Steve,
>** the clinton factor. a number of exit polls indicate bill's teflon applied
>only to bill--in my opinion, because (as when gingrich singlehandedly
>resuscitated clinton's presidency in '95-'96) bill's negatives were
>outweighed by the public perception that his republican inquisitors were
>even more venal than he.
That's not why, imo. It's because teflon only works on the pot it's applied to, charisma ain't transferrable, self-promotion geniuses are necessarily not good promoters of others, therefore Gore's association with Clinton had to be sliming: all the grime comes off on the rag (and the teflon's left with the best shine -- highest rates in the polls -- enjoyed by any second term prez in history, or so I hear on the news). Combine that with Gore's own utter lack of luster and you have a perfect failure. That so many people voted for this non-entity is due only to the lesser-of-two-evils song and dance that has become the leading characteristic of the US general elections routine.
cheers, Joanna
PS: The only reason Gore may yet be elected -- and I say this only partly tongue in cheek -- is because his revolting princeliness makes him the better Bonaparte. (in common parlance he's more "presidential.") From KM's 18th Brumaire:
"As the executive authority which has made itself an independent power, Bonaparte feels it to be his mission to safeguard 'bourgeois order.' But the strength of this bourgeois order lies in the middle class. He looks on himself, therefore, as the representative of the middle class, and issues decrees in this sense. Nevertheless, he is somebody solely due to the fact that he has broken the political power of this middle class and daily breaks it anew. Consequently he looks on himself as the adversary of the political and literary power of the middle class. But by protecting its material power he generates its political power anew. The cause must accordingly be kept alive, but the effect, where it manifests itself, must be done away with."
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