The Dean Machine. Now it's Gore-powered

NRO ^ | December 09, 2003, 11:08 a.m. | Clifford D. May

[.cnI redruM]

It's come to this: Howard Dean will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2004.

Today, the remaining Democratic candidates will be brainstorming furiously, trying to figure out a way to prevent the inevitable. But the only way is to take off the gloves and start throwing punches at Dean's fast-moving mouth — and they'll decide not to do that, in part because Al Gore this morning warned them not to, in part because the candidate who attacked Dean would not only drive up Dean's negatives but also his own. In other words, whoever brought Dean down would benefit not himself but another candidate in the race. Such a spirit of self-sacrifice is not evident within this field of wannabees.

It's come to this: Either Al Gore will be asked to be secretary of state in 2004, or Hillary Clinton will be asked to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008. It's one or the other, it can't be both. Did you notice that Gore said this morning that he wants to "remake the Democratic party"? Well, he's taken the first step: The Democratic nominee next year will be his boy, not the Clinton's.

It's come to this: Hillary Clinton now leads the moderate wing of the Democratic party, the faction that favors a muscular foreign and defense posture. Today, Gore branded Dean as the antiwar candidate, the candidate who believes it was a mistake to liberate Iraq from a genocidal dictator, the candidate who thinks Iraq is a Vietnam-like "quagmire."

Until now, Dean has been careful to be ambiguous in these regards. Until now, he has attempted to have it both ways, to say on some occasions that he wasn't sure it was better that Saddam was gone, on other occasions that it was a good thing to have toppled the tyrannical Baathist regime. Sometimes he says we were wrong to go into Iraq and that we need to get out, but other times he says that to pull out would not be responsible.

To be the antiwar candidate at a time when most Americans support the war is a high-risk strategy. But ten months from now, if we aren't making visible progress in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other fronts in the war on terrorism (or if Americans aren't convinced these are fronts in the war on terrorism) the Gore/Dean analysis may look prescient.

It's come to this: Howard Dean is picking up the flag that Al Gore dropped, and rightfully so. Al Gore is not just a former vice president and presidential candidate. He's also a former tobacco farmer, mule driver, homebuilder, inspirer of Love Story, discoverer of Love Canal, and creator of the Internet. He has reinvented himself more often than Madonna. As David Brooks makes clear in his New York Times column today, Howard Dean also exhibits this chameleon-like skill.

It's come to this: Republicans are getting their wish. Dean is the candidate most have prayed for (assuming, I guess, that Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, and Carol Mosley Braun weren't going to pull off an upset). But those Republicans breaking out the cigars and bongo drums should get back to work instead. Exactly which states that Gore won in 2000 are slam-dunks for Bush today? I can't think of one.

And do you remember a few years ago when the Democrats were battling for the California gubernatorial nomination? It was Jane Harman vs. Al Checci vs. Gray Davis and most Republicans wanted Gray Davis to win because they thought he'd be a terrible candidate. Turns out they were wrong. He was a good candidate, even though he became a terrible governor.

Howard Dean could be cast from this same mold.

[.cnI redruM]

It seems that Howard Dean has found his bloviating, Baghdad Bob. If two members are allowed to break convention and form an axis, Dean and Gore are truely The Axis of Arrogance. Dean will look a whole lot stronger in the polls against Bush 3 months from now.

Everyone partying because Hatred-Powered Howard got the nomination will wake up then with a splitting vodke hangover.

[areafiftyone]

The Dean Machine. Now it's Gore-powered

Ahhh nothing like the smell of woodchips burning!

[hapy]

and may Dean have the luck of Gore in his fight to become president.

I dont see how the dems are ever going to get back any power. when will they realize that clinton has really screwed them.

[Pikamax]

If the GOP can't make Dean to look like the stalinist wannabe that he is given the quotes over the last year, then its their fault if Bush loses.

[woofie]

The excitement is palpable

[Verginius Rufus]

I don't expect Powell to resign before the election, and even if he did, George W. Bush would not ask Al Gore to become Secretary of State in 2004. If Dean becomes President in 2005, it would be a waste of talent to make Gore the Secretary of State, when he could do so much more good as Secretary of Education or Secretary of HUD.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

hillary saw dean was getting too powerful so she sent in gore!

[CWW]

I've always heard that manure was a viable alternative fuel!

[Billthedrill]

Did you notice that Gore said this morning that he wants to "remake the Democratic party"? Well, he's taken the first step: The Democratic nominee next year will be his boy, not the Clinton's.

Dean is not Gore's boy in the same sense that Clark is the Clinton's. For one thing, Gore doesn't control his purse-strings; Dean's funding runs outside the Clinton/McAuliffe machinery as well. If there is a new "wing" of the Democratic party Algore is a follower, not a leader.

