Upcoming Timeline-The Gore Presidency

[pbrower2a]

So we can breeze through the Democratic primaries for lack of meaningful opposition -- right? Early on, I also assume that John McCain's run for the Presidency runs into the "black baby" canard that Karl Rove generated, and that Dubya gets away with it until after the nomination. Right?

What changes? Does Gore campaign differently? Does he make efforts to expose the "black baby" smear as evidence of discreditable character of Dubya or his campaign staff? Does he decide to let Bill Clinton campaign on his behalf? Does he choose a different VP candidate? I can imagine many possible directions. Does he play a "beat-the-cheat" strategy once he finds that the Bush campaign has a perceptible chance of cheating, most notably in Florida? A clique that will stoop to a lie to smear a primary opponent is likely to resort to dirty tricks to win in the general election. Let us remember the reality that any one of several states that voted for Dubya by fewer than 7% (not only FL, but also NH, OH, TN, NV, AR, and AZ) could have won the Presidency for Gore.  Different strategies, including the choice of VP, could have made all the difference.