NEW YORK-In a move that may redefine the landscape for the Democratic
presidential candidates, former Vice President and once-and-future
contender Al Gore has thrown his support behind former Vermont Governor
Howard Dean.
Gore announced his support today at the National Black Theater
Institute of Action Art in Harlem just as two new polls of likely
New Hampshire voters show Dean leading former Golden Boy Sen. John
Kerry of Massachusetts by more that 25% points.
This is nuts. The two of them really couldn't be from more politically
disparate ends of the Democratic universe. Al Gore is a Harvard-educated,
lifelong Washington insider who has posited himself squarely in
the centrist camp. Howard Dean is a Washington outsider, a Yale-educated
doctor born into a wealthy New York banking family. He ended up
as gov of Vermont by attacking the very center Gore helped to define
over the past twenty years.
Now Gore cites Dean as "the best chance to win" next
November.
That's it? That's why the man who should be president right now
is supporting the man who wants to be the next president? Because
he has the best chance to win it all? Talk about a fair weather
fan of former running mate Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
It's sort of like the retired manager of the Red Sox looking at
the standings over the All-Star Break. He sees that the Yankees
have a 12-game lead over the Sox. He thinks for a few minutes and
mulls over his long career as a second-class citizen in the sports
world, the perennial loser. And for once, he realizes, he can be
associated with a winner. So the next day, he shows up to the formerly
meaningless All-Star Game and announces to anyone who will listen
that he really believes in the Yankees. That they're the team to
win it all. That it's time to rally the AL teams. We're a league,
damn it! I'm sick of the stupid, upstart National League teams like
Florida and Arizona winning the World Series. Go Yankees!
And with that he has tarnished what really had been a great and
well-respected career as the Sox skipper. He has alienated his loyal
fan base, filled with a nation of die-hards who still believe in
the team even though it may have been robbed by a few bad calls
and a few tough losses. He has pissed off the other AL teams by
counting them out before the second half of the season has even
started. He has underestimated his own weight in the sports world.
That's not to say the Yanks aren't going to win the pennant or
don't deserve to win the World Series. It's just too early to count
out the Blue Jays, the A's or, God-forbid, the Sox.
Flip to The
New York Times
email this story to a friend
|
