Recently reading Adam Blickstein's Viewpoint ("Through the cracks: Gore's Failures, Bush's successes, 1/23), I was quite surprised. Never have I heard such a biased account of the recent election. Blickstein even went so far to say that the presidency of the United States belonged to former Vice President Gore. For the record, no one person in the history of the United States has had any rightful claim to become the president without wining a presidential election. The people must elect a person to this distinguished position.
While I agree that it was Al Gore's race to loose, Blickstein did not even give any hint of the fact that President George W. Bush helped his own cause in winning the election. That assumption is completely false and borderline absurd. President Bush did something that had been missing from the Republican Party for quit a while; he united the Republican Party. In the same way that Bill Clinton united the Democrats in his two successful campaigns. While Gore had to fight to keep Democratic strongholds, President Bush inspired and mobilized members of the Republican Party, allowing him to campaign to moderate Americans. Using strong messages and playing off Democratic scandals while downplaying Democratic successes, President Bush successfully clawed his way into the race.
George W. Bush was up against a very successful administration - never mind the scandals - that the majority of Americans approved of. However, through determination and solid strategy, President Bush forced Al Gore into mistakes and made the election a race. It may have been Al Gore's to lose, but George W. Bush won the office.
Randy Newsom, LA '04
