Is it too early to ask: did both Al Gore and George W. Bush lose Election 2000? While the country is in pause-mode awaiting the Florida recount and maybe the unraveling of the Great Ballot Mystery in Palm Beach County, it is tempting to pose the civics class question: when no one has won a clear majority or when one guy wins the popular vote and the other guy wins the electoral vote, has anyone really won anything? Campaign strategists on both sides will tell you that their candidate overcame primary insurgencies, spending emergencies and damaging legacies and generally played their cards just right.
But the armchair hacks and consultants out there might tell you that a Vice President with the best economy in human history shouldn’t have had this much trouble against an upstart governor. Nor should anyone with a last name like Bush and an impeachment-tarnished opponent. Votus Interruptus is this hour on The Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Lou DeNatale, McCormack Institute, Umass Boston
Tom Patterson, Kennedy School of Government
Ron Rosenbaum, columnist for the “New York Observer”