[shortstop]

This was on the editorial page of the St. Petersburg Times today, but not on the online edition. When I last checked, it was not posted on the Creators Syndicate site either. Watch for this on Creator's Syndicate site in the next day or two. I thought it was good enough to type it and post it on FreeRepublic. Enjoy.

[JennysCool]

Many thanks for your efforts! This was WELL worth reading!

[GeronL]

Democrats have eliminated winner-take-all??

That jusy makes this more fun to watch!

[RobbyS]

Saya a ot about Gore's character. I used to think he was at least better than Hillary. No such.

[GeronL]

Thanks for putting it all down

[CFC__VRWC]

I thought it was good enough to type it and post it on FreeRepublic. Enjoy.

Good read. I sometimes wonder if I'm living in some alternative universe, when I find myself agreeing more and more with Susan Estrich. The fact that the St. Pete Times actually ran this reinforces that feeling.,

[ImProudToBeAnAmerican]

Pow - right in the kisser!

Gore throwing his support to Dean at this hour were the embarrassing flailings of a dolt trying desperately to avoid his free fall into insignificance.

It's ineptness was only surpassed by the mainstream media's attempt to make it significant.

Shame on all of them.

[eddie willers]

thought it was good enough to type it and post it on FreeRepublic. Enjoy.

Thanks for your hard work.

I was flabbergasted to read the byline.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Al Gore could have played that role- now someone else will have to.

Cue Hillary's entrance, next spring.

[bethelgrad]

wow you the man! thanks for your hard work. very good article.

[Billthedrill]

Susie's pulling for Hillary so hard it's affected her judgment. The voters turn out to be the very last people to choose a candidate in the Democratic party and she knows that perfectly well, she helped make it that way. What's bothering Estrich is the spectre of a Clinton wing loss of control over the entire Democratic party for the length of at least a year, and if Dean is successful, at least five, if not permanently.

I don't see Hill running second banana to Dean under any circumstances, although if she's smart she'd consider just that. But not that ego, I just don't see it. Which means that Dean must be defeated or defanged, and Algore's defection makes it considerably more difficult for her chosen instrument for that, Wes Clark, to accomplish his mission. From her point of view Dean mustn't get the nomination at all, because if he does she ends up working against her party in a presidential election or risks spending 2008 working on Dean's re-election campaign.

I'm just glad I'm out of ash-tray range.

[Political Junkie Too]

The problem with the Democratic rules, and I know because I both wrote many of them and suffered under them, is that it can take too long even for a winner to amass the number of delegates necessary to cement the nomination. Because the Democrats have eliminated winner-take-all primaries, because minor candidates can stay in the race and continue to collect delegates, there becomes a point in the process when you need party leaders to declare the process ended, even if no one has literally won a majority yet. Al Gore could have played that role- now someone else will have to.

Another poster once wrote a theory on Hillary!'s strategy given that she is not running in any primaries and the deadlines to file are coming up fast (or have already passed). The strategy is that the convention delegates are bound, by rules, to their respective candidates FOR THE FIRST ROUND ONLY. If no nominee wins the first round of voting, then the delegates are free to vote for whomever they wish. That is when Hillary! steps in to take the nomination.

It may be that Gore unintentionally made that possibility more likely to occur.

-PJ

[squidly]

Estrich is so mad about this that the other night on FNC's Special Report she even used the term "piss off" while talking about it.

[nonliberal]

There is one school of thought that says that the Goron endorsed Dean so that he would not have to endorse Hitlery.

[Monti Cello]

I think she may be confusing between Gore doing what's best for Gore, and doing what's best for her.

When she says,

there becomes a point in the process when you need party leaders to declare the process ended, even if no one has literally won a majority yet. Al Gore could have played that role

she has it completely backwards. Gore is trying to king Dean right now so Hillary doesn't have a chance to meddle later.

Her strategy critique comes off as sour grapes to me. I don't give Algore much credit, but this was a good time to get momentum and try to put the contest away. Plus Algore gets credit for being relatively early on the curve. When you have a lead and an opportunity, go big.

[Verginius Rufus]

Gary Hart! That's who they need! Gary Hart can save the party from the disaster of Howard Dean, the mean metrosexual. If only they could see their way to forgive him for the monkey business on the Monkey Business.

[BunnySlippers]

•

[Samwise]

[Cicero]

The one thing this column persuades me of is that Susan Estrich is extremely mad at Gore and is determined to nail him as hard as she can.

I don't think it was a stupid move; I think it was extremely smart. It changed the picture overnight, and gore gets all the credit. Hillary must be steaming.

[Paul Atreides]

To be sure, the fat lady has yet to sing.

"Mi, mi, mi, mi......"

[JSteff]

"The man has the worst political instincts of anyone to have gotten as far as he did in this business. "

But now Dad is no longer alive to pull the strings. Gore would not make it in a REAL business.