Each wing of the party will blame Gore for embracing the ideology of the other and in the end, neither will claim him as their own. However even if the party faithful weren't allayed against him, Gore would be hard-pressed to gain the Democratic nomination again. Candidates were once routinely allowed a losing general election campaign or two. Henry Clay, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Thomas Dewey, Adlai Stevenson and Richard Nixon all lost elections yet lived to run again. But that capacity for forgiveness disappeared decades ago.
Modern campaigns are too big, too dynamic and too expensive to entrust to a loser.
Jonathan V. Last is a reporter for the Weekly Standard. Cover up with a Salon T-shirt this summer. The terrifying skies, continued The same day Attorney General John Ashcroft blasts a leading airport security firm for hiring unqualified workers, the GOP insists on the private enterprise status quo.