Chin up, you lot.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 11/05/2002 4:58:12 PM PST by MadIvan
The end of the mid-term elections campaign is traditionally the starting gun for the presidential race but no dominant figure has emerged to carry the baton for the Democrats in 2004.
Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000 and still nurses ambitions for the White House, has been a distinctly mixed blessing for the party that hopes to oust President Bush in two years' time.
In his home state of Tennessee, which he lost to Mr Bush in 2000, local Democrats decided he would be an electoral liability, prompting Republicans to unveil a character called Al Gorebatross to highlight his absence.
President Bill Clinton, from whom Mr Gore pointedly distanced himself two years ago, has turned out in 20 states and remains the heart-throb - or perhaps the old flame - of committed Democrats, particularly blacks.
Despite his unrivalled ability to whip up crowds and work a room, many Democratic candidates have been reluctant to enlist Mr Clinton's help because of the danger of alienating moderate voters.
Mark Pryor, the challenger for a Senate seat in Mr Clinton's native Arkansas, declined to appear with the former president in August. "I was doing debate prep," he told reporters.
The Democrat's staff said that being photographed with Mr Clinton could have harmed his campaign because he had to emphasise conservative values in a traditional Southern state.
Even Erskine Bowles, Mr Clinton's former chief of staff and a Senate candidate in North Carolina, decided that being seen with Mr Clinton would do him more harm than good.
For the Republicans, with the advantage of having a popular wartime president, it has been a smoother run.
President Bush, Laura Bush, the First Lady, and Barbara Bush, the First Mother, have all been deployed by Republicans.
The party has also used Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor and hero of September 11, and Senator John McCain, the Vietnam veteran who challenged Mr Bush in 2000, to woo centrist voters in key states.
Two of Mr Gore's rivals for the 2004 presidential nomination had their futures on the line yesterday.
Senator Tom Daschle was hoping to keep his job as Senate majority Leader and was also facing a challenge in his home state of South Dakota where Republicans believed they had a good chance of unseating Tim Johnson.
The loss of the Senate and the South Dakota seat would be a double blow to Mr Daschle that could destroy his presidential bid.
Congressman Dick Gephardt, also planning to run in 2004, was expected to fail in his bid to lead a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives this year.
Chin up, you lot.
Regards, Ivan
... Republicans to unveil a character called Al Gorebatross to highlight his absence ...I just spit a very nice merlot through my nose.
You mean this bloke?
Somehow I don't think so. ;)
Regards, Ivan
LOL. Committed, as in committed to the loonie bin.
LOL!
Well (in case you are not joking), Ed Rendell was Mayor of Philadelphia for eight years, then he was DNC Chairman (before Terry McAuliffe) for a couple of years, and now he just won Governor of Pennsylvania by a landslide.
(But you were joking..... ?)
Regards, Ivan
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