Will they remember?

[Ryan]

The popular vote is irrelevant and most people know it. One may have forgotten that both parties were out to win STATES not individual votes.

A parties turnout in states it was certain it would lose and those it was certain it would win may have been lower than if they were trying to win the popular vote. Thus Bush may have under performed as regards total votes in a State like say South Carolina. There was no competition for the Presidency and no other competitive race such as for the House or Senate or Governor in 2000. Thus turnout may have been lower than normal and (it being a republican state) Bush would have been the main beneficiary of an increased turnout.

Of course one might argue the other way around and say Gore should have won states like Massachusetts by a higher margin in that case. Possibly, though I believe the distribution of competitive non-presidential elections around the country as well as other factors tended to encourage greater turnout in the states or areas where Gore had a higher % and thus benefitted him more as far as the popular vote goes.
Still, I do not say there was "no way" that Gore could have won the popular vote, only that if both the campaigns had been focused on turning out the vote nationwide instead of winning states, it would have been a whole new ball-game. One cannot simply assume because Gore won the vote in 2000 he would have been President if the election was based on the popular vote.