bush beat himself in 2000.

[Gustaf]

I think it's pretty obvious that it was Gore who lost the election. If you look down-ballot, it was a good year for Democrats, gaining 4 seats in the senate, something similar in the House and picking up a gubernatorial seat, winning a total of 8/11 of gubernatorial elections. That Gore still lost the election seems to indicate that he under-performed.

[Gustaf]

I think it's pretty obvious that it was Gore who lost the election. If you look down-ballot, it was a good year for Democrats, gaining 4 seats in the senate, something similar in the House and picking up a gubernatorial seat, winning a total of 8/11 of gubernatorial elections. That Gore still lost the election seems to indicate that he under-performed.

gustaf, gore didnt lose the election.

he won the popular vote and only 'lost' the electoral college by legalities and technicalities.

im not a gore fan, by any stretch.  but i am honest.

Well, if you run for president and you don't get it, in some way I would say you lost it. Regardless, my point is that 2000 was a good year for Democrats and that indicates that with equally strong campaigns the Democrat would have won. So I would say that there was something wrong with Gore.

[Gustaf]

I think it's pretty obvious that it was Gore who lost the election. If you look down-ballot, it was a good year for Democrats, gaining 4 seats in the senate, something similar in the House and picking up a gubernatorial seat, winning a total of 8/11 of gubernatorial elections. That Gore still lost the election seems to indicate that he under-performed.

gustaf, gore didnt lose the election.

he won the popular vote and only 'lost' the electoral college by legalities and technicalities.

im not a gore fan, by any stretch.  but i am honest.

Well, if you run for president and you don't get it, in some way I would say you lost it. Regardless, my point is that 2000 was a good year for Democrats and that indicates that with equally strong campaigns the Democrat would have won. So I would say that there was something wrong with Gore.

or at least, that his campaign made more mistakes than Bush's.

Yeah, I just didn't have the energy to construct a sentence that would convey both these things at the same time.

[Gustaf]

I think it's pretty obvious that it was Gore who lost the election. If you look down-ballot, it was a good year for Democrats, gaining 4 seats in the senate, something similar in the House and picking up a gubernatorial seat, winning a total of 8/11 of gubernatorial elections. That Gore still lost the election seems to indicate that he under-performed.

A. Gore won
B. Of course the Democrats were going to gain Senate seats, it was 6 years after 1994.

While that is a fair point, they also won a lot of gubernatorial elections in 2000, 8/11. And 1994 was so seismic only because it was a long over-due realignment, finally reaching congressional elections (voters were finally beginning to vote Republican for congress, instead of just doing it for president). My point is that for Democrats to win a majority of the senate seats in a cycle is far from a given and that they did so indicates that 2000 was a pretty good year for them.