If Gore somehow squeaks out a win, it will be in spite of his. The vice president squandered the advantages that America's longest economic boom, peace abroad and a content public should have brought to the incumbent. Center-left governments in London, Paris and Berlin will be horrified to learn that delivering economic growth is not enough to guarantee reelection in a modern industrial democracy. Britain, France, Germany and Italy face elections within 22 months. The contending parties will study the Nader phenomenon in this election in particular.
Green parties are already in coalition governments in Germany and France.
They are likely to be courted with new ardor by their leftist colleagues when the damage done by Nader to the Democrats is assessed. Nader capitalized on unease here with the harsher aspects of globalization, which has been treated by Clinton's New Democrats as a uniformly friendly force. Others chose television, Florida officials or the electoral college as the villain of the piece. They seem to have ignored their responsibilities to be clear on what and who they want. Now that is snippy.