— You’ve probably heard about Algor 2000’s recent attempts to blame his consultants and pollsters for losing the election, which is all kind of a sad, “the buck stops somewhere over there,” attitude. One element of his whining leads me to believe he may not be completely out-of-it, cited by The Prince of Darkness, Bob Novak:
Donna Brazile, the former vice president’s 2000 campaign manager, backed Gore by suggesting he “received some bad advice from some of the consultants.” “What bad advice?” I asked. “The advice not to campaign hard in Tennessee.” The accusation that Gore lost his home state — and therefore the election — because of consultants, ignores the fact Tennessee was delegated to the care of local Democrats. Expenditure of $1 million and a late campaign stop could not endear Gore to his fellow Tennesseeans.
At least Gore (or is it just Brazile?) admits that the critical state was Gore’s home state, Tennessee, rather than Florida. Pragmatic politics says you’ve already lost if you lose your home state and have to depend on winning the state governed by your opponent’s brother.