[OFB Cafe] Tech Buzz: Who Deserves the Tech Vote?

[Derek Broughton]

On August 22, 2008 21:03:36 Patrick Shanahan wrote:
> * Steven Hatfield <stevenhatfield at mac.com> [08-22-08 18:55]:
> > He is a national shame.
>
> If that is so, I wonder what the one he replaced would be described as?

Despite the fact that he came close to impeachment, and (or perhaps because) 
he generated a lot of theater, he's the most popular ex-president in decades.  

He's a disgrace as a person and particularly as a husband, but America did 
well economically and in the international political arena under his watch, 
and that makes the American people willing to forgive a lot.  Even so, I 
can't see Al Gore having been able to become anything but a remote shadow of 
Clinton.  It's in the nature of Vice Presidents that nobody actually _wants_ 
them as President.  It seems to me - lacking a good background in American 
history - that the last time a Presidential candidate had a _really_ capable 
running mate (that is, not just good at what he did, but a viable option as 
President) was Eisonhower with Richard Nixon, and the only two other Vice 
Presidents who won election on their own terms, rather than inheriting on the 
death of the president were Thomas Jefferson and Martin Van Buren (and even 
they ran for the Presidency while VP)
-- 
derek