Vicki Gray Stumps for Dean
From newssanfrancisco.com’s Vicki Gray comes this to-the-barricades call: Where are all the Democrats? Gray argues that those who oppose Bush should rally behind Howard Dean.
Maybe. We certainly need someone willing to stand up to Bush and expose the lies with which he is being packaged and sold to the electorate. Dean would make people like me ecstatic — but I’m not exactly a mainstream swing voter. I guess it’s cynical to buy into the DLC position that only a “centrist” Democrat can win; one example (Clinton) does not necessarily prove the point. But there’s a self-fulfilling prophecy involved. If enough of the middle-of-the-country (ideologically, I mean, not necessarily physically) swing voters believe it, it becomes true, at least in terms of the presidential election’s outcome.
Time will tell, obviously. In the meantime, I think we who are opposed to Bush need to support a Democratic primary process that focuses on Bush’s failures, countering some of the shock-and-awe image-building the White House is doing. I’m personally not that concerned at this point with Who Is Most Ideologically Pure. I think any of the Democratic contenders would be better than Bush. I’d like to see those contenders conspiring with each other to send the same message to the electorate, rather than beating each other up.
But I’m still okay with people like Vicki Gray working to rouse the rabble. Passion = good. Apathy = bad. Woo! Go passion!
May 21st, 2003 at 2:29 pm
Hope leaps eternal but pragmatic political reality pounces with the subtlety of a 16-ton weight.
In Iowa, Gephardt is spinning a straw poll into gold with a 25-point lead. Kerry is strapped into second place with 13%. 5% gives Dr. Dean a white-knuckled grip on third place.
The Iowa results are misleading because it is a demonstration of political organization not of popularity. Gephardt has run for president so many times he’s had a permanent campaign staff in Iowa for over a decade.
New Hampshire is more representative of the general Democrat primary and has Kerry and Dean running neck-and-neck. So far, they seem to be splitting the liberal vote.
Lieberman is taking South Carolina because he is not seen as an anti-war candidate. Despite Kerry wearing a sandwich board sign proclaiming, “I am a Vietnam Vet,” he is still seen as an anti-war candidate.
The media will be the deciding factor in this race. They can’t admit they want Edwards because his poll numbers are as DOA as those of Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley-Braun. So they have to settle for a winner.
Gephardt has run so many times he is seen as the slut who came to the prom and no one wants to take him home to meet their parents. Lieberman has been tarred a loser by the 2000 elections. So he’s out. That leaves Kerry and Dean.
In the long run, Kerry’s “I’m a war hero” will turn off the media. At some point, Kerry will be labeled a rich guy trying to buy the election. A simple slogan like “buying the election” is the kiss of death in politics and in the media.
The doctor is IN!
These are only estimates of political mileage. Actual results may vary.