What Could Have Been

Quote of the Day:

If you are inclined to think that the unjustly awarded election of 2000 led to one of the worst presidencies of this or any other era it is not easy to look at Al Gore. He is the living reminder of all that might not have happened in the past six years (and of what might still happen in the coming two)...It is close to inconceivable that the country and the world would not be in far better shape had [Al] Gore been allowed to assume the office that a plurality of voters wished him to have. One can imagine him as an intelligent and decent President, capable of making serious decisions and explaining them in the language of a confident adult. Imagining that alternative history is hard to bear, which is why Gore always has the courtesy, in his many speeches, to deflect that discomfort with a joke: "Hello, I’m Al Gore and I used to be the next President of the United States."

-David Remnick, in the April 24 edition of the New Yorker.