Posted on 11/03/2004 12:28:36 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Scarred from their second defeat at the hands of George W. Bush, the Democratic party will be searching for names who can take on the Republicans in four years. And an obvious one is Clinton.
Many Democrats and experts believe that if Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) had the same charisma as ex-president Bill Clinton (news - web sites) he would have easily taken revenge this week for Bush's controversial defeat of Al Gore (news - web sites) in 2000.
But Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) is the most quoted name for the next contender.
University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato believes there are several reasons why Kerry lost Tuesday's vote.
"One, he is too liberal, well to the left of the American mainstream on the critical social and cultural issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control."
More important for Sabato was personality.
"John Kerry is no Bill Clinton. There is very little warmth there, and people didn't warm to him. A moderate Democratic candidate with personal warmth would have defeated George W. Bush easily."
The new defeat is certain to lead to some painful soul-searching within the Democratic party.
After Bill Clinton's victory in 1992 and re-election in 1996, his vice-president Al Gore was narrowly defeated by Bush in 2000 even though he won the popular vote.
The Democrats were hit hard in 2002 mid-term elections, losing control of the Senate and seeing the Republicans extend their advantage in House of Representatives.
Bush's new victory left a bitter taste for many Democrats who look back to the Clinton years with affection even though the ex-president divided the country with many of his actions.
Bill Clinton electrified a crowd of tens of thousands when he returned from a quadruple heart by-pass to appear at a rally with Kerry eight days before the vote.
Though thinner, Clinton was given rapturous applause after castigating the Bush administration and telling adoring fans "my fellow Americans, we can do better."
Clinton remains wildly popular with core Democratic voters, especially black Americans, a voting bloc Kerry was never able to touch in the same way.
Kerry has been criticized as a one-dimensional campaigner compared to Clinton.
Now Hillary Clinton, the senator for New York state, is likely to dominate the Democratic party debate while she makes up her mind whether to stand.
"Hillary Clinton is the natural heir apparent" of Bill, according to Allan Lichtman, a political science professor at the American University in Washington.
Wildly popular among Democratic loyalists and able to raise vast amounts of campaign funds, Hillary Clinton has "worked very, very hard not to play into a caricature of herself," according to a Democratic party strategist who asked not to be named.
She is however the Democrat that hard-core Republicans most love to hate.
"The Republicans will very happily reverse to a caricature, and she becomes a lot less appealing when she puts herself forward" as a candidate, the strategist said.
So there is an outside chance that the Democratic party's 2008 presidential candidate is a long shot bet.
Barack Obama, a 43-year-old rising star in the party who became the lone black American senator in Tuesday's election, is talked about as a possible future candidate.
The Democrats "need only nominate a moderate candidate with warmth," said Sabato, pointing to figures like telegenic Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.
Uh, no, Frenchies. She is the Democrat we most hate, period. If she runs, the mobilization against her by the right will make our anti-Kerry efforts look like a few (dare I say it) spitballs.
Hi, I'm John Kerry. (Kerry says in his deep booming voice)
And I'm reporting for retirement.
(Thanks to Michael Medvid, who just cracked me up on his radio show with that comment)
Leave no rock unturned....bound to find another Manchurian 'can o dirt' under one somewhere....check the ones with lots of slime on them...
Wow. They really don't get it. From everything I have heard, Senator-elect Obama has an excellent chance of equalling Senator Kerry's ultra-liberal record in the Senate, which make him as unelectable as president as Senator Kerry.
As we Americans found out, Michigan is not the entire USA.
Barack Obama will soon show his winning smile and socialists ways for all to see, and like Hillary, should she attempt the Democrat Party nomination for president, he will never get elected.
They may well be in denial, but they need a complete purge of the entire current leadership, together with a hard turn from the left, if they are to remain a valid political party in this country.
and I'll give him some respect for at least having ideals, faulty as they may be....
Clintoon however, was just plain dirty, corrupt, and phoney ....he worked only for his own skin, enriched his "friends" and enabled terrorists to hit the Trade Centers .....
degrees of evil.....Clintoon still takes the prize......
read later
Warmth? Looks cold in that room.
Ewwwwwwwwwww
Why in the name of God would Dems look for a "new Clinton". Didn't the old one embarrass them enough? Impeachment isn't enough for these liberals? The Hollywood connection blowing up in their faces wasn't enough? The Bruce Sprinscream connection....and so on.
Didn't sabato predict a win for Kerry like his partisan friends zogby and rather?
Evan Bayh isn't bad at all. He's not nearly as liberal as his pappy was.
He's a here, he predicted a win for kerry.
This election should have been farther apart than 3 points.
I adore President Bush, but let's face it, 48% of the population doesn't. That's bigger than it should be.
Kerry was a total dud of a candidate. Obnoxious, rude, unattractive, boring, with a nutty wife and a pile of skeletons in his closet the MSM had to run rings around to hide. And a trial lawyer VP to boot.
If the Democrats had come up with a pleasant and honest candidate, they could have won. Instead they alienated everyone. But they are filled with hate (that kills pleasant) and honest is something they can't do when they are pretending to be progun and profamily when they aren't.
Kerry's concession speech was the best one I've heard him give, although long winded. Once he stopped calling names, he sounded a lot better. Edwards, on the other hand, sounded like he was angry and spoiling for a fight.
Usually hospitals will try and remove - or at least unplug - the defibrillator before sending a bypass patient out into public. Guess Clinton decided that, because it was in the room when he was discharged, he got to keep it.
"that 2002 would be Florida's revenge for 2000"
It was. And we took it out - on the Democrats and their Jesse Jackson carpetbaggers telling us we were "too stupid to punch a card."
How would you like to be called "FloriDUH" for a month?
And my wife gets mad at me when I talk to those a-holes through the TV screen!
How in the heck could any rational political junkie not do the same? ;)
Yes ... I know they can't hear me doctor, but it makes me feel much better.
Hillary in '08 is very old news. Unfortunately, we'll be hearing it for 4 more years.
That's not news - that's just status quo for ol' Willie.
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