The script has changed.
Pointing to Al Gore, parents throughout the country may be telling their children that if they study hard, lead good lives and not become president they could be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gore is the co-winner of this year’s Peace Prize for sounding the alarm on global warming. He shares the prize with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
While Gore may have fashioned a grand comeback, a look at the post-defeat careers of other recent unsuccessful presidential wannabes shows that there can be life, a good life at that, after losing. All have found things to do, sometimes lucrative things, and many have held elective office, most often in the U.S. Senate.
And if Gore should ever want to try again for the presidency, he can take hope from Richard Nixon, a true comeback artist.
Like Gore, Nixon served as vice president for eight years.
Like Gore, he lost a close race for the presidency.
And then, eight years later, Nixon was elected president.
But a look at the list of presidential losers from the major parties since 1960 shows that Gore has many models to follow.
2004: John Kerry, Democrat. After losing to George H.W. Bush, he has remained in the U.S. Senate. First elected to that body in 1984, he won a fourth term in 2002.
2000: Al Gore, Democrat. He won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush. Since losing, he has taught journalism in college, served on corporate boards (Apple) and starred in the award-winning documentary on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.
1996: Bob Dole, Republican. He gave up his seat in the Senate to concentrate on the presidential race, which he lost to Bill Clinton, a Democrat. After his defeat, Dole has practiced law and given speeches. He has been a spokesperson for various products and causes and a TV commentator.
1992: George H.W. Bush, Republican. Vice president under Ronald Reagan, he served one term as president and lost a re-election bid to Clinton. Since leaving the presidency, he has raised money for various causes and, like Clinton, given many speeches.
1988: Michael Dukakis, Democrat. Governor of Massachusetts when he lost to Bush, he served the final two years of his third term. Since then he has been a professor of political science at Northeastern University and a visiting professor at UCLA. He also served on the board of directors of Amtrak.
1984: Walter Mondale, Democrat. A former senator from Minnesota and a former vice president, he lost to President Ronald Reagan. Since losing, he has practiced law and taught. He was ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996. He has remained active in party politics and in 2002 stood in for Paul Wellstone on the ballot in Minnesota after Wellstone died in a plane crash just 11 days before the election.
1980: Jimmy Carter, Democrat. After losing his bid for re-election, he has devoted himself to humanitarian and diplomatic causes. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1976: Gerald Ford, Republican. He served a little more than two years as president after Nixon’s resignation. After losing to Carter, Ford retired, moved to California, served on corporate boards and gave speeches. He died in 2006.
1972: George McGovern, Democrat. After losing to Nixon, he remained in the Senate until January 1981. From 1998 to 2001, he was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. agencies for food and agriculture in Rome. In 2001, he was named a U.N. global ambassador on world hunger.
1968: Hubert H. Humphrey, Democrat. After losing to Nixon. He was elected to the Senate from Minnesota in 1970, returning to a body in which he had served for 16 years. He died in 1978 while in office.
1964: Barry Goldwater, Republican. He was finishing his second six-year term in the Senate in 1964 and did not seek re-election. After losing to Lyndon Johnson, he ran for the Senate from Arizona again in 1968 and won the first of three more terms. He died in 1998.
1960: Richard Nixon, Republican. He lost to John F. Kennedy after serving eight years as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower. He was elected president in 1968, re-elected in 1972 and resigned in 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal. He died in 1994.