What if Gore Won?

[NHPolitico]

Lets say Al Gore won Florida and squeaked out a win in the election.  Who would the Republicans be running right now?  Would gore be popular?  What would be different?

I think Frist would be the republican frontrunner.

Hm, the question is whether the whole international situation would be different and that is very biased. I think Gore would have been under a lot of pressure initially and most likely would have attacked Afghanistan. But I'm not so sure on Iraq. And that could make the situation today rather different. I think Gore would be much less popular than Bush is right now, b/c he will either be hated by his own base or by centrist voters, regardless of what he does.

I don't think you can assume Gore would attack Afghanistan. Al Qaeda attacked us or planned to do so 6 times while Clinton was president and we never attacked Afghanistan {2/1993: Bombing of World Trade Center, 10/1993: Killing of U.S. soldiers in Somalia, 6/1996: Truck bombing at Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 9/1998: Bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa, 12/1999: Plot to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle foiled when customs agents arrest an Algerian smuggling explosives into the U.S., 10/2000: Bombing of the USS Cole in port in Yemen}.  Would Gore lob a missile or two? Probably. But that's not the same as what Bush did after 9/11.  

[NHPolitico]

Lets say Al Gore won Florida and squeaked out a win in the election.  Who would the Republicans be running right now?  Would gore be popular?  What would be different?

I think Frist would be the republican frontrunner.

Hm, the question is whether the whole international situation would be different and that is very biased. I think Gore would have been under a lot of pressure initially and most likely would have attacked Afghanistan. But I'm not so sure on Iraq. And that could make the situation today rather different. I think Gore would be much less popular than Bush is right now, b/c he will either be hated by his own base or by centrist voters, regardless of what he does.

I don't think you can assume Gore would attack Afghanistan. Al Qaeda attacked us or planned to do so 6 times while Clinton was president and we never attacked Afghanistan {2/1993: Bombing of World Trade Center, 10/1993: Killing of U.S. soldiers in Somalia, 6/1996: Truck bombing at Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 9/1998: Bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa, 12/1999: Plot to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle foiled when customs agents arrest an Algerian smuggling explosives into the U.S., 10/2000: Bombing of the USS Cole in port in Yemen}.  Would Gore lob a missile or two? Probably. But that's not the same as what Bush did after 9/11.  

That is really biased. You can't compare any of the incidents you mention with 9/11, that is ridiculous. Do you think a Republican president would have invaded countries during the 90s, if they had been in Clinton's position? I strongly doubt that.

I do think that Bush would have responded differently to those events.

[NHPolitico]

I scanned this and saw I never predicted a McCain butt-whipping of Gore in 2004 in the event of a Gore presidency. The GOP would have held control of Congress for all four years, there would have been furious attacks against Gore's handling of national security by the GOP in Congress and McCain would have been the spokesman and leader on that front.  People would say that McCain would make us safer than Gore would in this new era and it would be a November landslide. Jeffords would still be singing in the newly reformed Singing Senators-- Ashcroft would have beaten Carnahan in 2002. Rick Perry would be in the Senate and KBH would be governor of Texas.  Thune would be in the Senate. We'd be having serious discussions about realignment with the GOP having healthy control of the House, a near-veto-proof majorty in the Senate, and a President McCain.  I like Bush well enough, but that pseudo-reality might be tempting.