From The New Republic (via Andrew Sullivan):
" Kerry wants to reimpose an outdated Vietnam Syndrome on American foreign policy, reestablish an international order that collapsed on 9/11, and return Clinton-era phoniness to the White House without any of Clinton's redeeming brass and Third Way creativity."
Fat chance. But I'm still not counting Edwards completely out. Dems seem to be belatedly awakening to the weaknesses of Kerry, and may yet decide to go with an alternative. I think Edwards is still their best shot, and his best primary campaign strategy is to promote himself as "the new and improved Billary." But it's probably too late. Too bad the Panthers lost, it might have given him a bounce. Ultimately, however, he'd have a really tough time beating Bush because George is just more "Howdyesque."
Posted by Demosophist at February 2, 2004 10:54 AM | TrackBackI don't know how that will work, given that much of Edward's strength so far as been the lack of stiff competition. Kind of like Clark being a good candidate until he started taking fire.
Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at February 6, 2004 03:30 PMI don't know how that will work, given that much of Edward's strength so far as been the lack of stiff competition. Kind of like Clark being a good candidate until he started taking fire.
Yeah, I may have made one of my atypical mistakes here. Edwards greatest liability is his lack of perceived "weight" on the issues, and the fact that he hasn't weighed in doesn't really help that. I also keep expecting him to get some media bounce, but it's just not happening. I think the media has more or less resigned itself to Kerry. Well he does look Presidential, and he certainly has "perceived weight" on the issues. I suspect the French will fall madly in love with him, especially since he has that sort of longish French face.
But without overly estimating Carl Rove's skills as a campaign manager or Bush's equally dubious skills as a campaigner, I think Kerry's New English charm just won't appeal to Americans. I think it'll be a distinctly one-sided electoral victory for Bush. What's more, the conventional "incumbent advantage" is about 10% (a 5% swing results in a 10% margin) and Bush may well exceed that in the popular vote. I asked Lipset who he thought the Democrats should run for President recently. "Bush," was his answer.
Posted by: Scott (to A.R.) at February 6, 2004 03:44 PMIf the Republican do something like swap Rice for Cheney due to "health reasons" then I think we see a whuppin'.
Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at February 6, 2004 09:46 PMA.L.
If the Republican do something like swap Rice for Cheney due to "health reasons" then I think we see a whuppin'.
Gosh, I didn't even think of that! Kudos. And Cheney might very well be a liability soon. I understand they're close to indicting some folks from the Veep's staff in that Plame thing. Why they didn't dump the people who did that months ago is beyond me.
Yeah, can you imagine? A Bush/Rice ticket? Except that she's never run for elected office before, and eggheads make pretty lousy politicians. Still...
Posted by: Scott (to A.R.) at February 6, 2004 11:23 PM