Would Bill have beaten W?

[Ficus]

I was watching some AEI forum on CSPAN or CSPAN2 or something like that last night, and the topic was "Conservatism and the Republican Party." I caught the Q&A part of it, and one person asked, "If Al Gore would have embraced Clinton rather than try to put distance between him, would he have won?"

The speaker responded by asking, "Raise your hand if you think that if Bill Clinton would have faced George Bush, Bush would have won." In the entire room, maybe 2 or 3 people raised their hands. Now these are conservative republicans - which is quite telling in my opinion.

I think that the answer is obvious - yes he would have thumped W.

Has this strategy run out, though?

For example, would someone like Howard Dean or John Kerry or Wes Clark STILL benefit from bringing out ol' Bill during the General Election one year from now? Or is the country too in a 2000s and not a 90s mindset?

:dem: :dem:

[kodi]

like a drum

.

[vi5]

1. He would have trounced him....

Part of Clinton's appeal was his populism and his impoverished southern roots. No matter how much people want to yap about Gore's surge after his supposed embrace of populist themes, the fact is that he never came across as a populist or anything other than a very well off, intellectual liberal. I don't think that's a bad thing but when your opponnent is running as a down home regular guy, no matter how inaccurate that image is, he's going to have the edge. No matter how big Clinton got most people still saw him as an appealing regular guy. And no matter how much Gore rolled up his sleeve, people still saw him as an over-intellectual rich guy.

[kaitykaity]

2. Locking. Dupe.

Please discuss here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=642262

[lancdem]

3. I think Clinton easily would've defeated Bush

because he presided over peace and prosperity, which is an unbeatable combination. As for 2004, I'm sure Clinton will play a role once the nominee is chosen. But our candidate will have to be strong on his own, obviously, to beat the Rove machine.

[HEyHEY]

4. Wouldn't have even been funny