For Gore to run such a close but losing race during such a booming time in America clearly demonstrated that too many voters simply had serious misgivings about handing him the reins. That he lost to someone like George W. Bush, possibly the most unqualified man to ever hold the office, makes it personal. Revenge fever Gore lost because the conservative right successfully demonized him as a liar and a cad, linking him in word and actions to the dreaded Bill Clinton. Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. Although, due to an almost evenly split Congress and the public's certain reluctance to tolerate any hard-line partisan wrangling in D.C., the winners better eat quietly and get back to work.
Nobody's in the mood to hear any belching.
What's clear from this divided vote tally is that Clinton's presence on the campaign trail, linked arm and arm with Gore, would not have lost Gore that much support. But it might have helped Gore win both Tennessee and Arkansas, two states that would have made the fiasco in Florida irrelevant. But no, Gore decided he had to be his own man. Which turned out to be good enough to win more votes for president than anyone else in 2000, but allowed his rival to eke out a slim margin in the only state where his brother was governor. Gore's problem, like most men striving to be great, was his ego.