'The Democrats!': Beloved Series Nears End of Run

OpinionJournal ^ | November 28, 2003 | DANIEL HENNINGER

[billorites]

There is a school of thought in the newspaper business that this is the least read day of the year. If there is any truth in that, then it's the perfect day to ponder the nine men and women running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

[Reo]

Dang! It looks like my 'Rat Dream Team of Kucinich-Sharpton isn't gonna make it.

[txzman]

A classic, classic article! Too many funny lined to quote!

[Steel Wolf]

The Bush Medicare bill? 9-0 against. The Bush Iraq policy? 9-0 against. The way George Bush walks to the helicopter? 9-0 against. Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, suggested that Mr. Bush's policies allowed 9/11 to happen.

What is anyone supposed to make of this performance? During the Clinton presidency, Republicans found areas of policy with which to agree, such as Nafta or welfare reform. This nonet's implacable, totalist rejection of every waking moment in the Bush presidency approaches parody--politics as video game, relentlessly splattering imaginary enemies.

Very well said. The Democrats are a humorous caraciture of themselves. They couldn't be more over the top if they were trying to spoof knee jerk anti-Bushism. While that may play to a certain number of Dean supporters, it won't come anywhere close to winning over the mainstream voters.

[Lady Jag]

The effect over time has been corrosive. Messrs. Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, Lieberman and Clark--serious individuals in private, away from this burlesque--have come to look and sound ridiculous.

[sauropod]

"As an old high-school debate judge, it appeared to me that the only thing resembling an authentic debate took place in a remarkable exchange between Al Sharpton and Tom Brokaw over the Tawana Brawley case, for which Mr. Brokaw sought an apology. Instead, Mr. Sharpton deftly dumped the entire history of the Confederacy, lynching and racism down upon the startled head of Mr. Brokaw who finally said "we'll try to leave it at that," only to get punched around some more for venturing into Mr. Sharpton's neighborhood."

I must have missed that. That would have been fun to see.

[nina0113]

bump

[karen999]

"Republicans could care less."

It is SO irritating when professional writers decend with the boobocracy. The phrase is "COULDN'T care less." Illiterates make this mistake all the time. To say that one COULD care less implies there IS room to care even less than one already does. To say that one COULDN'T care less means that one is at a ZERO on the "caring scale" which is PRECISELY where most republicans are on the issue.

[jmaroneps37]

The rats will nominate how-odd? and it is entirely possible that he does not break 42%. Even when fdr was kicking our ass time after time, the Republican still got 30 million votes, so he'll get at least 40 but breaking 42 will be hard. He will kill more rats than the Pied Piper down ballot!
How bad can it get? Well the Wigs are out of business and in 1934 out of 96, we only had 18 senators. Will it get THAT bad? Nope the rats will ALWAYS win Calf. NY ILL Mass Ore. Washington Vt Conn NJ Del. They may still win NM AZ and MD. mcgoven and mondull's record's are safe.

[G.Mason]

"A classic, classic article! Too many funny lined to quote!"

Quite true, but I must say in reference to ......."Mr. Sharpton deftly dumped the entire history of the Confederacy, lynching and racism down upon the startled head of Mr. Brokaw who finally said "we'll try to leave it at that," only to get punched around some more for venturing into Mr. Sharpton's neighborhood." ....... that [Mr.?] Sharpton, as entertaining as he may be, would be in jail were he not black.

Alas, I have every reason to believe the other dwarves should do some "hard time" also. Perhaps if they survive the next "civil " war?

[corkoman]

I couldn't agree with you more...wait...

[cars for sale]

fellow freepers I saw the debate and commented here about Tom Brokaw praising George Soros but here is the best question a debate moderator could have asked.......

Brokaw, " Senator Kerry, you poll nationally at 9 %
yet Hillary Rodham Clinton is not declared and she
polls at 43% .How come"...................

Brokaw, Dr.Dean, same question.........


that would fracture the dems to glass shards
and bet your ass Brokaw would ask if it was a republican
polling higher that those "in".

[pabianice]

Hillary! going to Iraq and telling our servicemen that the country made a mistake sending them there just HAS to help the Dems (NOT!). Whomever runs against this traitorous bitch in 2006 already has his campaign ads made.

[okie01]

"It is SO irritating when professional writers decend with the boobocracy."

Nonetheless, that is the way they say it in Noo Yawk City and the Northeast. There's no explaining it...but it is so.

[okie01]

"How bad can it get? ...mcgoven and mondull's record's are safe."

So long as 40% of the population is in receipt of a check from the government, be it payroll or an entitlement, the Dems will get 40% of the vote.

People will vote in their best economic interest. Which also explains the 60% that will vote for the GOP...

[Clintonfatigued]

Howard Dean will get the nomination. Perhaps he'll nominate John Edwards as his running mate to win southern states. Or maybe Richard Gehhardt, who's a nice person but old hat. It won't work. And the electoral map is beginning to take shape. Dean will certainly get D.C., Massachusetts, & Rhode Island. Bush will improve his 2000 showings in New York & Connecticut, but that's not saying much (he'll lose them again). Dean is also strongly favored in Hawaii, Maryland, & Vermont. Leaning towards Dean, but not totally out of Bush's reach, are New Jersey, Illinois, & California. Leaning slightly towards Dean are Washington & Oregon (with the nation's highest unemployment), and West Virginia (whose 2000 support for Bush was a fluke). Michigan, Maine, and New Mexico are tossups. States where Dean has the greatest growth potential are Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, which have a history of suspicion of overseas interventions and skepticism towards business interests. Everywhere else looks like Bush Country.

[Clintonfatigued]

Whoops, I forgot Pennsylvania. I'd rate it as leaning slightly towards Bush.

[Billthedrill]

This nonet's implacable, totalist rejection of every waking moment in the Bush presidency approaches parody--politics as video game, relentlessly splattering imaginary enemies.

At some point it is parody - self-parody, which, when it is unintentional, is the cruelest and most illuminating form of humor. This isn't brain surgery here - you cannot, you absolutely cannot attempt to make politics out of mirror-imaging your opponent. It is reactionary, mindless, and ultimately futile. You end up dancing to your opponent's tune, and the electorate is extraordinarily sensitive to this, picking up on the joke long before the dancers do.

The game's over. Time for the Dwarves to bow out in favor if Dean or prepare to take their lumps. Somebody's gonna take an awful butt-kicking, and Hill will be laughing all the way to the bank, where the funds will draw a pretty interest in those hidden accounts until 2007 or thereabouts.