Was Gore really "more charismatic" in 2004? I seem to remember mocking his beard at some point in time.
Whoever said that a Gore win in 2004 means a Bush-Gore rematch in 2008 has really intrigued me. The Republicans don't renominate typically, but the entire narrative of 2008 would be different, assuming a minimally different from OTL Gore victory (fun and games if he wins in the same way Kerry was likely to have, by winning the electoral college but losing the popular vote). Instead of "In 2000 the economy was good and booming, and now the deficit has skyrocketed and the economy is in the trash and companies are too big to fail", it's "Remember how in 2004 we were winning Iraq and the economy was booming, and now Gore and the Democrats are trying to spend their way out of an economic catastrophe!" In such a situation Bush v Gore III would be fairly plausible, given the relative weakness of the GOP bench in OTL anyway.