Taking Al's Measure

摘要

Until the 1960s, primaries were rare and largely irrelevant. Through a haze of cigar smoke and bourbon breath, a group of white men at summer political conventions war-gamed the fall campaign with only one question in mind: which candidate could win? Today's voters are not so single-minded; they stop to think whether they actually like the person, a question that never troubled the old bosses. But the bottom line is the same. With Al Gore now the strong favorite of Democrats, it's time for a cold-eyed assessment ofhow either George W. Bush or John McCain would stack up against him— personally and politically.