Gore a Loser? Look at the Votes

Re “Al Who? Gore’s Uphill Road,” Opinion, Feb. 10: So Jack Germond wonders if Al Gore has the political standing to take part in the “national debate.” Hmm. He served two terms as our vice president and got more votes for president in 2000 than any Democratic candidate ever. In fact, some might say he actually won the election.

Gore never had a chance to show what he could do as president, but there is something we know for sure: Gore wouldn’t have torn the Constitution into pieces to benefit big business or the Christian Coalition. He wouldn’t have shredded international treaties and made everyone’s backyard a potential site for an oil rig. And he certainly wouldn’t have presented Congress with a budget that ravages our Social Security surplus in the name of an “all war, all the time” agenda.

Those who voted for Gore should do so again and finally make their votes count. To do otherwise is validating the idea that elections can be won by destroying the opposition rather than by using good ideas to get votes.

Jody Kepple

Simi Valley

*

I am mystified by a drawing you featured on the front page of the Opinion section. Gore is shown in caricature with the word “loser” stamped upon his forehead.

Gore received the second-highest total of votes for president--ever. Had the national media done their job in exposing the corrupt manipulation of the Florida vote, he might be president today.

Perhaps imprinting the word “robbed” upon Gore’s forehead would be more accurate.

David M. Evans

San Clemente

*

Even with the Enron debacle fully upon us, Germond describes Ralph Nader’s presidential run as no more than a spoiler for Gore (along with the Supreme Court’s Florida vote decision) and as an ego trip. Had Nader and the issue he saw as central to the campaign--corporate control of politics--been allowed onto the podium of even one of the three presidential debates, the Enron scandal might have been forced onto center stage.

If the major party candidates had been compelled to acknowledge it, corporate corruption might have caught the voters’ attention before it turned out the lights in California, drove up utility bills and cost investors and employees their life savings. Straight talk about corporate contamination of politics was censored out of the presidential campaign when Nader was locked out. Dumping Gore the next time around will not change that.

Steve Conn

Anchorage, Alaska