Robert Novak reports that “Democratic insiders take seriously a possible new try for the presidency by Al Gore” and that they believe he can raise more than Hillary when it comes to campaign cash. They say that he could do this through “unconventional fund-raising on the Internet,” which shouldn’t be surprising considering he invented the information superhighway.
In addition, Gore has been stridently anti-war on Iraq and has been an even harsher critic on the Bush administration than Hillary has been, so he could provide a viable alternative to the MoveOn.org crowd, even though he still has a moderate background.
Gore will have plenty of financial catching up to, as Mrs. Clinton has $17.1 million cash on hand, but Gore could still compete with Hillary just in terms of sheer popularity with Democratic voters. Not only did he win the popular vote in 2000, but he also received more votes in New York than Hillary did that year. Gore won 4,107,697 votes (60% to 35%), while Hillary got 3,747,310 of New York Democrats to vote for her (55% to 43%), or over 360,000 less than who voted for Gore.
Even during the 2004 campaign, Democratic voters still fondly remembered Bill Clinton’s right-hand man, at the expense of Bill Clinton’s left-hand woman, as numerous polls showed Gore repeatedly beating Hillary (and most other potential Dem candidates at that point). There haven’t been any polls comparing his popularity to Hillary’s in a couple years, so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain his love fest with Democratic voters if he jumps in.
