In the newest set of 2004 preview polls, Dubya is tied with a number of Dems, including Clark, Kerry, and Lieberman (Dean and Gephardt run slightly behind.) For his part, Bush say he’s not listening to the primary furor, yet that’s not stopping the White House from sweating today’s UN address, or GOP flaks from decrying the Dems’ “political hate speech.” Hate speech? Heh. Perhaps Gillespie should be referred to a little matter called impeachment…it was in the papers a few years back. Also in Election 2004 news, be sure to check out Value Judgment, a site I found in the referrer logs a few weeks ago. It’s very pro-Dean, but nevertheless does a superlative job in keeping up with Dem primary news.
Category: Joe Lieberman
Let Slip the Bikes of War.
In the last week before the General makes his anticipated move, Dean courts Clark for a final time. Nevertheless, it looks like Clark is a go (provided he finds time away from his advocacy of military bicycles.) In other Dem election news, Dean (who’s now pulling ahead in Iowa and everywhere else) got in a spot of trouble the other night in the third debate. Regarding the furor over Israel, I thought Dean successfully parried Lieberman’s attack by invoking Clinton, and made Joe (and Gephardt’s flunkies) seem as desperately aggressive as they in fact are. Yet, while he generally avoided the Mean Dr. Dean schtick this time, his comments on race — “I’m the only white politician that ever talks about race in front of white audiences.” — smacks of Gore-like hyperbole. Overblown, self-aggrandizing, and flagrantly ridiculous remarks like those cost Mediscare Al dearly in 2000…I would hope Dean knows better to repeat that mistake. At any rate, I thought Kerry and Kucinich also did quite well, although these two — especially the latter – might soon have to face the music when the General unleashes his cyclists on Sept. 19.
Reinvention Time.
With Howard Dean’s place currently secure as a top-tier candidate (despite perhaps needing to burnish his foreign policy creds for the stretch run), a number of other Dems try to take advantage of the Labor Day rush to gain some traction before Wesley Clark becomes the soup du jour. As such, a Military Kerry officially announces in SC, an experienced Gephardt unveils new ads, and a newly compassionate Lieberman offers a “MediKids” plan. Well, the jury may still be out in Iowa, but I think I can safely say there’s very little chance of my voting Gephart and absolutely none of my voting Lieberman. Kerry still has a shot, though, depending how the campaign goes over the fall.
Preseason Review.
In case you haven’t been following along up to this point, the NY Times summarizes the state of the 2004 Democratic field heading into Labor Day weekend (Gen. Wesley Clark excepted, for the time being.) On the other side of the aisle, Dubya’s 9/11 actions are given the rose-colored Showtime treatment (with Timothy Bottoms of That’s My Bush! playing Dubya again, no less.) Let’s see…Lying about witnessing the first attack, reading The Pet Goat for ten minutes while the WTC smoldered, disappearing from public view for the remainder of the day while jetting to Omaha, scampering about atop the ruins (and remains) a few days later while playing fratboy games with a megaphone…It should make for an interesting film, if they pause long enough to stop waving the bloody shirt.
Say it Ain’t So, Joe.
Campaign Update: While Howard Dean enjoys a very good press week, a flailing Joe Lieberman rails against the Left (and calls Dean a “ticket to nowhere.”) How utterly self-serving. Meanwhile, although it’s nothing compared to Dubya’s, John Edwards prepares to capitalize on his own considerable war chest.
Internecine Warfare.
As Dean scores another Internet coup and looks even more competitive in New Hampshire, the DLC tries to scare the left into submission with polls suggesting a mass defection of white males (veterans notwithstanding, I presume.) Perhaps it should be noted that Mark Penn is currently working for the Lieberman campaign. In related news, Jonathans Chait and Cohn debate Dean’s effect on the race in TNR. And, finally, John Edwards announces his health care plan in New Hampshire in Clintonesque fashion. (Veteran link via Follow Me Here.)
Pile On.
Weaponsgate fallout continues, with Ted Kennedy decrying Dubya’s foreign policy, John Kerry lambasting Homeland (in)Security under Bush, and Dean and Lieberman calling for Tenet’s head. Whether or not Tenet continues to fall on his sword for the Bushies, the buck stops with the White House, and the GOP Senate can only play defense for so long. What did Dubya know, and when did he know it?
Friendly Fire.
William Saletan, who’s been rather unkind to Dean in the past, shows his hand – he’s for Edwards. Unfortunately, Saletan’s case here makes me less inclined to vote for him. “If Dean’s strength is speaking bluntly to the right, Edwards, like Joe Lieberman, has shown a facility for speaking bluntly to the left.” That’s exactly what I don’t want to hear.
“Lockbox” is still up for grabs…
Ryan Lizza looks at the charges of plagiarism and kleptomania resounding across the Democratic field at the moment, singling out the Dean campaign as the most “protective–some might say paranoid.” It seems to me that, while there’s clearly a lot of protective camouflage going on, one would have to expect some degree of overlap in a field of nine candidates, particularly when the allowable range of leftiness is so frustratingly small.
The Left Strike Back.
The Democratic candidates find out there’s more to the party than the DLC at the Take Back America conference. Good to see an uprising against the Lieberman Republicrats, and that the rest of the Dem field now – thanks in part to Howard Dean – has to take progressive discontent seriously.