Republicans Happy About Dean Strength?
The permalink-challenged wags at OpinionJournals’ Best of the Web page make the following observation about Dean’s good showing in the recent MoveOn poll, and the relatively large amounts of cash he’s pulling in lately:
Karl Rove must be jumping for joy. Apart from the Sharptonkucinichmoseleybraun also-rans, Dean is the best opponent the Republicans could possibly hope for. Can anyone imagine such an intemperate lefty winning a single “red” state? If President Bush merely carries the same states he did last time around, he has 278 electoral votes and a second term. Against Dean he could phone it in.
Dean supporters need to think about this issue seriously. I’m not saying we can’t choose to support him even if the above wisdom is deemed accurate. But choosing to do so in that case will carry certain costs, and we should be prepared to pay them.
Of course, the OpinionJournal writers could also simply be wrong. And without the kind of faith that would let us support a supposedly “unelectable” candidate, we’d never find that out.
July 1st, 2003 at 5:22 pm
Well, it seems a pretty good Republican strategy to keep claiming that all the would-be Democratic challengers are unelectable. Then by the time one of them wins the nomination, they can faux breath a sigh of relief and claim that it’s been common knowledge that there’s no way the Democrat can win.
Furthermore, Dean isn’t really left wing. See this comparison:
http://www.bobharris.com/kucinichdean.html
July 2nd, 2003 at 1:06 pm
I think Dean is extremely electable. He’s not nearly as “lefty” as people think, he’s a plain-speaking governor who doesn’t apologize for his common-sense take on things, and I think he’ll make a refreshing change for voters from the wild-eyed President.
Does anyone really think Joe Lieberman, who Jon Stewart called “the candidate for people who like Bush, but don’t think he’s Jewish enough” could really beat Bush himself?
July 6th, 2003 at 11:41 am
All the spin out there calling Dean unelectable even coming from the DNC and DLC much less the right wings supposed glee over Dean as the canidate are telling me he’s the one they are most afraid of. Which is strange when you consider the Demo’s saying he can’t win. Best sign I know of that he’s probably a winner.