January 15, 2003
BULL PULPIT:
FRONT-ROW SEAT (NY Post, January 14, 2003, Page Six)THE Rev. Al Sharpton got the front row on the shuttle flight back from Washington, D.C. on Sunday, and was pleased to see his rival for the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. Joe Lieberman, two rows back. Sharpton, who had just appeared on "Meet the Press," exclaimed to his entourage: "That's how it's gonna be when the votes are counted."
During his presidential bids, Alan Keyes quite justifiably bemoaned the fact that after he'd annhilate his opponents in GOP debates no one in the press even had any questions for him. And, whenever they could, Republicans just kept him off stage to avoid being shown up. But they could get away with it because the GOP always has a strong fron-runner who can set the terms and because there are no black GOP voters to alienate.
The Reverend Al, on the other hand, is going to be very difficult to shut out, without raising the ire of a core Democrat consituency, and if you look at the stultifying cast of characters he's going to be up against, you have to expect him to dominate the debates. (Recall that Joe Lieberman did the nearly impossible in losing a debate to Dick Cheney and John Edwards, after his Meet the Press performance, can't even risk showing up on stage if Tim Russert is the moderator.) So, in order to protect their likely eventual winner from humiliation, the Party has to find a way to exclude Mr. Sharpton. One has trouble seeing that going over too well.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 15, 2003 1:56 PMWith 34 presidential candidates, don't you think the Dem field is going to be split enough ways to let Bob Graham win the nomination?
Posted by: pj at January 15, 2003 2:34 PMWell at least it'll make it interesting to watch for the inevitable dust-up between Sharpton's faction and the DLC candidate.
Posted by: Gideon at January 15, 2003 2:35 PMGideon:
The DLC candidate is Lieberman and tension between Jews and blacks is already high.
I can't wait for July 26, 2004, when I get to watch the fireworks of an open convention. Let the smoke filled rooms begin and the recriminations fly!
Posted by: pj at January 15, 2003 4:33 PMCould Al be angling for some kind of "buy-out" from the DNC? Hasn't he admitted that he knows he probably can't win?
Posted by: NKR at January 15, 2003 4:57 PMNaw. Just like Pelosi, the democrats will find new and better ways to let their most loyal and committed core constituency know that they are taken entire for granted.
What's I'd like to see is the Rev. Al walk out of the convention yelling "foul" and "we wuz robbed" at the top of his lungs as only he can, and run a nakedly separatist independent campaign. At least it would show Nader and the Greens to be , irrelevant non-entities.