What a night!
JohnHuang2
A week ago, I recommended selling Aspirin and underwear in front of DNC headquarters -- a sure-fire way to become a millionaire, overnight.
Now that you're a millionaire, how about billionaire?
Yes?
Good. It's easy: Add Handkerchiefs to your line-up.
First, let's dispense with "Conventional Wisdom" pap, shall we? Let's talk about what this election was -- and was not -- about.
For starters, this election was not about the Senate -- that is, whether Republicans wrest control from Democrats or not. Nor was this election about the House -- whether Democrats wrest control from Republicans or not.
This election was not about Minnesota nor Paul Wellstone nor Walter Mondale nor Missouri nor New Hampshire nor New Jersey nor Colorado.
This election was not about South Dakota, either. Oh, I know, I know -- Thune-Johnson was the Bush-Daschle proxy battle of Campaign 2002, to hear the gaggle of pundits tell it.
Ah, but it wasn't. If it were, it'd be Thune in a cake walk.
Indeed, Sen. Johnson's TV ad strategy illustrated the point perfectly; it was a microcosm of Democrat ad/campaign strategy nationally, to wit: Wrap yourselves around the President. Put photos of you and Bush together in campaign ads. Lots of photos. Tell voters you stand four-square with President Bush. Tell them you can't wait to get back to Washington, roll up your sleeves and help pass the Bush agenda.
There may be no 'new tone' in Washington, but, on the campaign trail at least, Dems were definitely speaking a 'new tone'.
Now, call me dumb, but if both sides -- Democrats and Republicans -- were chanting from every rooftop, 'Viva Bush!' Viva Bush!', how on earth could this election conceivably be a referendum on President Bush?
Forget the 50-50, 'evenly split', deeply divided' nation bunk. America isn't 'deeply divided' about George W. Bush. An overwhelming majority, 14 months after 9/11, still strongly support him -- 65% according to most polls. Americans are, if anything, solidly united behind her Commander-in-Chief.
But if Democrat grand strategy was to blur party lines in regards to supporting the President -- Dems put very little daylight between themselves and Bush -- a torrent of close, 50-50 election results were the likeliest outcome, and Democrats knew it. Hence, the mobilization of legions of lawyers solely to challenge the many anticipated razer-thin margins at the ballot box.
So, if it wasn't the House nor the Senate, then what exactly was this election about?
Answer: Regime change -- hunting down a 'grave and gathering danger'. For Democrats, quick and decisive action was urgently needed to eliminate this grave threat.
Saddam?
No -- Jeb Bush.
(Remember we're dealing with Democrats here.)
In this election -- make no mistake -- Jeb was at the top of the Democrat target/hit list, with no close 2nd. Florida, bear in mind, was the only place a Bush was on the ballot.
DNC chair Terry McAuliffe had 3 goals in mind for Campaign 2002:
1) Toppling Jeb.
2) Toppling Jeb.
3) Toppling Jeb
With polls for many weeks showing a dead-heat in Florida, Dems were salivating the chance of dealing President Bush a death blow by knocking his brother off in the Sunshine State.
Towards this goal, no effort was spared.
It's impossible to overstate the importance Democrats attached to defeating Gov. Jeb Bush -- and the desperation showed.
The Party pulled out all the stops, pouring money and manpower into the state.
But not for reasons you might think -- or that Beltway insiders had suggested.
Democrats, said 'Conventional Wisdom', saw Florida as a chance to 'avenge' Campaign 2000; that Florida '02 was Florida '00 all over again -- a Bush-Gore grudge re-match, with 'energized' Democrats bound and determined to 'reverse' the 'theft' of 2 years ago.
But Florida was more than a chance to 'embarrass' President Bush, or of seizing control over a colossal electoral machinery that comes with running the 4th largest state.
No, the real reason Florida drew such national attention was because the outcome November 5 might well determine the outcome November, 2008.
That's right, 2008.
Nothing petrifies Democrats more than the thought of a so-called Bush family "Dynasty".
To Dems, Election '02 was an opportunity to nip that threat in the bud.
Topple Jeb, and voila! gone is the "Dynasty" menace.
With Jeb's landslide victory Tuesday, however, that "threat" becomes very real and very present. Jeb now emerges as President Bush's heir-apparent -- the odds-on-favorite to win the GOP nomination in '08.
A term-limited George W. Bush won't be on the Presidential ballot 6 years from now, but brother Jeb most likely will be.
Given the importance of Florida, Janet Reno never had a chance -- not if the Florida Democrat Party had any say in the matter.
