He also showed brains, naming one of the few Democratic officeholders who could pull his campaign back from the brink of defeat and give it plausibility. And Gore needed some desperate measure to change the dynamic of a race he was losing badly. But by throwing the long ball down the middle of the field, Gore risks all sorts of things. Here are a few random observations.
Black voters are the biggest unified bloc of Democratic support.
In 1984 those controlling the Democratic National Convention refused to permit a vote on a simple measure to condemn anti-Semitism, fearing that this would offend the Reverends Jackson and Farrakhan. In 2000 Hillary Clinton, who herself manifests many evidences of anti-Semitism, refused to criticize in any way Rev. Sharpton s long and ugly record of whipping up hatred among blacks against Jews. But now Gore, after a political career of exploiting racial polarization for his own benefit, is asking the black followers of these ministers to vote for him and for the blond-haired Jew he picked as running mate without ever putting a black politician on his short list for Veep consideration. Senator Lieberman is among the most personally virtuous of Democratic lawmakers. But using his presence to lend credibility to Gore is perilous.