Is Al Gore the Democrats' new Nixon?

After six years, former V-P is back on political radar

The conservative newspaper the National Post in Canada has an interesting and pretty through review of the '08 election for President. It is mostly about Al Gore and drawing the parallels to Richard Nixon's comeback to become President in 1968. One thing that the report misses is Nixon ran for the Governor of California after losing in 1960 to John Kennedy. After that election Nixon was so upset he said to the reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore". In other words this was Nixon's last election run. But that didn't turn out to be the case. He came back and won the republican nomination for President in the spring of '68 and went on to beat HHH in November. Another thing that the article misses is this: "Eight years later, at the height of American opposition to the Vietnam War, Nixon returned triumphant and soundly defeated Hubert Humphrey to become president of the United States." This is not exactly right. The election in 1968 was very close. Humphrey almost won, and Nixon was fading fast at the end. I am not sure why this paper misses this fact. Maybe they just missed it or they are reinventing history.

My sense is Gore is well liked by people. He is respected. Larry Sabato from Virginia says that some rather odd comments about Gore and his endorsement of Howard Dean before the 2004 election. Sabato may have been misquoted or maybe he misspoke but I don't agree that Gore lost his touch by coming out early for Howard Dean. It showed conviction and strength.