The 2000 presidential campaign is one of several elections that have gone down in history as both controversial and divisive. That year, Governor George W. Bush, the son of a former president, took on the Vice President of the United States, Al Gore. Governor Bush selected a long-time D.C. insider and former advisor to three U.S. presidents, Dick Cheney. When it came time for Vice President Gore to select his running mate, he chose a centrist Democrat, who also happened to be an Orthodox Jew, Senator Joe Lieberman.
Many were shocked by the pick since there were many more seasoned candidates, but Lieberman was known for his straightforward approach to politics and was a likable guy. That he became the first fully Jewish candidate to be nominated on a national ticket (Barry Goldwater’s paternal side of the family was Jewish) was somewhat unique, and the Gore campaign certainly “played that up” when campaigning in more heavily Jewish sections of the country. It is therefore somewhat ironic that Gore / Lieberman met their Waterloo in Florida, the state with the third most Jews in the US. Ultimately, Bush/Cheney squeaked in, as the US Supreme Court determined Florida was won by the Republicans. That being said, and as the button above proclaims, Gore and Lieberman ran a gutsy campaign.
