Leftward, Ho? Dean best chance may be a lurch to the left.

Daily Standard ^ | December 31, 2003 | Hugh Hewitt

[billorites]

HOWARD DEAN has survived a bad month. Saddam Hussein was captured. The Democratic party appears to understand that Dean isn't electable. Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman and Congressman Richard Gephardt all have warned that Dean means certain electoral doom. They aren't exaggerating. Even the Washington Post has filed its objections to his candidacy. Dean is clearly out of the mainstream.

The conventional wisdom now predicts that Dean will move to the center following wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. A ticket that includes John Edwards or Evan Bayh is being suggested. The gray heads are murmuring that Dean surely understands the need to moderate his image.

But what if Dean is smarter than people give him credit for being? What if Dean has figured out that he can't win with a 2000 electorate, and that riding around in tanks didn't do Dukakis much good? What if Dean really believes his own rhetoric, and has decided that in for a dime means in for a dollar?

That would mean an Upton Sinclair campaign--like the writer waged in 1934 for the governorship of California. It would mean a deliberate effort to expand the electorate--to register folks who have never voted before and who, at this moment, aren't even thinking about the possibility of voting in 2004. It would mean the opposite of a rush to the center. It would mean a lurch to the left.

Dean has to know, for example, that electoral math dooms him in the south, even with an Edwards or a Clark as a running mate. The only way Dean carries even a single state in the south is if he mobilizes an African-American turnout that is unprecedented. That would mean a stunning selection as the vice-presidential nominee; someone, say, like Kweisi Mfume, the former congressman and current NAACP president. If Dean is to have a prayer in places like Mississippi and Alabama, he has to go for a selection that gets the activists marching and registering new voters like never before. And Dean knows he would have to announce such a bid early, long before the conventional wisdom dictates.

Dean also has to know that a Dukakis-repeat cannot win the presidency even if it can win the nomination. He cannot relish the prospect of a future of half-filled seminar rooms in Cambridge.

Which means he has to roll the dice.

The bat-wielders at BlogForAmerica don't want pastels. They want primary colors. The chorus this fall will be "Let Dean be Dean." I'm guessing he won't disappoint them.

Look for Dean to go long. And look for Dean to go left.

Hugh Hewitt is the host of The Hugh Hewitt Show, a nationally syndicated radio talkshow, and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard. His new book, In, But Not Of, has just been published by Thomas Nelson.

[Poohbah]

One more lurch to the left and The Deanie Baby falls off the edge of the Earth...

[Billthedrill]

Look for Dean to hand control of the Democratic party back to the Clintonistas after a humiliating debacle.

[StatesEnemy]

Dean-Sharpton ticket?

Bwhahahaha!

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[StatesEnemy]

Given that something like 40% of the population currently shirk their civic duties (and I bet most of them are young, impressionable, idealistic mush-heads), it isn't beyond reason that a Dean/Sharpton ticket that focused on blitzkrieg voter registration campaign could give Bush a run for his money.

[billorites]

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right

[HarleyD]

I doubt if Dean will move to the center which is the worry of the RATS. If Dean wins the nomination the REAL question will be how many other RATS who are running for office will want to be associated with him. These states and federal RATS will be put into a position of either supporting Dean's left wing ideology or distancing themselves from him. In either case it will make either him or them look stupid.

[Mr. Bird]

Naah. At best, he'd be making a one-for-one exchange for the real voters (i.e. the ones who have done it in the past) he'd be alienating. That's at best. Dean's problem is he has to grab the white, blue collar vote in the Midwest and the black vote in the South. That's a tough trick under any circumstances. Doing it without the entire party apparatus at your disposal is nearly impossible.

[dc-zoo]

Lurch?? I thought that was John F'n Kerry.

[Happy2BMe]

"HOWARD DEAN has survived a bad month."

Now all we gotta do is make sure Dean gets the DNC nomination and keep a close watch on all the district, federal, and state supreme courts during the last 48 hours of the election.

[StatesEnemy]

Ya maybe your right... But I have to say, with the skin-of-our-teeth of last time, I am not blindly confident, merely generally optimistic.

Sorta how I feel about my Pats chances versus the Titans.

[Gorjus]

Look for Dean to hand control of the Democratic party back to the Clintonistas after a humiliating debacle.

Hand control back to the Clintons? They've never let go!

Rule #1: It's all about Hillary.
Rule #2: Hillary can't beat Bush in 2004, so it's all about 2008.
Rule #3: For Hillary to win, she's got to appear as a moderate to the moderates without losing the support of the far-left.
Rule #4: For a shrill socialist like Hillary to appear as a moderate, people have to consider her in comparison to someone portrayed as an angry, screaming, waaayyy-left extremist.

Therefore, the Dems will run someone perceived as an angry, screaming far-left extremist in 2004. Anyone come to mind?

Of course, if Bush looks truly vulnerable in 2004, Rule #2 is thrown out and she's the immediate candidate.

[bassmaner]

Rule #4: For a shrill socialist like Hillary to appear as a moderate, people have to consider her in comparison to someone portrayed as an angry, screaming, waaayyy-left extremist.

Pretty good analysis.

[Billthedrill]

Well, you're certainly right about that. McAwful is cheerfully funneling contributions to a Clinton fund and by the time the Deanie babies get there the well is likely to be just a little arid. One thing that hasn't registered yet - Dean's highly-touted Internet funding drive numbers are pledges, not actual donations. This could get very ugly very quickly.

And you know I hate it when that happens to the Dems... ;-)

[OldFriend]

NJ Governor McGreevy has jumped on the Dean bandwagon.

Could have something to do with the rumors about McGreevy's penchant for young boys.

[Gorjus]

McAwful is cheerfully funneling contributions to a Clinton fund

The biggest impacts of the campaign finance reform law (aside from the Supreme Court cheerfully p*ssing all over the Constitution) has been to undercut the national political parties. It's become both easier and more necessary to hide money in backroom interest groups - and those are machine politics controlled by the Clintons despite Dean's Internet populist appeal. Clinton is the power broker now, and all the markers are going to be called in for 2008.

[OldFriend]

But her heinous is an angry, screaming, waaayyy left extremist.

[mirkwood]

[pt17]

Are you saying Dean is a Clinton put-up job or that he just happens to nicely fit into Hillary's bill of lading?