AS AL GORE KICKS HIMSELF.

Bob Graham: Who is he kidding?(Chris Suellentrop, Slate, May 8, 2003)

But Graham never distinguished himself in the Senate. Instead, he became a Floridian Al D'Amato, focused on the Everglades, highway funding, and constituent service. Three times—by Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore—he was passed over as a candidate for veep. Other than the fact that he was from Florida, Graham was notable for only two things before 9/11: His monthly "workdays," a sort of Bring Your Senator to Work Day that he uses to stay in touch with voters by working alongside one for an eight-hour day, and his notebooks, in which he chronicles the minute-by-minute details of his daily life, from what he eats ("branola cereal with peach," according to the Time magazine article that published a 1994 Graham diary) to what movies he rewinds (Ace Ventura, according to that same diary). On the Today show Wednesday, Graham defended his idiosyncrasy: "For me, it is a means of organization and discipline. And I guess my question is why more people in public office don't do this."

Even with hindsight, it's not that often that you can pinpoint the exact moment someone made a decision that ends up losing him the Presidency. Al Gore, if he had gone with Graham, would be President today. Wow, that was close.

Otherwise, I have to say that Suellentrop's fondness for Graham is odd. I find this "workday" habit incredibly condescending: "I can understand your life in 8 hours." His minute by minute diary is just weird. But, most of all, I find his determination to stick with the argument that Iraq was a useless distraction from the war on terror to be delusional. Now, successful presidential campaigns have been based on delusion, but for this to work the delusion has to be shared by the public. This particular delusion is shared by no one but Graham. Posted by David Cohen at May 8, 2003 8:42 PM