The Sunshine Empire

After having dinner at our New Switzerland Plantation home office, I watched the HBO movie Recount, about the 2000 election and the Florida recount battle. The movie was almost exclusively filmed in The Sunshine Empire so many landmarks supposedly in other Florida cities were right here in the River City. Now living in the Sunshine State in 2000 the historic event was even more vivid, but it truly brings back how razor close that election really was. But the recount battle was just part of the historic roller coaster ride that this nation has been on since 1998.

As I studied at the University of Florida to complete my degree in History, I was fond of lamenting that I lived in a “non-time.” Nothing of tumult or note ever occurred during the heady nineties. Yet on the day that I graduated (with the Lord’s help), only the second American President in the history of our grand republic was impeached. Now this set in motion a chain of events that would prove my lamentation of needing a time, grossly over compensated for by the fates. But the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the 2000 election were ruminating in my skull for a while when a bit of a historical epiphany occurred.

Historical epiphanies occur for me often due to my party switch in the mid 2000’s. But it was only after reading an article about how the historic Democratic primary of 2008 has been devoid of talk of the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton that I had an historic epiphany. With Albert Gore’s almost Presidential win in 2000 it suddenly was made clear that had the Congressional Republicans’ efforts to impeach Clinton been successful, Gore would have won the presidency and the 21st century would be a far different place.

Consider the late 20th century with Clinton impeached in 1999 conceivably after a conviction in the Senate. Albert Gore Jr. would have assumed the presidency of the United States. President Gore would have had an entire year to bask in the wonderful actual achievements of the Clinton administration. 20 million jobs and no wars would have been revealed to the American people not distracted by the ruminations of blow job theory by Republican thought police. When he stood a year later for the Presidency he would be an incumbent President. He won the popular vote by 500,000 votes and only lost Florida by the Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush-decided 600 or so votes. An incumbent President Gore would have won the Presidency and I challenge anyone to say otherwise. Please use facts and not which party or cocaine addict you wish would have won.

Now political prognostication is a game that no one has won, but the ramifications for our grand republic would be so different for what would and should that have occurred. Your feeling on it being a good thing or a bad thing is purely a matter of argument, if you are hiding under a giant elephant. But ask the American people in their righteous might, if they’d like to take back the election of 2000. I think you will have your answer.