[lbo-talk] Gawker on Hitch

[C. G. Estabrook]

Given the circumstances of the '92 and '96 campaigns, I don't see anything
particularly brilliant in his campaigning, or in his forensic (so to
speak) abilities.  (As we say in Illinois, he's no Alan Keyes...)  The
Gore people were undoubtedly correct, until they lost their nerve at the
end, as the subsequent number crunching makes clear. Anderson writes,
"Commenting on the campaign, Gore's campaign adviser Carter Eskew put it
very simply: 'Clinton was the elephant in the living-room'. See his
retrospect in the Washington Post, 30 January 2001. State by state, there
was an all but perfect match in exit polls between Clinton's image and the
electoral result" (i.e., the better the Clinton image, the better Gore
did, and conversely). In 2000, I like many people voted against the
incumbent. --CGE

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:


> but i don't see as this mitigates the point that gore could hardly have 
> been hurt by allowing clinton to come out for him, which they finally 
> did, toward the end. were gore's strategists right when they made the 
> decisions anderson notes below, or right when they brought clinton in 
> at the end? or would you say both?
> 
> i would argue that clinton was always at his best when he was fighting 
> in a campaign and their decision to bring him in at the end reflected a 
> recognition that he could have helped them.
> 
> when clinton was fighting impeachment, we got, "it depends on what the 
> meaning of 'is' is", but when he was campaigning, he could even say 
> dumb things like "i didn't inhale and i didn't like it" (actually a 
> less valid point than the grammatical one above) and *still* kick 
> everybody's ass. he won the war of words with newt gingrich over the 
> gov't shutdown. what happened in 2000 was they got the worst from 
> clinton they could possibly have gotten, precisely because they muzzled 
> him.
> 
> it's not a question of loyalty. it's a question of gore's campaign 
> strategies and tactics, on the one hand, and clinton's talent as a 
> campaigner on the other.
>