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February 22, 2004
It's not that easy
Typical Broder column today. His main thesis is that candidates like Dean, McCarthy, Goldwater and etc change the country more by losing than winning.
With Goldwater, especially, the storyline is well known. He lost, but Reagan won and vindicated his platform blah blah blah. While some of that is undoubtedly true, Carter's mishandling of the hostage situation had a lot to do with Reagan's victory. More than anything Goldwater did or didn't do 16 years prior.
Additionally, Clinton's moralistic miscues made it possible for a bumbling low profile governor to win the White House solely on the basis that voters found him "honest" and "likable."
I'm not sure if it's not polite to point it out, or maybe pundits just don't think about it, or don't think voters understand this argument. But politics, especially presidential politics turns on personality to a great degree. Look at the personalities you had bubble up in the last 40 years and consider the "great" ones. The Kennedy's (Robert and John), Reagan, Clinton, MLK. The Democrats got extremely unlucky in the assassination lottery these past few decades. The Republicans, thankfully, got lucky since both Ford and Reagan had shots fired at them and Reagan was hospitalized by his assassin but everyone lived.
Now, what's my point? My point is that later this year or maybe in 4 or 8 years some sunny personality (John Edwards?) will run for President and his or her campaign will more or less resemble the Dean campaign in design (crucial) and issues (issues isn't a problem as the Democrats more or less agree on most everything). Pundits will say "Dean has been vindicated by Edwards's victory" but what it will really boil down to is that Edwards (or whomever) is a more likable candidate and that's a top issue for a huge bloc of voters.
Posted by Chris at February 22, 2004 11:46 AM
Comments
God, I hate Nader.
Posted by: jess bowling at February 22, 2004 01:30 PM
It's democrats like you that enable the George Bush's of the world keep winning elections.
Posted by: Max Longstreet at February 25, 2004 08:33 PM
I've got three words for "Max Longstreet"...Bring it On. No, seriously. I fail to understand how I am the great enabler. Or what exactly I enable by pointing out that personality matters in politics and that Edwards wears better on voters than Dean or Bush.
At one point I fell for the "Dean will change politics" meme. I wish it had and that millions of non-voters would be poring out to the polls. But it clearly wasn't the case for the primaries, where increased turnout didn't help Dean at all, and I don't think it would have been for the general election.
Get over it -- we can't always get what we want. I have a feeling that my guy (Edwards) is about to lose but I'll start working for Kerry and other Democrats the day the nomination is over, if Kerry wins. How that will enable George Bush or any other Republican to win, I've yet to determine.
Posted by: Chris at February 26, 2004 01:23 AM
union members are dems, right? and so are environmental types, no? if dems agree on everything, more or less, why do unions favor drilling in Alaska and the environmentals don't. In fact, can it not be stated that unions favor ecomonic expansion, since that means more due-paying jobs, while the greens would like to shut down economic activity? And how many "ruffneck" union types do you think really support gay rights? Come to think of it, how many catholic Hispanics and blacks support gay rights? Isn't the Dem party just a coalition party made up seperate groups pushing their own agendas? Each group just trying to "get theirs" from the establihment
Posted by: chris at February 27, 2004 05:06 PM
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