If Democrat Al Gore ends up losing the most nerve-wracking election in memory, it’s a good bet he’ll run again in 2004 – but Republican George W. Bush might just leave politics.
Most of Gore’s life since birth has been geared toward winning the White House and fulfilling the dream that his senator dad couldn’t reach himself.
Besides, now that Hillary Clinton has ruled out a 2004 race, there’s no Democrat with the standing to challenge Gore’s right to seek a rematch if he ends up losing a race that was a virtual tie.
Indeed, some advice from senior Democrats on what Gore should do if he remains behind in the official Florida vote recount centers on how he can best safeguard his chances for 2004.
Ex-Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), a respected party elder, said if Gore decides to gracefully admit defeat rather than fighting for months in the courts, “It would put him in an unbelievably advantageous position for the Democratic nomination in 2004.”
But Bush has only been in politics in his own right for six years – and in June 1999, when he launched his quest for the White House, he joked that if he lost he might just go fishing with his ex-president dad.
“If it works out, I’m ready,” Bush said. “And if it doesn’t work out, me and the old boy will spend a lot of time fishing together.”
Bush said his dad’s experience – winning the presidency in 1988, then winning the Gulf War only to get kicked out in 1992 by Bill Clinton – taught him, “The most important things in life are much bigger than winning or losing a political race.”
In the past, Bush has indicated that if he lost the 2000 race, he probably wouldn’t even seek a third term as Texas governor – though there’s little doubt he’d win in a landslide if he ran again.
One possibility for Bush – who adores baseball and was managing partner of the Texas Rangers – might be to return to baseball, possibly as commissioner some day.
But all that speculation came before anyone imagined the 2000 race could end up as a near-tie, so there is no way to begin to guess whether Bush, if he loses by a hair, would rethink whether to stay in politics as the leader of the GOP opposition.
If Bush ends up losing and bows out of politics, the 2004 front-runner – and leader of the GOP opposition – would be Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose maverick bid for the presidency left him perhaps America’s most popular politician.
Despite anger at some of Bush’s tactics against him in the GOP primaries, McCain worked all-out for Bush this fall and was the GOP’s big weapon in its successful battle to retain narrow control of the House.
McCain made TV ads for more than 50 Republicans and stumped all over, helping produce the surprise result that House Republicans, despite baggage from the Newt Gingrich years, did better than Senate Republicans, or arguably Bush, on Election Day.