The Perfect 2006 Election Scenario - or - How to Get Al Gore as President!

[calmblueocean]

I found this post on Metafilter and just had to share it:

... perchance to dream:

1. Democrats regain power of both the House and Senate in the 2006 elections. Al Gore is elected on a write-in campaign as a representative from Tennessee and subsequently elected Speaker of the House.

2. Cheney and Bush are both impeached. Bush for violating FISA and Cheney in connection with the Plame leak.

3. The trial for Cheney is quickly pushed through. He is convicted and removed from office. Bush immediately appoints Karl Rove, who is unable to take office without approval of both Houses, per the 25th Ammendment.

4. Bush is subsequently convicted. The country is briefly without a President or VP. Under the terms of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the Speaker of the House ascends to be President Al Gore.

... which is why the impeachment shouldn't happen before November. ;-)
posted by Mr Stickfigure at 5:03 PM PST on April 25

All right, Tennessee! Start your write-in campaign now! :)



(I'm sure this has already been mentioned here, but WIRED's cover story this month is on "http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/gore.html">The Resurrection of Al Gore. A good read.)

[pstans]

1. Wow, that would be so cool

:woohoo: :applause: :woohoo: :woohoo: :applause: :woohoo: :applause: :woohoo: :applause:

[SnoopDog]

2. For some reason, I was thinking about Mr. Gore tonight...

Anybody who realizes that global warming/climate change is occurring is definitely the person I want in the office of the US Presidency... This would be a person who understands the immediate danger to America and the world, and someone to rectify the situation... which would promote many great and required changes to our world.

[Olney Blue]

14. Agree. He has a bigger picture of the planet. We need that now.

[Phrogman]

3. Everybody better start chatting up Gore and start taking action now...

Or the Democrats will put Hillary in, and nothings going to change.

It'll be war and corporatism, business as usual......




and who can you turn to than?

[BrklynLiberal]

4. kick

Anything is possible.

[Liberty Belle]

5. His global warming movie hits theaters in late May, too. Kick!

[orleans]

10. what's the name of the movie? n/t

[calmblueocean]

11. "An Inconvenient Truth"

--> link to trailer

[autorank]

6. Yeah baby, it's all good!!! The man of the new century.

If we don't get Gore, we are so screwed. He's the only one out there with the big picture -- the earth is melting down. No time for any more insanity.

I always liked Gore but when I heard his speech on January 16, 2006, Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, I was sold for life. Commanding, calm, comfortable, and persuasive, not to mention brilliant. Ironically, my wife and I were sitting next to Byron York of the National Review. There were seven or eight standing ovations. York and his NR minions remained sitting through each. As we were leaving, my wife looked at him and said, "I can't believe you just sat there like a complete idiot. The speech was brilliant."

"Scoop" Article: Al Gore's Devastating Indictment of President Bush, Wash, DC January 16, 2006 (with link to complete speech)

Bush: “…a threat to the very structure of our government.”

Al Gore delivered a devastating indictment of President George Bush today in a major speech before three thousand cheering citizens at Washington DC’s Constitution Hall. (See... Al Gore: America's Constitution is in Grave Danger )

He provided a detailed specification of crimes against the U.S. Constitution and concluded by calling for the immediate appointment of a special counsel by Attorney General Gonzalez whose position is sorely compromised by conflict of interest. The future of the American experiment in rule by laws rather than men, the Constitution rather than tyranny, is at stake. Gore made the case that Executive Branch abuses of the Constitution represent rule through tyranny.

<snip>

The author of the attack on the Constitution was clearly named, the President of the United States. Gore cited the example of unauthorized National Security Agency (NSA) “spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages and other internet traffic inside the United States.” Bush’s assurances that nothing like this was happening without appropriate judicial processes was cited as an example of false statements to serve the ends of executive power.

[frankenforpres]

7. i prefer him

i like al more than the other front runners


im just dying for a self made person to become pres again. gore and kerry are elites, hillary is the wife of a former pres, i guess that is why i am a little simpatico to john edwards. WJ clinton was really the man, i know he wasnt left enough for some, but he had a tough life, and i think that matters.

[Talismom]

17. Me too! I was luke-warm about him in 2000, but think is the

best by far now!

[Thrasybulus]

29. Gore carried the popular vote of the United States

and Florida.

[Wheres The Beef]

8. small problem

If Gore had carried his home state in 2000 He would have been president.

[Talismom]

18. I bet he'd get it this time for sure if not for the Diebold issue. n/t

[Radio_Guy]

28. OK, newbie

You know Tennessee wasn't Diebolded in 2000.......how?

