January 8, 2003
THE OTHER POLITICAL DOCTOR:
In Field of Rich and Famous, Dean Strives to Distinguish Self (John P. Gregg, 1/8/03, Valley News)Dean has campaigned extensively in Iowa, hoping his background as the governor of a rural state, his commitment to expanding health care coverage and his opposition to military action in Iraq will help him in the Iowa caucuses that come shortly before the critical New Hampshire primary. But with Gephardt's entrance into the race this week, Dean faces a candidate who won the Iowa caucuses in his 1988 presidential bid and placed a strong second in New Hampshire behind then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Gephardt is emphasizing his experience after 26 years in Congress on foreign policy, education and health care.“I think people are looking for a candidate who can not only win the presidency, but put together a new majority in the country to solve some of these long-standing problems,” Gephardt told the Valley News on Monday.
Gephardt said he has a much stronger fund-raising base now than in 1988 -- for starters, he plans to move the $2.5 million from his congressional campaign account into his presidential bid. And his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and support for “fair trade” have won him solid union support in the past.
Gephardt said one proposal he is considering is an international “variable minimum wage” to create consumers, as well as suppliers, in less developed countries.
“If we don't get wages up, we're not going to have the demand to make this economy work worldwide,” said Gephardt.
The Iowa caucuses retain their potential to push Democrats so far to the Left that they leave the mainstream entirely. It will be especially interesting to see if Dick Gephardt supports the next phase of the war, given how badly such votes tend to play in Iowa. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 8, 2003 10:05 AM
I've always felt that the first state to hold its primary/caucus should be more representative of the country as a whole than are NH or IA. How about Ohio?
Posted by: Jed Roberts at January 8, 2003 9:30 AMOver our dead bodies.
Posted by: oj at January 8, 2003 10:30 AMGephardt is going to win the Dem nomination. He's the savviest politician after Lieberman, has the strongest union support, and is the only candidate who's attractive to both liberals and moderates.
Posted by: pj at January 8, 2003 12:47 PMKerry will bury him in NH which will appear especially devastating given Gephardt's Iowa win.
You really have to read Richard Bem Cramer's great book What it Takes http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/271
) to get a sense of how awful Gephardt's likely to be on the campaign trail.
Cramer's book was fantastic particularly the chapters on Dole.
Gephardt makes Gore seem interesting and charasmatic.
These fair trade ideas of his seem quite dumb too.
I'm with Ali on this one. Its been years since I read Cramer's book, but I came away thinking better of Gephardt then I had beforehand, given that he's a liberal machine hack.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 8, 2003 8:05 PMYour review says "Gephardt is . . . a loathsome creature. He seems not to have any core beliefs, any personal ethics, or any internal checks on his own ambition." Why then do you think he won't win the nomination?
Posted by: pj at January 8, 2003 10:22 PMBecause, as Cramer writes, he's transparent about it and, because he doesn't believe anything, he tends to do whatever his consultants tell him he needs to do. So in IA he'll run as the vanilla Jesse Jackson but then a few weeks later in NH he'll try running to the right of George Bush, but everyone will notice it, kind of like the Gore debate performances.
Posted by: oj at January 9, 2003 10:32 AMClinton had totally different messages for every part of the country, and he creamed the Democratic field.
Posted by: pj at January 9, 2003 12:37 PMYes, and that was his genius. Dick Gephardt does not partake of such genius.
It is a very rare trait--fortunately--to believe in your heart anything that you say to people, even if it contradicts what you say to others. Clinton had this trait, as do many sociopaths. It is Gephardt's misfortune that he doesn't believe anything he says to anyone and they pick up on that.