2004 Elections: Democratic Party Contenders

Led by Dean, the Dems may well just have lost Bubba and Sally Mae for around a generation or so:

DEMS iNFECTED WITH FOOT-IN-mOUTH?


This is almost too good to be true.

What I find striking about this is not so much that it is "pandering", in itself - politicians do that - it's that Dean actually explicitly presents it as such.

Kinda defeats the purpose of the exercise in the first place, doesnt it?

I mean, what good is this pandering to the "guys in trucks" going to do if he already admits straight out that its just pandering?

If you were a gun-totin "guy in Southern truck", would you vote for someone who told you, straight up, that "I am for guns - because I wouldnt be able to beat George Bush if I weren't - I just have to appeal to the kind of guy like you, y'know, so - that's why I'm for guns, too!" ... ? Doesnt really come across as a sincere conviction that, like, the "guy" in question were gonna entrust his vote to, does it?

I dont get it.

You think he's just assuming they won't get to hear this bit of news, anyway? Talking as if he weren't really there? (Kinda like, adding insult to injury ..)

I thought it was a silly line in the first place, anyway. I mean, he's got a fair enough point - about how the Dems wont win if they only rely in the big-city, "blue state" middle classes. But the wording makes it come across like those "guys" in question are something a little akin to exotic animals to him - slightly intrigueing, but completely alien. Not like he personally knows any.

Its like politicians in Holland always going on about "the people in the old neighbourhoods". Every time a Labour party leader says, "we've got to go back into the neighbourhoods ... we've got to talk with the people again ... we've got to address the concerns of the people in the old neighbourhoods" (etc, etc), I cringe, because just by putting it like that, they make it so abundantly clear that, for now, the "people from the old neighbourhoods" are as foreign to them as Tamils.

I have the same feeling when the president speaks for "th' merrican people," Nimh. Here's a guy who has his eyes and ears firmly closed when it comes to any but a small sector of our country, carefully avoiding contact with anyone he'd feel ill at ease with. Dean's remark is the other side of the coin and almost a chilling.

That was Dean's attempt to reach out to the south which he knows nothing about and doesn't understand. This is what Zell Miller was trynig to point out to the Dems, they have lost touch with an important part of the country.

Well, I'm a northerner living in"that part of the country" and have found that the south is changing very rapidly, due in part to the influx of northerners and due in large part to the tendency of homogenization coming from the media.

So southerners and Texas and the like caricature not just northerners but themselves, wave the Confederate flag and smile. They know who they are no less than any others, perhaps more.

The reason I'm chilled by Dean's remark is that it does, in fact, show insularity and a kind of out-of-date-ness which don't reflect well on him.

Tart, I don't think its so much "Out-of-Dateness" as "Out-of-Touchness".



Lieberman's Smith is on-point and Edward's remark was fairly well-considered, but the others have done themselves a good bit of harm, IMO. You don't get any mileage out of dissin' Bubba, his gun, his truck, or his Confederate flag. The only thing these boys failed to hit was Bubba's dog.

Ev'ry time I come to town
The boys keep kickin' my dawg aroun';
Makes no diff'rence if he is a houn',
They gotta quit kickin' my dawg aroun'.
Me an' Lem Briggs an' old Bill Brown
Took a load of corn to town;
My old Jim dawg, onery old cuss,
He just naturally follered us.

As we driv past Johnson's store
A passel of yaps come out the door;
Jim he scooted behind a box
With all them fellers a-throwin' rocks.

They tied a can to old Jim's tail
An' run him a-past the county jail;
That just naturally made us sore,
Lem, he cussed an' Bill he swore.

Me an' Lem Briggs an' old Bill Brown
Lost no time a-gittin' down;
We wiped them fellers on the ground
For kickin' my old Jim dawg around.

Jim seen his duty there an' then,
He lit into them gentlemen;
He shore mussed up the court-house square
With rags an' meat an' hide an' hair.

Every time I come to town
The boys keep kickin' my dawg aroun';
Makes no difference if he is a houn',
They gotta quit kickin' my dawg aroun'.

Sharpton's town hall meeting at Harvard today was shown on t.v.. He looks pretty good, and I think he's gonna win a lot of votes next year.

About all Sharpton realistically can accomplish is the assembling of a support base which he can assign to a viable candidate later in the campaign year upon his own inevitable withdrawal. I figure Sharpton will hang in just long enough to determine which of the potentially electable candidates will offer him the best appearance of having played a real part.

In the meanwhile, it appears Graham has officially anounced his availability for the Veep slot alongside whoever actually does emerge as frontrunner; Graham drops Senate Bid, Too

The candidates, sans Gephardt, are debating now on "Rock the Vote", broadcast on CNN and hosted by Anderson Cooper.

Candidates Seek to Block Dean Endorsement

Tuesday November 4, 2003 9:01 AM


By RON FOURNIER

AP Political Writer

Excerpt
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential rivals John Edwards, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry have found a common foe to unite them: Howard Dean.

In a rare alliance, the three campaigns are working to deny the fellow Democratic candidate an endorsement from the Service Employees International Union, the largest in the AFL-CIO with 1.6 million members. The SEIU announced last week that its 63-member board would decide Thursday whether to back Dean, a former Vermont governor, or table the endorsement altogether.

``It's Dean or no one,'' said SEIU spokeswoman Sara Howard.

Full story

Al Sharpton just cracked Dean for the flag comment.

Edwards is taking his shot at him now.

(Dean seems back on his heels.)

Its so nice to see the Democrats acting like Republicans!

Mac or PC!

Dean bounced back with the last word, but sure took some artillery fire.

CMB actually bailed him out.

Every one of those candidate videos was excellent!

I'm LMAO trying to imagine Bush (or any other Republican) in this format.

That was by far the best and most entertaining debate to date.

So much sizzle and so much meat that I'll have to work on a longer take.

Sharpton will be SNL host this week. Makes me wish I had TV...

It was entertaining. Clearly there's Dean and there's Everyone Else. Dean again emerges at the very worst undamaged, his relative ranking unchallenged. I think Kerry did well. The flag Flap sure has 'em all flustered.

Unh-unh.

The biggest loser tonight was Gephardt, followed closely by Dean.

Edwards actually cracked him harder than Rev. Al (probably because he's the true Bubba in the race).

Clark and Kerry were solid. They won. Big.

Sharpton got off the best cuts; CMB is as always the classiest debater on the stage; Lieberman pandered; Kucinich yelled and looked goofy in his turtleneck.