[calmblueocean]

9. UPDATE: Now even EASIER!

(I wanted to add this to the main post, but the editing period expired!)

* Update: NOW EVEN EASIER! *

Just for fun, I started looking up the Rules and Qualifications for the House of Representatives. I remembered back when Jesse Ventura was Governor, he appointed a successor to Wellstone's office until Norm Coleman could be inaugurated. (Ugh. I hope no one ever has to use the words "Norm Coleman" and "inaugurated" in the same sentence ever again.)

But I realized that, should Democrats regain control of both the House and Senate, all it would take is a partnership between one Democratic Representative and one Democratic Governor.

After Bush and Cheney are impeached, a Representative from a state with a Democratic Governor resigns. The governor appoints Gore to take his place. The House votes Gore to the Speakership. The Speaker takes over the office of the Presidency, leaving the previous office of Representative vacant. The governor now appoints the Representative who resigned to fill his own vacancy.

[orleans]

12. i can't help it....talk me down (or out of it please, but...)

i just can't get over this feeling i have of abandonment....of being jilted...(by gore and kerry--that scene in michael moore's movie with the black caucus and maxine waters, and gore asking if they had a senator's signature and they all had to say no and--i'm assuming--gore wasn't talking to the senators in private to get at least one of them to sign on so we could overcome this election fraud! and kerry was so quick with the concession speech so he could pack for arnold's christmas party! i just can't get over it--that it wasn't about THEM--it was about US and they didn't fight for us!!!) and then, to compound it, i see what has become of all of us--this country--and i resent it all the more.

i'm not up on hillary for the dem nominee but even tho i loved gore & kerry i always think: been there, done that. and i am fully aware i have major trust issues. i don't think i could bring myself to trust them again.

[Talismom]

19. I don't blame you at all! In fact I feel the same way--especially

about Kerry since I really got out there and worked my ass off for him. Also, given the abandonment during such efforts like the bankruptcy bill, patriot act extension, continued financing of Iraq, Alito filibuster--the spectre of corporatist takeover of our party is very frightening to me!

[Uncle Joe]

26. I never felt abandoned by Al,

that moment in Fahrenheit 911 was a bittersweet moment of Al's shining grace to me. He took the battle farther, longer and harder than any other candidate in American History. The moment when he conceded on the Senate floor in spite of his own ambitions was in stark contrast to the power hungry machinations of the Bush cabal going to court to stop democracy from happening. I knew that day Al would come back, his passion, vision and dedication to the nation and the planet are too intense and real to allow him to stay on the sideline.

[saltpoint]

13. I see more and more references to Gore on the web, and most of them

are very favorable, and almost all of them lean toward him making the plunge for 08.

[bklyncowgirl]

15. I love that picture

Yesterday I posted asking for pictures of a relaxed, confident Al Gore--I working on a series of caricatures of potential presidential candidates. I didn't like most of the pictures I've seen of him. This one is not only confident and relaxed it shows determination and even a touch of humor below the surface.

I don't know if your scenario could work, but I would dearly love to see Gore claim the office that he won in 2000.

On edit, the article was great too.

[otohara]

16. Yummy

I'm with you on the pic. Wow -

[Talismom]

20. He looks so hot! n/t

[Nordmadr]

21. Another good Gore pic:

Olafr

[BeFree]

22. Ain't gonna happen

The vote counters - black boxes - will never allow a democratic party majority. If it were allowed, John Kerry would be your president, today.

[Pab Sungenis]

23. If I'm not mistaken....

...under Jefferson's rules, the Speaker of the House does not need to be a MEMBER of the House.

[calmblueocean]

24. Holy moley... You're right!

The Speaker of the House is not Constitutionally required to be a member of the House of Representatives.

So if Democrats could retake the House and Senate, they could simply name Gore as Speaker, impeach Bush and Cheney, and Gore would become the new president.

Holy crap! If I'd known this was possible, I would've been pushing for this in 2002! What a lost opportunity!

[NJ Democrats]

30. Really? I didn't know that!

[Clark2008]

25. Al lives in California now.

Sadly - I miss him in my state.

[Uncle Joe]

27. He still has a home here in Nashville,

and he has always been a rambling man. To me Al is a man of the world and the world needs him.

[Liberty Belle]

31. Why isn't he running against Ah-nold?

[AtomicKitten]

32. Put me down as a resounding "yes" on whatever plan gets him

into the WH and on the people's business the soonest.