But it is Gore's relationship with the Clintons that will be most adversely affected. For Gore's move puts him in contention for the 2008 nomination, should Dean lose. Most Democrats assumed that nomination would go, almost by default, to Hillary.
Now, the Clintons are boxed in by Gore's masterstroke.
They have said they will not endorse a candidate until the nomination battle is over. They will thus be idle bystanders while the eight Democrats are battling. And should Dean, as expected, win, he and his loyal followers will owe Bill and Hillary nothing. Indeed, many of them already see the Clintons as cool to their candidate and anxious to see him rejected by the convention -- and if not rejected, lose in 2004. That would clear the field for Hillary.
Now, the Clintons' interests in the 2008 nomination will force them to abandon a Rockefeller-style role of standing aloof from the nominee and force them to go all out for Dean if they wish to win over the Dean loyalists for Hillary in 2008.
All of which makes Gore's endorsement a coup for Dean. Not only has Gore given him the benediction of an establishment leader, Gore has credited Dean with being right on Iraq. Howard Dean "made the correct judgment about the Iraq war," said Gore, and had the "insight and courage to do the right thing."
It was a "mistake to get us into that quagmire over there."
"Quagmire"? Al Gore is saying Sens. Clinton, Kerry, Lieberman and Edwards, and Rep. Dick Gephardt blundered in giving George W. Bush a blank check for war. He has thus made the war the issue of the primaries of 2004, and perhaps of the election of 2008, when Gore obviously believes those who voted for the war will have much to answer for to history.
Al Gore has just declared his independence of the Clintons and may have fired the first shot in a Clinton-Gore battle for the soul of the Democratic Party in 2008. Well played.