So back to Gore. A week from now, either his loss will be historically inevitable, or he will have won. That makes the next few days the best moment for cheap hindsight on his campaign. Here are a couple of available recriminations. It is striking that in this election, both candidates pretended to be further left than they really are.
Trouble is, the first bluff is a life strategy while the second bluff is a political convenience.
Only the second bluff is likely to be discarded after the election. But it was never a note he struck much himself until his convention acceptance speech two months ago. Throughout his career, he was almost exactly the neoliberal moderate his opponent is now pretending to be. Gore has sold this stock just as Bush was buying. One of these two has made a terrible mistake.