Reminder: Gore was from Tennessee

[LiberteToujours]

How many times have I heard "No more northeast liberals" in the past 72 hours? If you will remember, Gore was from Tennessee and he too was shut out of the south and midwest. The answer isn't geography, it's message.

And before anyone jumps down my throat, I know Gore won Florida. But the fact remains that the Republicans very much have a stranglehold on the south and midwest.

[mzmolly]

1. Good point.

I still hate to put anything to chance in 08. I want to cross every T and dot every I.

:hi:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Southern Dems Since 1960 -3-1

LBJ

Carter

Clinton


Non Southern Dems 0-5

Humphrey

McGovern

Mondale

Dukakis

Kerry

It seems just looking at this fact that being from the south is a necessary but not sufficient condition for Electoral success...

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. You know...

I am from the NE. So are a lot of other folks. We want some too.

[LiberteToujours]

7. Good point

Necessary but not sufficient. I can maybe buy that. The important thing we have to remember is that we can't just throw a southern candidate up and expect immediate results. We have to actually connect with the south and midwest in a real way.

[Sara Beverley]

9. John F. Kenndy= non southern Dem!!

What the hell are you talking about? Carter was a sourthern Dem and was beaten by Reagan a non-southerner.

Look, we have to appeal to the best and brightest in every group.
There are Taliban Christians and real Christians who want to do the right thing.

There are good and evil in every group you can name: gays, minorities,Christains, Muslims, Atheist, men, women, southerners, norterners, bi-coasters, Hollywood, military, doctors, lawyers....

If we can't develop and relentlessly fight for what we know or believe to be "the good" or the "common good" withou having to sell our souls to the evil we say we abhor, then we should just hang it up.

I don't care where our next candidate comes from. I want the best person for the job. Look at the idiot in the WH now. He certainly was not the best America had to offer. In fact, he was almost the worst America had to offer. I don't want to be like them!

[Radical Activist]

3. No he wasn't.

He grew up in Washington, spent most of his time in Washington, and hadn't lived in Tennessee even part time for over 8 years.

Regional perspective is part of message. People in the east coast or DC bubble who hear the constant east coast conventional wisdom are out of touch with people in the heartland. They just don't get it.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. McCain told Kerry...

That they would have him fighting for the Cong by the time they were done with him. And they did, or so they thought.

They will do this again, until we can return their bilge, measure for measure.

[Hog lover]

5. Gore had been in D.C. so long that TN probably didn't claim him.

By the way, do you know why there are no prostitutes in Tennessee?

Answer: They are all Volunteers.

(Apologies to TN Duers.)

[zacho]

8. Southerners

I hate giving in to Southerners, but it would help us. I'm leaning towards casting my NH primary vote in 2008 to Mark Warner if he runs.

[Samantha]

10. Gore lost Tennessee by a mere 70,000 votes

It was a mini-Florida, with all of the same voter irregularities, including the names of many African-Americans not appearing on the register. Some of the stories which surfaced that night were nightmares.

Gore's family home is just 60 miles from my family home. I had a really difficult time dealing with the overt racism present there on that Election night.

Additionally, the Florida "mob" crowd included one of Fred Thompson's aids.

Of the three suits ultimately followed up by the DOJ, two were in Florida, one was in Tennessee. The loss was Tennessee was aggressively sought by Karl Rove as an outright embarrassment to Gore. The true embarrassment rightly belongs to the citizens of Tennessee for allowing that kind of conduct.

But Tennessee has no state income tax and a moderate temperature. It attracts more and more conservatives headed south for retirement. It grows increasingly more conservative, not less, so it will be difficult for the Dems to claim in future Presidential contests.

[Egalitariat]

11. Tennesseans feel like Gore was from Washington, DC

If he wasn't born and raised there, it sure seems like it. At least according to Tennesseans.

[BamaGirl]

12. I think it's less about Southern and more about charisma.

John Kennedy and Bill Clinton...charisma in SPADES. Sorry to say this, as an intellectual I like Gore and Kerry a lot, but they do not have that charisma. I cannot stand Bush. I see right thru his phony everyman act, but 59 million people believe it. Find someone with that quality (charisma, not phoniness of course), and we'll win the WH again.

[greekspeak]

13. Reminder: Gore won the 2000 election

He won the popular vote outright, and it took machinations in Florida to loose him the popular vote. Had it not been for one Ralph Nader losing NH for the dems, Florida would not have mattered. GORE WON THE 2000 ELECTION! Face it. Write it down. Lather rinse repeat ad nauseum.

[LiberteToujours]

14. That isn't the point

He may have won the election (and I made that point in my original post), but the fact is that the Democratic party has a major image problem in the south and midwest that it needs to improve.

[greekspeak]

15. The democrats have image problems period. And they are getting worse

The democratic party wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to win elections while pandering to its opponent party. It wants to be strong by embracing its utter powerlessness. The democratic party is going to have to learn to play ugly, not nice. It is going to have to force its say in the rules, not let the other side make the rules. It is going to have to stop taking for granted minority votes. The right is kicking our asses in the culture wars, and the Democratic party's reaction is to move right and kick its own ass. Pandering to bible thumpers and hatemongers as bible thumpers and hate mongers in a few key regions is not going to do the trick. The party is going to have to recognize that a lot of bible thumpers and hatemongerstre are poor, unemployed, hungry, without insurance. They are going to have to learn to work that angle or we are going to be in a right wing state of affairs for a very long time. The party, everywhere, is going to have to do what it does best: help people become better off.

[Mr_Spock]

16. It's the candidate stupid!!

It really is the tone of the more educated/northern candidates that gets them in trouble. It is the kind of "I'm better than you because I'm smarter than you" in the voice that turns off just enough Southern Democrats/people of that ilk to lose the election. It is obvious to anybody who understands this that even with all his "moral" issues, Clinton would be elected President for a third term if her could run again.