid campaign and managed to beat Bush by 550,000 popular votes after trailing in polls against him since mid-1999. It was a bizarre and unrepeatable set of circumstances that prevented him from becoming President, and if those circumstances haven't been in place, he'd be praised for Truman II comeback. Sure, he made some mistakes, but almost everybody does. Bush made even more of them, in my opinion.

Now I'm going to take a shower because I feel dirty after defending Al Gore.  

The same thing of my friend over here but I added some responsibles for Gore loss...

[renegadedemocrat]

Gore and Lieberman. Lieberman was a poor running mate choice, and Gore should have campaigned more in New Hampshire. Would have won him the election at an even 270 (factoring in faithless elector). Regardless, the Supreme Court also played a role in this.

[HockeyDude]

Gore, for running from the Clinton record.  The 90s were a very prosperous time for the country, he had no REAL reason to distance himself from that.  Clinton's infidelity wasn't going to sway very many people away from Gore.  This should have been his map.  

[True Federalist]

Gore, for running from the Clinton record.  The 90s were a very prosperous time for the country, he had no REAL reason to distance himself from that.  Clinton's infidelity wasn't going to sway very many people away from Gore.  This should have been his map.  

Besides, he had already tied himself to Clinton during the impeachment fiasco.  Gore's obsequious comments towards Clinton at the end of it are what ensured I wasn't voting for him in 2000.  I was supporting Bradley during the primaries, and then in the general I had a tough time choosing between Bush and Nader.  In the end, I voted Nader, but if he hadn't been on the ballot I would have voted Bush.

[nolesfan2011]

Gore/Lieberman  "blame yourself" and his legal team

Either Gore or Lieberman.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I think they all did to some extent, but probably Gore himself.

[JulioMadrid]

Gore lost?

[You kip if you want to...]

When it was lost by 537 votes, literally anything could be blamed.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

When it was lost by 537 votes, literally anything could be blamed.

Exactly.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

The obvious answer is Ralph Nader.

[Grumps]

Bubba

[dudeabides]

Look, George W. Bush was a good candidate. Bush was a successful governor who ran on a vision of lower taxes, rebuilding the military, reforming education, and preserving social security and medicare while adding a senior prescription drug program to medicare. Al Gore's agenda was to get the government more involved in education, medicare, and health care. But, if we must assign blame to Gore's loss, it would be Monica. Without Monica, Gore would have used Bill Clinton more and he probably would have won Florida.