Democrats were worried that Janet, hopelessly unelectable, might bring the whole party down in flames. In other words, she'd do to the Party in Florida what she did to the Branch Davidians in Waco, Tex.
So Party Bosses annointed Bill McBride, a millionaire Tampa Bay area trial lawyer.
To ensure he got the nod, countless shenanigans were pulled on Primary Day throughout Dade and Broward Counties, Reno bastions both.
What kind of shenanigans? There were numerous reports of precincts in Dade and Broward mysteriously closed hours after 7:00 a.m., when polls officially were to open; tales of "malfunctioning" touch-screen machines; stories of poll workers with little or no "training"; complaints of excessively long lines, etc., etc.
But all these problems, oddly enough, surfaced only in Reno bastions -- none in McBride strongholds.
Golly, gee ... what a *fluke*, eh?
It was soooooooo obvious that Party Bosses had engineered Reno's defeat, the only thing missing were road signs warning a vote for Janet could give you herpes.
Oh, and that, for Reno voters, Election-Day had been moved to Wednesday, September 11th.
Party insiders essentially cheated Reno out of the nomination.
Yet, out of 1.3 million primary ballots cast, Reno "lost" by a "whopping" 4,800 votes, according to official results.
With McBride, however, the Party had bought a pig in the poke.
As a candidate, he proved disastrous.
He stumbled repeatedly, spoke haltingly, was horrible on the hustings and even worse in debates. McBride was in way over his head.
Despite wall-to-wall fawning, rock-star-esque media coverage, worth hundreds of millions in free advertisement, the campaign never got off the ground.
Polls in the closing week showed a crippled candidate, barely limping along.
His base firm as a wet noodle, McBride threatened to drag the whole Democrat ticket down statewide. Nothing seemed to work. The nationally televised Haitian invasion at Key Biscayne last week only energized Republicans.
Party Bosses hit the panic button.
Then something really, really weird happened Saturday.
From Miami to Pensacola, from Jacksonville to Key West, parents suddenly hid their daughters.
I flick on the local TV news, and it dawned on me what was happening.
'Bill Clinton is in Florida!'
Even the 'Monica vote' needed stimulating, apparently.
As Clinton waltzed slowly down the stairs of his Lippo-chartered plane, emblazoned across with 'Win One For The Zipper!', he took questions from reporters.
"Mr Clinton, do you think, in retrospect, sir, you could have done more about Osama bin Laden?" a brave reporter asked.
Clinton blew a gasket.
"Here, read this!", he shot back.
He points to his red, bedizened Tee-Shirt, inscribed with: "I came within less than an hour of getting Osama! So Bug-Off!"
Then things really got hot.
Noting that Bush had stumped in Georgia on Saturday, another reporter asked Clinton if he planned to do Georgia, too.
He bristled at the question.
"I want to say one thing to the American people," he fumed. "I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again." His face a thick crimson, he shakes his finger at reporters and shouts, "I did not have sex with that woman, Georgia!"
Al Gore wasn't dancing the Macarena, either.
At a stop in Orlando, Al lashes out at voters in Florida, accusing them of stealing the 2000 Election by giving more votes to rival George W. Bush, than to him.
Well, duh.
"This is an outrage!", he bellowed. "Those votes belonged to me, not Shrub!"
He demands yet another recount. Make that another re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-count.
Then he stuns reporters by whipping out this freaky looking insect net with a 42" handle, swinging the thing back and forth in the air like a madman.
"What the heck is that for?" someone asked.
Gore seemed genuinely puzzled.
"Well, haven't you heard of butterfly ballots? That's what this net's for -- to catch them butterflies and see that every vote is counted!"
Poor fella. It was obvious Gore had gone completely bananas.
Suddenly, an ambulance pulls up, doors swing open, out come three men wearing white shirts, one of them carrying what looked like a straight-jacket. They approach Gore very slowly, and try to get him to submit to restraints willingly.
"Yes, I will," says Gore, but only on one condition. "Tell me, do you remember where you were and what you were doing on December 12, 2000 -- the day the Supreme Court stopped the recount?"
Kidding aside, Tuesday night was a glorious triumph, not just for Republicans, but for America itself.
Humbled pundits will study and debate Campaign 2002 for years to come, wondering how they failed to catch the looming tsunami.
But the biggest thanks, of course, belongs to our President, George W. Bush. He laid it all on the line for our team, fighting in the trenches, district-by-district, state-by-state, mano-a-mano. Had things gone the other way, no-one had more to lose.
But 'losing' isn't in Bush's vocabulary.
Great job, Mr. President!
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
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