The appropriate socialist for the DemonRatic Party.
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.
You are right. Al Gore is unbalanced. I wonder if America truly realizes just how lucky it was in 2000. America really dodged a bullet there. Al Gore is, quite simply, insane. The Dims would do well to keep him out of the sunlight, and tucked away where he can't ever be seen or heard from again.
Barack Obama. Bingo!
EEEEWWWWW. They look alike. She needs to wear a padded bra.
I wonder if Zogby is eating crow, yet.
She held a rally in Hawaii for Kerry and drew a crowd of 48. Whoopee.
But he has charisma like Clinton. They eat up stuff like that.
I still hear it called that. Bet that stops now. lets hear it for Florida! They came through for us.
Thanks for the map. Do you know what the grey areas represent?
The DUmmies have a plan to annoy us. They are going to call Kerry, President elect Kerry for the next 4 years. Even to people they do business with and everything. Is this immature or what!
Not all counties have reported results yet.
C'mon - hasn't even been 24 hours since polls closed yet! :-)
The mainstream media is worth at least five points to every lib candidate. Add to that the war in Iraq and that gave Kerry a pretty good boost. Liberal Dems are not instinctively the first choice of many Americans, and many Dems are oblivious to issues and facts anyway. They put their head down and vote Democratic no matter what. If there was no war in Iraq, even without the Swift Boat Vets to help, Bush probably would have won.
Geez all we need is Hitlery. If she ran and won, I would probably move out of this country immediately!
And he could add... "I've stabbed our soldiers in the back as a young man and I've tried to do it again."
Exactly. Hill could never win the RED states. She'd lose the election in a big way. Besides, she's not really loved by the masses, as people think.
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