If Al Gore had picked Bob Graham in 2000...

[??????????]

Okay, but why is he popular (among them or anyone else)? Isn't he just a typical Democrat?

No, he is pretty moderate and much like an old time southern Democrat. Thats why I am worried that the Democrats will win the governorship back in '06 as I hear a rumor that Lawton Chiles, Jr is running. Even my wife said she would vote for him and a few other Bushies said the same because, "His daddy was a good ole man and he will be to."

[Californiadreaming]

I'm sure Graham would have helped Gore get 537 more votes in Florida.

Completely agreed. Indeed, if Al Gore would have been in the lead at the start of the 2000 Florida recount process, then there's no way that Gore could have lost the U.S. Presidency in 2000.

[Californiadreaming]

No doubting that having Graham on the ticket would have tipped Florida their way.  But personally I would have preferred the other senator, Bill Nelson, on the ticket instead.  Plus, he'd stand in good stead for the 2008 nomination if he was the current VP.

Bill Nelson wasn't a U.S. Senator yet back in 2000, though.

[Californiadreaming]

Gore would have won, I think. Graham would have won Florida for him, and I don't see any states that Gore won with Lieberman that he would have lost with Graham.

Eh ... to be fair, the butterfly effect might have flipped an extremely close state such as New Mexico to Bush in this scenario.

However, if the Gore-Graham ticket would have lost New Mexico and one other very close state (Iowa, Wisconsin, or Oregon) that the Gore-Lieberman ticket won in real life, then the Gore-Graham ticket would have still won the U.S. Presidency in 2000 if it would have won Florida (which is extremely likely, in my honest opinion).

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Couldn't an attempt to energize the Jewish vote in Florida have also been a factor in Lieberman's select as Gore's VP pick, though?

In addition to this, though, in regards to the Lewinsky Scandal, Gore himself certainly wasn't personally involved in this scandal. Thus, Gore certainly didn't need to have a VP pick that helped distance him from the Lewinsky Scandal. Rather, whenever the Republicans would have brought up the Lewinsky Scandal, Gore could have simply said something like this: "It appears that the Republicans are more interested in talking about a scandal that I myself wasn't even personally involved in than to talk about the actual issues, such as the economy and jobs, which actually matter to the American people."

[Californiadreaming]

I'm sure Graham would have helped Gore get 537 more votes in Florida.

There is no doubt about that. Graham polled very well in his Senate races

Dave

And in his Gubernatorial races, no?

[Californiadreaming]

Gore would have won, I think. Graham would have won Florida for him, and I don't see any states that Gore won with Lieberman that he would have lost with Graham.

The choice of Lieberman was an attempt to distance himself from the Lewinsky scandal, since Lieberman was the foremost Democratic critic of Clinton's actions in the Senate. I don't think Gore was really helped much in that area, however.

That was a dumb move, as anyone who would care about a BJ in the White House is going to vote Republican anyway.

Completely agreed. However, it was also a dumb move because Gore himself wasn't personally involved in the Lewinsky Scandal.

[Californiadreaming]

Graham would have given Gore Florida by 54-55%.

IMHO, a 50%-48% margin or even a 48.9%-48.8% margin in favor of Al Gore in Florida is more realistic than a 54-44% margin or a 55%-43% margin in favor of Al Gore.

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Did Bill Nelson actually have enough experience to be Al Gore's VP pick in 2000, though? After all, Bill Nelson wasn't a U.S. Senator yet back in 2000!

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Did you just bump an 11-year-old thread and post 6 times consecutively? Wild
Anyway, it probably could swing at least 600 votes.

[LLR]

Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it...

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it...

I'd say it's closer to hindsight being 20/00. Get it, because of 2000... forget it.

[Californiadreaming]

Also, for the record, another bright side in having Gore choose Graham rather than Lieberman as his VP pick in 2000 is that if Gore wins in 2000 (which is likely with a Gore-Graham ticket, IMHO) and 9/11 or another large-scale terrorist attack still occurs on U.S. soil during Gore's Presidency, then there is likely to be less disagreement and conflict between Gore and his VP about what exactly the U.S.'s post-9/11 foreign policy should look like. After all, if I remember correctly, both Gore and Graham supported the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 Afghanistan War while opposing the 2003 Iraq War from the very beginning. In contrast, Joe Lieberman was (and I think still is) certainly an extremely enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq War.

Plus, things such as this certainly improve my own opinion and view of Bob Graham even further :

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/middleeast/florida-ex-senator-pursues-claims-of-saudi-ties-to-sept-11-attacks.html

[Californiadreaming]

Did you just bump an 11-year-old thread and post 6 times consecutively?

Yes, I did.

However, this certainly isn't something that I do every day or even every week.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Did you just bump an 11-year-old thread and post 6 times consecutively?

Yes, I did.

However, this certainly isn't something that I do every day or even every week.

It just seems much more beneficial to start a whole new thread than to bump two 10+ y/o threads about it.