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.
Tag: Democrats
The Doctor is In.
As noted many places around the blogosphere, Dean reannounced his candidacy yesterday. I like Dean quite a bit – of all the electable candidates I think he’s currently striking the best tone regarding both the Bushies and the DLC. But I must admit, I am somewhat perturbed by his faux-liberalism – this Saletan piece reads like a hit, but it’s correct in noting that, despite Dean’s campaign strategy, the good doctor is more DLC than true lefty…in fact, Dean himself is guilty of savaging his own left flank as governor. So, Dean’s definitely in the hunt for my vote, but he still has to contend with Kerry and Edwards for the time being.
Dominance without Hegemony.
The Washington Post offers yet another story on the GOP belief in their upcoming electoral dominance. (It is counterpoised with an article on the lost and wayward Dems.) Didn’t we hear all this before, after the 1994 midterms? What goes around comes around, and while Dubya’s support may be a mile wide, it’s also an inch deep, particularly when you consider that 3 out of 4 Americans didn’t vote for him in 2000. Whether it be Weaponsgate, corporate malfeasance, handouts to the rich, intemperate buffoons, or, much more likely, just the simple fact of the Dubya dip, the GOP is strutting about on feet of clay.
“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.
Read Their Lips.
With the Dubya dividend debacle virtually a done deal, the Democratic field rethinks their election strategies in lieu of the Bush tax cuts. Given the inroads Dubya’s making into Dem territory (well, at least according to Fox News), hopefully Kerry, Edwards, Dean & co. will realize the only way to play it is straight – the tax cuts are a horrible idea and they need to be repealed.
“New” Dems, Old Insults.
If you can judge a man by his enemies, then Howard Dean picked up a key endorsement last week. Via Scully by e-mail, Al From’s Democratic Leadership Council – one of Al Gore‘s main water-carriers in 2000 and an organization which counts Joe Lieberman and Bob Graham among its members – decides to attack Howard Dean as an “elitist.” What garbage…The DLC is going to have find a better way of dealing with their left flank than simply casting old GOP insults their way. It’s exactly this type of Republican-lite thinking endlessly promoted by From’s organization that made Ralph Nader the spoiler in 2000. Don’t think it couldn’t happen again. Update: Perhaps Clinton will straighten ’em out, although it sounds like he’s just reading from the Lieberman-Graham playbook instead. Update 2: Independent James Jeffords criticizes the DLC remarks, calling it “incredible to hear such charges coming from Democrats.” Not as incredible as it once was, I’m afraid.
Primary Colors.
In a cover story for TIME, Joe Klein gives his take on the Democratic field. I don’t agree with everything he has to say (for example, giving Dubya a pass on Iraq), but it’s worth reading nonetheless.
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.
Meanwhile, in 2004.
Kerry’s got the loot, Lieberman’s spending too much, Edwards is bleeding support (I’m not sure if losing Shrum is a negative), and, even among nine candidates, Florida Senator Bob Graham has come up with a novel position on the Middle East: He’s against the war in Iraq, for a war in Syria. And we’ve got eighteen months to go, folks.