Word: gores
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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What went wrong? In fact, Gore's run for the Oval Office was always a long shot. A freshman Senator who entered the race only after more notable Southern moderates such as Sam Nunn and Charles Robb had shied at the gate, Gore did well to survive until the finals. "If I had disappeared from the earth for six months and came back at the end of April to find that Al Gore was one of three candidates left, my reaction would have been near disbelief," says his friend Carter Eskew, a Washington political consultant...
...Gore pioneered a new way of seeking the nomination by bypassing Iowa and jump-starting a campaign on Super Tuesday. But he seemed to spend more time pondering tactical maneuvers than propounding a vision or message. And a campaign that lives by tactics can die by tactics. Having skipped Iowa, Gore square danced around New Hampshire, a state where his strong environmental record and centrist solidity might have generated support. In the end, he frittered away $430,000 on a halfhearted run that netted a pitiful 7% of the New Hampshire vote. "If we had used some of that money...
...tactics that in hindsight seem like blunders would have seemed like brilliance had Gore caught fire. He failed because he never developed a visceral connection with voters. On the stump, he tried to convey passion by shouting, but the volume seemed turned up in all the wrong places. Even in his commercials he had trouble conveying sincerity; focus groups rated as worst those that showed Gore speaking directly to the camera...
Overshadowing everything was Gore's inability to develop a consistent message or convey a clear sense of who he is. First he ran as Sam Nunn, differentiating himself from the Democratic pack on defense and foreign policy by speaking loudly about carrying a big stick. Then he ran as Richard Gephardt, picking up the hot populist rhetoric of the fading Missouri Congressman. After that came a Gary Hart phase, as Gore briefly cast himself as the candidate of the future against Dukakis' politics of the past. Finally, in New York, Gore ran at times as virtually a Likud Party candidate...
None of these personas is totally false. All are part of the matrix that defines Gore: a Democrat who grasps America's role in a changing world, has fought for the rights of average citizens, understands the challenges posed by future technologies and has consistently supported Israel. "The truth is, Al Gore is a complex individual with a wide range of interests and a record of activity in each one of those areas," says an aide. "While that might be attractive in a person, it can be a disadvantage in a presidential candidate." But having failed to define himself, Gore...