`Clinton Democrats' Ponder How Kerry Can Win

Bloomburg.com ^ | 4/20/2004 | Andrew Ferguson

[Utah Girl]

In discussing the U.S. presidential election as it looks today, six months before November, let's leave aside the issue of Iraq.

This approach isn't as dumb as it sounds.

To be sure, some of my colleagues in the pontificating community argue that the entire election will turn on how the public perceives the Iraq war -- a view confirmed this weekend by our Pontificator-in-Chief, Tim Russert, who devoted the majority of his ``Meet the Press'' interview with Senator John Kerry to Iraq.

[pierrem15]

The Dims expect to win on beating up on Bush over Iraq, but the bigger the issue of war, the bigger Bush's lead. And they can't give it up or sound reasonable about Iraq and the War On Terror without deeply alienating their base.

Look at what Kerry said today about allowing parts of the Patriot Act to lapse, right after the 9/11 commission circus showed that the "wall" of separation breached by the Act was one of the most needed parts of that legislation. What a moron!

[Timm]

If you think Kerry can win the election as a moderate solely on the basis of what he says, as distinct from his *record* in the Senate, then yeah, this sounds great. Go get 'em, guys.

[Graymatter]

Clinton had a successful presidency?

[MJY1288]

"As we pontificators always say, time will tell. Kerry's choice in role models is clear: Clinton, who ran to the center and won, or Howard Dean, who ran to the left and lost."

The biggest problem John Kerry has is that he doesn't have the luxury of choosing whether he will run to the center, his record will not allow him to. As far as Howard Dean..... He was a nutjob

[jerod]

Impeached by the Congress, but hey... only half the senate voted to get rid of him.

I guess if your're a Clinton lover, that sounds successfull. LOL

[Tanniker Smith]

Clinton had a successful presidency?

He served all eight years, didn't he?
For some, that's the only benchmark they could hope for.

TS

[Becki]

``His big deficit speech earlier this month was an attempt to claim the moderate center,'' From says. ``He's openly acknowledged that some of his earlier promises on spending will have to be cut back. A lot of liberal interest groups aren't going to like that. Now he's showing he can stand up to them.''

No, he proves once again that he will say whatever his current audience wants to hear.

Becki

[bayourod]

"How does Kerry capture their hearts? "

Certainly not by issuing vitriolic threats like he did on Meet The Press last Sunday.

He looked like an out of control coke head threatening Republicans for questioning his patriotism. No heart could be captured by that vicious hate filled demeanor.

[dufekin]

Much wrong with this article. The Democrats abandoned Vermont Governor Howard Dean not because he was too liberal (far from it--he proved himself as a capable administrator) but because he was an ANGRY, UNAPOLOGETIC liberal. Instead, Democrats went for someone who was MORE liberal but incredibly dull, even dour. They exchanged someone who they could have trumped as a capable administrator with a proven record in Vermont for a flipflop Massachusetts Senator whose speeches seem to be as entertaining as a speech he might make on the Senate floor to win a filibuster by putting his fellow Senators to sleep. He cannot run to the center with any credibility because his voting record reveals him as the MOST LIBERAL Senator, second to none. Yet he refuses to embrace the ideology that he practices and will suffer from even that. Instead of being considered reliable, he appears indecisive, wavering, and uncommitted to anything except denigrating the President.

Governor Dean was their only possible chance to win in 2004 (albeit not a good chance). The Democrats passed up that chance, and they will be sorry for it.

[Utah Girl]

Well said. President Bush has the weight of the world on his shoulders and still manages to offer a bright look at the future. He believes in America and Americans and it shows. Kerry, well, all the Kerry and the Dems have to offer is gloom, doom, and vitriol.

[McGavin999]

Kerry can't pull off being a centerist. He has a 20 year long record and people are a little too savy today to believe campaign ads. They'll just go look it up.

[Utah Girl]

The Dems just don't seem to learn. They profess all this stuff that they're not and don't seem to remember that we can now look up information on the Internet.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Stalin denounces Trotsky.

[Cicero]

I have two reactions to this pontificator.

#1) Bo-o-o-o-ring.

#2) How does the entire press corps justify sitting around all day pontificating on what the Democrats need to do to win? Are they reporters, or paid political consultants to the DNC?

[Sam the Sham]

But without "old-style, worn-out populism" the Democrats really have no weapon with which to reach out to working class voters. Are working class voters going to vote for "Heather Has Two Mommies" and partial birth abortion ?

NAFTA helped Clinton with business fundraising. But politically it did not help the Democratic Party at all. Free trade was a policy that economically benefitted people more likely to vote Republican and hurt people more likely to vote Democrat. So naturally under Clinton's watch the Democrats lost the House, the Senate, and mayoralty after governorship.

[highlander_UW]

I was viewing some of the train-wreck that is DU (just for amusement) and there was a bunch that was up in arms over Kerry's statement that Israel had the right to defend itself by killing Rantisi and Yassin. They were arguing that he was only saying it to keep the Jewish vote and yet others wanted to throw him overboard and get a new candidate. Israel is a real split issue for the dims....Lose the Jews or the left?