Offsetting the heavy favorite to win the Presidency?

Both JD and HF have had thoughts along that line, and humourists have had their jollies pointing out the Nixon/Gore parallels: Vice President, "stolen" election, relatively high native intelligence, stiff, awkward personality, self-parody on Laugh-In and Saturday Night Live, a country mired in an unpopular, "unwinnable" war and so forth.  Ann Coulter was arguably at the top of her form in her June 3, 2004 column, "This is History calling -quick get me Rewrite"(hmmm...where have I seen "Rewrite" flogged before?).  True, most of the piece was a defense of (ahem) Paul Wolfowitz, and to say that overall she wasn't overly prescient would be an understatement of litotic proportions(assuming I've not failed to absorb something by reverse litosis from this site), but her concluding paragraph, though short on substance, struck me (and if memory serves, JD, as well) at the time.

A Gore Presidency might not turn out to be the worst thing imaginable.  The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact didn't last forever and all that.  Most of the Jihadists might favor the slow approach, fearing that the fast track might strengthen Republican "hardliners."  Then again, it might be for the best if the Sons of The Prophet do overplay their hand while we still have the strength to wage a war of...drats...memory not serving here to come up with the Kraut word meaning something like annihilation cited by Derb in recent years.

"The good news is: Liberals' anti-war hysteria seems to have run its course. I base this conclusion on Al Gore's lunatic anti-war speech last week. Gore always comes out swinging just as an issue is about to go south. He's the stereotypical white guy always clapping on the wrong beat. Gore switched from being a pro-defense Democrat to a lefty peacenik - just before the 9-11 attack. He grew a beard - just in time for an attack on the nation by fundamentalist Muslims. He endorsed Howard Dean - just as the orange-capped Deaniacs were punching themselves out. Gore even went out and got really fat - just before America officially gave up carbs. This guy is always leaping into the mosh pit at the precise moment the crowd parts. Mark my words: Now that good old Al has come lunging in, the anti-war movement is dead."