In keeping with his right-on-terror campaign strategy, Senator Bob Graham accuses Dubya of a 9/11 coverup. While I don’t particularly care for Graham’s brand of fear-mongering, he’s got a point this time around…that congressional report should be made public, and particularly if the centerpiece of Dubya’s re-election campaign will involve waving the bloody shirt as planned.
Category: Democrats
Ho-Ho and the Stiff.
The NYT surveys the Kerry-Dean primary battlefield, and allows Dean to sound off on his grumpy debate performance.
Round 1.
Well, after watching a rebroadcast of Saturday’s first Democratic debate on C-Span yesterday…
The Top Tier: I’d have to say it’s still a three-man race for my vote right now among Kerry, Dean, and Edwards. I personally thought Edwards came off the best, although he benefited greatly from being the first Dem to step “above” the Kerry-Dean fracas. As per the rap on him, Kerry seemed somewhat bored and remote, while Dean – who usually says the right things on paper – appeared pugnacious and self-satisfied. To my dismay, Dean seemed even less personable on the telly than Tsongas did back in the day. So, of the three, I thought Edwards seemed like he had the best chance of not being pigeonholed as a Standard-Issue Out-Of-It Liberal in a debate with Dubya, and he seemed much more comfortable using populist rhetoric than Gore ever did. To my mind, Edwards wins Round 1, although obviously we have quite a few more rounds to go.
The Rest: If I had to pick a fourth choice, it’d probably be Moseley-Braun, who got in the best line of the evening with her Florida recount gag. (“People said that the black vote would decide the election of 2000, and it did…Clarence Thomas’s.“) Gephardt seemed a bit weary of primary shenanigans, Lieberman (who inexplicably is getting the best post–debate press) is in the wrong primary, and Bob “Live in Fear” Graham, Al Sharpton, and Dennis Kucinich were too busy playing Orrin Hatch, Alan Keyes, and Gary Bauer respectively. Didn’t much care for Stephanopoulos as self-proclaimed Kingmaker either (although I guess ABC had to use someone in their stable, and he was the most likely candidate), and I found his “I speak for the electorate about your foibles” routine in Pt. III to be wildly unproductive, if not downright insulting. While his characterizations of the candidates’ flaws might have occasionally been on the money (although occasionally they weren’t…who says Lieberman is too nice to be the Democratic candidate? Too theocratic, perhaps – too Republican, for sure – but too nice? That softball was a gift.), more time spent on issues and less on inside baseball would surely have been in order for the first debate.
Palmetto Progressivism.
The first Democratic debate is set for tonight at 9pm (although you probably have a better chance of catching it on C-Span tomorrow.) And, if nothing else, the 90-minute forum will offer long-suffering South Carolina progressives (or, at least, those of us not in exile) a chance to influence the Democratic primary as never before. Should be fun.
The Battle of Concord.
Sensing a misstep on the military question, John Kerry launches into Howard Dean, his most potent rival in the New Hampshire primary. For their part, the Dean camp counters by accusing Kerry of Gore-like evasiveness. Meanwhile, on another front, Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect suggests Dean is using the Gore playbook in his attacks on Gephardt’s health plan. I still run hot and cold on John Kerry, but I must say, hiring Gore flunky Chris Lehane as his campaign spokesman clearly goes in the minus column…he may be good at his job, but Lehane still exudes Gore’s insincerity. At any rate, with less a week until the first debate, it’s definitely on.
Angling for the Cabal Vote.
Ok, Gephardt may have a health plan, but Howard Dean has a blog. (Via Breaching the Web.) It’s going to be fascinating watching how these candidates work to differentiate themselves in the coming months. There can be only one…
Francophobia.
Utilizing a technique he learned in his fratboy hazing days, Dubya decides to freeze France out for her opposition to the war in Iraq. Along the same lines, Bushies are now trying to deride Kerry by saying he looks French. (Why not tell the American people he’s got cooties, while you’re at it?) Yes, folks, these people run the country.
Behind the Green Door.
In the election of 2004, will the Dems have to keep an eye on the Green Machine? As David Talbot reports, Ralph Nader will probably run again, despite calls that he back down to support an anti-Bush coalition. Actually quite a fascinating article, not only to discover that Michael Moore is giving the Greens good advice (his message: follow the example of the Christian Coalition and build from the bottom-up) but also because it’s the Dems that are freezing out cross-progressive talks between the parties. Bad, bad call: playing hardball with your left flank is only going to further embitter Green voters, and we’ve already seen where that got Gore.
War on the Floor.
As the Republican rift over the Dubya tax cut widens, conservatives prepare to oust anti-cut GOP moderates like Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Specter. As a result, Specter tries to shore up his freak-show-right creds by joining Majority Leader Bill Frist in defending Rick Santorum’s outbreak of gaybashing (calling Santorum a “voice for inclusion and compassion” is a bit much, isn’t it?). Snowe and Chafee, for their part, have condemned Santorum’s remarks (Via Medley.) While I’m all for the GOP imploding, isnt it about time for the Dems to pile on the heat? To paraphrase Carville, when your opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil.
Think Different.
Dick Gephardt tries to separate from the Democratic herd by offering a bold health care proposal that also repeals the ridiculous Dubya tax cuts. It was interesting to read of Gephardt’s proposal right after finishing Jacob Hacker’s The Divided Welfare State, since his proposal buttresses Hacker’s main point. Rather than develop a new public health care infrastructure a la the 1994 Clinton plan, Gephardt’s plan basically follows the path of least resistance and subcontracts health care out to private insurance companies. This will no doubt make it easier to pass in our neo-con political climate than the ’94 Clinton bill. That being said, as Hacker notes, letting the private sector run our social welfare regime severely cuts back on the redistributive potential of health care reform. But, hey, private universal health care coverage is better than no universal health care coverage. And it’s a smart move by Gephardt to appeal to the base.