The concern is over the potential damage the Clintons can do to a non-Clinton-approved candidate by virtue of their control of the funding mechanisms at the DNC. If, as seems probable at this very preliminary point, Dean will do a McGovern and lose in a landslide, Hillary will find herself positioned, as the author points out, in the very strong position as the "moderate" (mirabile dictu!) candidate within the party for 2008 - but a Dean failure is the only scenario where this is so.

A Dean success augurs a sea change in the party. McAuliffe will go, the Clinton influence will be diminished, and Gore may wind up surfing the wave to State or even another Vice Presidency. That's clearly in his calculations.

Hill may well find herself worked into a position where either she supplants Dean in 2004 or does what she can to deny the White House to the Dems for another four years. Neither is an optimal course.

[ModelBreaker]

It's come to this: Hillary Clinton now leads the moderate wing of the Democratic party, the faction that favors a muscular foreign and defense posture.

LOL

[jjm2111]

Hillary and Gore absolutely detest one another. They a probably NOT working together.

[p. henry]

Roughly 60% of the voters will vote the party line virtually without regard to the identity of the nominees. The battle is always over the remaining 40%. Dean is locked into his position that taxes should be raised "to reduce the deficit." He will be hurt by this stance because (i) it defies the historical evidence, (ii) projected deficits will be substantially smaller by November, and (iii) swing voters don't want to pay more taxes. To overcome this problem Dean will have to attack the Bush foreign policy. If the public perception is that Iraq is a mess, Dean could win. Otherwise, the public is unlikely to support an antiwar candidate when the nation is demonstrably at war with a group of people intent on killing us whenever and wherever they can. The "Bush misled us" argument will not survive the scrutiny of the campaign in the eyes of independent voters.

[Cicero]

Dean is a more dangerous candidate than many Freepers think. He is certainly not McGovern. McGovern has spent his whole life muttering the same platitudes, and he will never change, as he recently showed us. Dean is a chameleon, who will move to the left before one audience and to the right before another. He will certainly move well to the right if he wins the nomination next July.

I think Hillary may possibly have helped Dean at an early stage, to prevent Kerry from winning in New Hampshire, as everyone earlier expected him to do. If so, Dean has done far better than she expected and is now getting out of control. Gore's endorsement is a dynamite event and will later be seen as a crucial turning point in this campaign. Gore may be a jerk, but as the NY Times says today, his endorsement makes Dean seem "mainstream."

Now the media have to consider whether to keep kissing Hillary's *ss and kowtowing to McAliffe or to throw their support do Dean--which a lot of them would dearly like to do. If they do, then we won't hear anything more about Confederate flags and the like.

[Mike Darancette]

It's come to this: Either Al Gore will be asked to be secretary of state in 2004, or Hillary Clinton will be asked to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008. It's one or the other, it can't be both. Did you notice that Gore said this morning that he wants to "remake the Democratic party"? Well, he's taken the first step: The Democratic nominee next year will be his boy, not the Clinton's.

Nope, Gore wants to become Chairman of the DNC (bye-bye McAwful) which Dean can bestow should Dean be nominated.

I think that the Clintions will react as follows: They will come out for Clark in a big way saying that it is the only way to save the party from moving too far left and to sweeten the pot they will hint that Hilliary would run as VP on a Clark ticket though that would never happen in reality since a Democrat must lose in 2004 for Hilliary to run for president in 2008. The reason are to keep party in Clintonista hands at all costs.

The Game is afoot.

[.cnI redruM]

Dean may offer Hillary a Veep slot. That wouldn't be a bad gambit. It would force her to declare 1 of 3 things she may not want to at this point.

1) A principled (if Hillary has had any Principles since High School) opposition to Dean. She voices this by saying no to his ticket, but not to a VP slot in '04.

2) Support of Dean and subservience to the Dean Borg. She accepts and is assimilated.

3) An open declaration that she is out until 2008. She uses this to dodge Dean. This into 2004 more encumbered and turns off the attention she seems to thrive on.

By offering Hillary the Veep position, Hatred-Powered Howard could whack her off at the knees.

[.cnI redruM]

Dean is dangerous as long as he gets to selectively script what gets on the air. Bush needs at least 3 debates against Dean to show what a shallow, scaremonger Dean really is. Dean needs to be put in front of large audiences without his bat or his cue cards.

[Mike Darancette]

If Dean gets nominated his gang will control the DNC, the Clinton's can't have that. Dean must not be nominated and whoever is nominated must not win the election, or it will be 4 years in the wilderness for the Clintons.

[expatpat]

It's actually a clever plan by Hitlary to make her look like a centrist in 08, compared with Dean and the rabid wing of the Party.

[.cnI redruM]

If Clinton wants the Clark-puppet to do their wet work, they need him to finish 2nd in NH and to win SC. If Wastely does this and gets either Gephardt or Edwards to drop out early and throw in with him as a possible Veep, Dean has a credible challenge out of thin air. That's the only scenario I can see that would allow an indirect Clinton sabotage of Howard Dean to occur.

[deport]

A little Gore Power