What if Gore Had Been President?

The 2000 U.S. presidential election was extremely close. Al Gore, the democratic candidate, actually won the popular vote, but not the electoral vote. The final state to swing the election was Florida, and that state's election was so close that the votes were being recounted, and the Supreme Court had to rule on when to stop the recount. (Here's a link to the Wikipedia article about it.) The Supreme Court decided to stop the recount, and George W. Bush became president.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Gore had been elected. I'm sure we would not have gone to war in Iraq. Gore is an environmentalist, and with him as president I'm sure we would have had stronger laws to protect the environment and prevent global warming.

At the time Bush took office, the U.S. economy was in good shape, and there was no budget deficit. Many people think that our current economic difficulties result from decisions made during the Bush administration--the Iraq war, tax cuts and removing regulation from banks and financial institutions. If this is true, the recession we are suffering from today might have been prevented.