WI: Gore picks Paul Wellstone for VP, 2000

LendleAlba

Would Al Gore pick Paul Wellstone as his running mate in 2000, and how would this change the makeup and outcome of the race, if it did?

IMHO, Gore probably wins here. IOTL, Winona LaDuke described Wellstone as "a champion of the vast majority of our issues". Given that, this probably mends the bridges between the progressives and Gore (or at least doesn't set them on fire like the nomination of conservative war-hawk Joe Lieberman did), which in turn will net him enough votes from OTL Nader voters to give him Florida and (probably) New Hampshire, winning the election.

What do you guys say?
 

Shadowlord

Wellstone would be a great way to keep the 2% defection to Nader he suffered OTL. I could definitely see him winning Florida and New Hampshire.
 

Apollo 20

At best, Wellstone's a mixed bag as a pick -- and I say that as someone with no small degree of admiration for his career. This is strictly a political analysis.

While Wellstone would have no doubt helped with the progressives, he also was very left of center in his Senate voting record; breaking, for instance, with Clinton on the 1996 welfare reform bill. He would have been popular with the base, but I can also see the Bush campaign portraying him as some wild-eyed left wing loon. If they could torpedo McCain -- veteran, POW, war hero -- in South Carolina, they certainly could have painted Wellstone's Senate voting record in a negative light. What Gore would have gained by strangling the Nader campaign in its cradle might have more than been offset by losses among more centrist voters.

But, it was a very close election and Wellstone was a good campaigner. Whether he had the chops to make it on the national stage is, sadly, a question we'll never know the answer to.

This all begs the question of whether or not Gore would have even given serious consideration to picking Wellstone. My sense of that, based on the eventual choice of Lieberman, is no. He was trying to run to the center in the general; picking Wellstone goes against that general strategy.
 

Tayya

If I've understood the situation correctly, Wellstone considered running in 2000, but declined because of his back problems (that later turned out to be multiple sclerosis). It's questionable if he was up to a presidential campaign.
 

wfm

Apollo 20 said:
At best, Wellstone's a mixed bag as a pick -- and I say that as someone with no small degree of admiration for his career. This is strictly a political analysis.

While Wellstone would have no doubt helped with the progressives, he also was very left of center in his Senate voting record; breaking, for instance, with Clinton on the 1996 welfare reform bill. He would have been popular with the base, but I can also see the Bush campaign portraying him as some wild-eyed left wing loon. If they could torpedo McCain -- veteran, POW, war hero -- in South Carolina, they certainly could have painted Wellstone's Senate voting record in a negative light. What Gore would have gained by strangling the Nader campaign in its cradle might have more than been offset by losses among more centrist voters.

But, it was a very close election and Wellstone was a good campaigner. Whether he had the chops to make it on the national stage is, sadly, a question we'll never know the answer to.

This all begs the question of whether or not Gore would have even given serious consideration to picking Wellstone. My sense of that, based on the eventual choice of Lieberman, is no. He was trying to run to the center in the general; picking Wellstone goes against that general strategy.
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Wellstone was as easy target, he would not have been able to keep his mouth shut when he most needed to. I'd love to see the tv spots in the deep red states with him saying exactly what Gore had warned him not to say. Wellstone was a loon. It would have made for great television though.
 

Apollo 20

wfm said:
Wellstone was as easy target, he would not have been able to keep his mouth shut when he most needed to. I'd love to see the tv spots in the deep red states with him saying exactly what Gore had warned him not to say. Wellstone was a loon. It would have made for great television though.
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I wouldn't call him a loon -- he was a smart and talented politician whose 1990 win is still one that's studied; it was a textbook campaign that pulled out an unlikely win using some unconventional methods. His voting record was decidedly left of center, but he had some demonstrated skills as a campaigner and while he would probably not played well in the deep red states, those weren't the ones in play in 2000. The open question -- and the one I really couldn't answer -- is how he would have played in the battlegrounds. One thing I should have mentioned is that he would have been a decided -- and not necessarily good -- contrast to the somewhat dour Al Gore. That might have helped or it might have hurt and it's hard to say which is right. The more pertinent question may be how he would have played against Cheney. While VP picks seldom if ever make a difference in the outcome of an election, in the context of 2000, it's an interesting question to ponder given the closeness of that particular election.
 

Emperor Julian

By one measure, Paul Wellstone was the thirteenth most liberal member of the US Congress between 1937 and 2002, beating McGovern and Sanders. He would get branded an extremist socialist by the right.
 

ColeMercury

Emperor Julian said:
By one measure, Paul Wellstone was the thirteenth most liberal member of the US Congress between 1937 and 2002, beating McGovern and Sanders. He would get branded an extremist socialist by the right.
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They could always hit back at Dick Cheney, the apartheid-supporting congressman from Wyoming...
 

UncleDynamite

Gore ran to the center, it was why the election was so close in the first place. With the most liberal Senator in office as his running mate, he'd probably lose more than he gained without the Nader offset.

He'd have probably done slightly more poorly than in OTL(perhaps poorly enough not to trigger an automatic recall in Florida and lead to that fiasco).
 

Expat

I think Gore and Wellstone could have absolutely had a chance if they ran the right campaign and caught a few lucky (but nowhere near ASB breaks.) In the pure light of hindsight, running to the center did Gore no favors.

But, I agree that Gore was not up to running the kind of campaign necessary to win with Wellstone.
 

tiggerfan

Agreed Wellstone would be loose cannon

I mean this is the guy who openly discussed ways to ban the GOP, and while he never tried those kinds of statements would be in a campaign ad overnight
 

Tammany Tiger

Gore chose Joe Lieberman in order to inoculate himself from the dreaded Clinton Cooties.

"Distancing himself" (consultant-speak) from Clinton was Gore's number-one priority. It blinded him to Clinton's ability to bring out voters, African Americans in particular, in key states.
 
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JVM

Tayya said:
If I've understood the situation correctly, Wellstone considered running in 2000, but declined because of his back problems (that later turned out to be multiple sclerosis). It's questionable if he was up to a presidential campaign.
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Yeah, this. Wellstone would decline.
 

Hollis Hurlbut

Emperor Julian said:
By one measure, Paul Wellstone was the thirteenth most liberal member of the US Congress between 1937 and 2002, beating McGovern and Sanders. He would get branded an extremist socialist by the right.
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Wellstone was also a guy who voted for DOMA and never regretted it. Some lefty.

But I agree with the general sentiment -- that Gore was too terrified of his own party to pick anyone to the left of Evan Bayh.
 

Apollo 20

Hollis Hurlbut said:
Wellstone was also a guy who voted for DOMA and never regretted it. Some lefty.

But I agree with the general sentiment -- that Gore was too terrified of his own party to pick anyone to the left of Evan Bayh.
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Wellstone actually recanted his DOMA vote in a 2001 book.

Your line that Gore was too terrified of his own party to pick anyone to the left of Evan Bayh is a good one and so very true. What he really needed was a fairly liberal Senator or Governor who could have carried a swing state and taken it off the map. Lacking that, part of the thinking with Lieberman was that he'd help carry Florida by bumping turnout among Jewish voters in South Florida.
 
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