Gingrich is mercurial and so unreliable on many issues, but he would have still been much better than either Bush or McCain. Pataki is a RINO liberal like Rudy Giuliani, and would have been worse than either Bush or McCain. In almost any other state, Pataki would have been a Democrat.
GOP 2000 primaries were pretty bland.
On another thread, someone remarked that it was as though we didn't have a primary in 2000 at all, we just woke up one day to find another person named George Bush handed the nomination for the second time in a decade. That sounds about right. Like Hillary in 2016, it was more of a coronation than a primary. I knew W would be bad news with his talk of "compassionate conservatism" and his soft spot for Mexican illegals, but I wasn't prepared for just how bad he was going to turn out.
From January to 9/11/01, people saw W as weak and too naïve.
After 9/11/2001, is when he had to buckle up and realize that America would be at war.
Pataki would have won in 2000, he would have won NY.
” someone remarked that it was as though we didn’t have a primary in 2000 at all, we just woke up one day to find another person named George Bush handed the nomination for the second time in a decade.”
That’s exactly how it seemed to me.