Gore endorses Dean for Democratic nomination

NEW YORK -- Former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, adding momentum and political prestige to Dean's front-running campaign.\nGore said Dean "really is the only candidate who has been able to inspire at the grass-roots level all over the country." He said the former Vermont governor also was the only Democratic candidate who made the correct judgment about the Iraq war.\n"Our country has been weakened in its ability to fight the war against terror because of the catastrophic mistake the Bush administration made in taking us into war in Iraq," Gore said.\nDean said it was an honor and a privilege to receive Gore's endorsement.\nGore's political impact was immediately evident at the event when Roy Neel, a longtime operative, pledged to join Dean's campaign, bringing his network of Gore supporters with him.\nWhile praising the party's other presidential candidates, Gore said Democrats should unite behind Dean or at least stop attacking him.\n"We don't have the luxury of fighting among ourselves to the point where we seriously damage our ability to win on behalf of the American people," Gore said just hours before the candidates debated in New Hampshire.\nFive weeks before Iowa's kickoff caucuses, Gore and Dean were flying to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Dean is locked in a tight race with Rep. Dick Gephardt in the Jan. 19 Democratic caucuses.\nGore won the popular vote by half-a-million votes in 2000 but conceded to Republican George W. Bush after a tumultuous 36-day recount in Florida and a 5-4 Supreme Court vote against him. The election still rankles Democratic activists, many of whom are still loyal to Gore.\nThe approval of Bill Clinton's No. 2 bolsters Dean's case that he can carry the party's mantle in November and represents more than an Internet-driven outsider relying on the support of largely white, upscale voters.\nDean hopes the coveted endorsement also eases concerns among party leaders about his lack of foreign policy experience, testy temperament, policy flip-flops, campaign miscues and edgy anti-war, anti-establishment messages.\n"What this says is that all these Washington insiders who have been gnashing their teeth, wringing their hands and clinging to their cocktail cups can relax now. Dean's been knighted by the ultimate insider," said Democratic consultant Dean Strother of Washington. "It's game, set and match. It's over."\nOther Democrats offered more cautious appraisals, but the overwhelming consensus was that Dean's coup makes him the overwhelming favorite to claim the nomination. Even advisers to Dean's rivals conceded they were stunned and disheartened by the news.\n"I was caught completely off-guard," Sen. Joe Lieberman, Gore's runningmate in 2000 and a hopeful for the nomination, said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. That many of Gore's positions are opposite to those of Dean made the decision a surprise to him, Lieberman said.\n"Al Gore has endorsed someone here who has taken positions diametrically opposite" of the former vice president, Lieberman said. "What really bothers me is that Al is supporting a candidate who is so fundamentally opposed to the basic transformation that Bill Clinton brought to this party in 1992," moving it to a more middle-of-the-road stance on economic policy and other areas, he said.\nAsked on "Today" whether he felt betrayed by the former vice president, Lieberman said, "I'm not going to talk about Al Gore's sense of loyalty this morning."\nJenny Backus, a Democratic strategist from Washington, said Gore will help Dean gain access to "some key constituencies, African Americans and women and organized labor, and in Iowa."\nBut while Dean leads in polls in New Hampshire and Iowa, the race has not taken shape beyond the initial voting states and Gore's endorsement will not erase every doubt about the former Vermont governor. Analysts noted that Gore's uneven performance in 2000 alienated many party leaders, thus his endorsement has limited appeal, and they predicted an anti-Dean movement will eventually form behind one of his eight rivals.\nSome rank-and-file Democrats were stung by Gore's decision.\n"It isn't fair that he turned his back on Lieberman," said Mohammed Islam, a New York taxi driver and longtime Democratic voter. "If he was good enough for him in 2000, why not now?"\nIn an unusual response, Democratic candidate Wesley Clark issued a statement touting the number of former Gore staffers working on his campaign.