While no one can prove how an Al Gore led world would have gone (and in retrospect there were serious strategic flaws in his campaign, including his choice of Lieberman rather than Bradley as v-p), we do know that the Bush-Cheney leadership was among the worst–an eight-year run ending with the world economy, Islamic crescent, and political infrastructure all in shambles. With things rapidly falling apart in the fall of 2008, markets tanking, foreclosures starting to rise, the country voted for competence & inspiring ideals over service & possible flakiness.
Without the collapse of both domestic economy and foreign floundering, Obama would never have been elected. Only the worst of times made such an unconventional choice possible. It wouldn’t be easy to pick a worst president in my lifetime, and maybe W. wouldn’t be top choice, but he’d certainly be on the short list. I suppose one have a similar list for the best, but at this point, at the end of their eight-year run, I’d give that honor to Obama & Biden, individually & as a team.
[Reasons are included in th efull article, in the “Year of the Fluke” pdf.]