I seem to remember that at the time of the Falklands War Margaret Thatcher had opinion poll results which were absurdly high.

I imagine that if they'd counted all the votes and Gore had been elected, he'd have the same kind of support in the opinion polls as Bush - including I suspect, that of Doug.

People seem to do that in times of national crisis. Politicians who are even more unsavoury than Thatcher seem to benefit by that. (And by that I don't mean Bush Jr - I think when it comes to being unsavoury Mrs Thatcher beats him hands down.)