If Al Gore Had Won the 2000 Election...?

You are probably correct. Bush's atrocious administration certainly fueled hunger for change that Obama offered. If Gore were to have won instead, we might have seen a different outcome in the elections. People might have broadly voted against the Democrats instead.

Owen, you are correct that had Gore won in 2000, an Obama presidency would not have meant the same thing. Although, the election of the first African-American president would always have been an historic event.

The other possiblity is that had Gore been elected, there is a likelihood that Obama would not have run, nor had a chance to be nominated.

As it was seen that Gore, as Clinton's Vice-President, was a natural choice for the Democratic nomination for president at the end of Clinton's term (as has happened frequently in American history, with Nixon, Humphrey, Ford, Bush, Mondale, and so on ), so it probably would have meant that Gore's vice-president, Joe Lieberman, would have been seen as the natural successor in 2008 (always assuming he stayed on the ticket in 2004.) It is the power of incumbency, and leadership in our parties. As vice-president, Lieberman would not have gotten into the bitter battle in Connecticut for re-election for senator, and forced him to seek re-election as an independent; also, he would not have in 2008 endorsed McCain, and be seen as a pariah by Democrats in the Senate now.

Obama, like many candidates, and presidents, was a confluence of many factors occurring in history at just the right time, in just the right sequence of events. A "tide in the affairs of men", as Shakespeare said. It was only in the context of a year in which there was no incumbent president, and an unpopular war and an economic crisis and meltdown, that allowed Obama to be elected.

After 8 years of Gore, who would the Republicans have nominated? McCain, or someone else? That is another imponderable factor. It might not have been McCain. Would another candidate have been more successful from a party out-of-power? That is totally a matter of speculation now. If Lieberman had run in 2008 as an incumbent vice-president, would Hillary Clinton still have challenged him in the primaries? Possibly, but there is no way to know that, either. Would Edwards have stayed in the Senate, and not got involved with a sexual scandal, and made a more-successful run in 2008 ? would Biden have been a successful vice-presidential candidate at his age over Lieberman? No one will ever be able to say.

But it is interesting that Obama had a personality that would have made him an attractive and winning candidate as things turned out.

That's a pretty complicated scenario.

Assuming Gore had won in 2000, how he did in those 4 years (9/11 and all) would have determined whether he would be re-elected in 2004. If he handled it well, he would have served another term. If he handled it poorly, we may have had a republican president in 2004. Which republican would have won in 2004 would have determined how Americans felt about republican leadership.

But, even if it were Bush, he may not have had time to sway public opinion so low for republicans that Obama would have had a chance in 2008. And, Bush might have won a second term in 2008, in which case we would be looking at the first Obama challenge for the presidency in 2012.

If Gore had won 2000 and 2004, and people were happy with democratic leadership, I think they would have nominated Hillary Clinton over Obama. However, Hillary might have looked to Obama as a possible vice presidential candidate. In that case, we might have had to wait until 2012 or 2016 for Obama to run for president.

If Gore had been President the last eight years, we would not be at war in Iraq and there would probably not have been an international finance crisis. Obama benefitted from the finance crisis, and I don't expect he would have won without it. He would not have got so much support during the primaries. We'd probably have a President-elect Hillary Clinton now.

Hard to tell, but I'm thinking that if Gore had won, historical events would be completely different, allowing for a completely different political climate... maybe with Obama's great assets not being required for the current presidency. Nice question... it's just impossible to tell. And just to add a little something... I'm moderate republican (MODERATE... even liberal on many issues) and I feel that most anybody (with the qualification) could have done a better job than ol' W... if there's ever a revolt in the U.S. we should, catch him, and place him in a zoo with the monkeys.

Gore (the Democrat) did win, but before the votes were recounted, our Supreme Court gave the election to Bush. If the votes had been counted, Gore would have been President for eight years (2000-2008), and then the US would have elected another Democrat this year. Obama? Probably. Would we have been as excited? Without a Bush presidency as a backdrop, maybe not.

You're an astute political observer. My Irish grandmother would have been proud.

If Gore had won (and there will always be those among us who will maintain that he DID win), I am sure that we would not have been as enamoured with Barack Obama as we are now. Obama came to national attention after his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention and if Gore had been the president and up for re-election, someone else might have been selected to give that speech and had Obama given it, I am sure it would have been different.

This year's election would have gone to the Democrats no matter who was running. It was the policies of the Bush administration that had people clamouring for change and it would have not have mattered who that agent of change was. If you look at the candidates the Republicans were offering, anyone could have run against any of them and won.

Sometimes change is in the air and all the forces of nature cannot change it.

Gore would have been a more moderate Democrat than Obama probably will be. I think we'd have tougher environmental standards in place, and I'll bet we never would have been attacked on 9/11. We most certainly wouldn't be at war in Iraq. Our taxes might be higher, but our national debt would be much, much lower. We might still have the housing meltdown, but our Constitution wouldn't be under assault from the Patriot Act and Homeland Security.

If he'd won, I don't think Obama would have been elected. Obama's appeal has a lot to do with the fact that he's such a blank slate. People are so fed up with the past eight years (and understandably so -- Bush has been an absolute disaster for this country, our national debt, our liberties, and our foreign relations) that they're pinning all of their hopes on this guy ... precisely because they can. It's more what he represents than what he stands for or believes in. That's why he could campaign on one word -- "change" -- and people lapped it up like crazy. People are desperate for a new direction.

All that to say, if Gore had been in office, I doubt that there would be so much of an outcry for change right now. In fact, people might have been ready for the pendulum to swing back to the right ... and a Republican might have won this time out.

Ignore the thumbs-down. Partisans can't stand it when you criticize their side, and I freely criticize both.

I've seen more than one person actually blame 9-11 on Bush in these answers! Clinton actually had information that would have allowed us to take out Bin Laden but he ignored the intelligence as he was already too wrapped up in covering his own butt (as in cigar butt). Gore is such a pansy, 9-11 would have just been the beginning of a reign of terror while he 'talked' or 'sanctioned' ala Jimmy Carter.

No but we wouldn't be in Iraq at the moment and we wouldn't have all the violations of our Constituation which have taken place under the Bush administration. I think we also would have done something much sooner about the housing foreclosure rates so we most likely wouldn't be in such a big financial mess at the moment. The bank regulations wouldn't have been completely ignored. The leverage rate wouldn't be at 40 to 1 instead of 12 to 1 which is part of the problem with the banks not having enough assest to cover the bad mortgages.

Who wants to know - I have to agree with you regarding the thumbs down. It's pretty funny they can't admit how bad a President Bush has been

The White domicile may be lit up like a Christmas tree day and nighttime, Air stress a million and the White domicile limos may be idling 24/7, or hauling huge Al around on pointless journeys whilst he informed something persons to stay on the hours of darkness and walk. form of like the way he's doing now.