CLOSELY WATCHED TRAIN WRECKS

Original Party Animals: Democrats say they are hopeful about the coming election. But then, they have to say that (Mike Mosedale, 6/25/03, City Pages)

Last week, when Democratic bigwigs from across the country assembled in St. Paul to take a look-see at the party's presidential aspirants, one buzzword trumped all the others. Optimism. Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, state committee functionaries, candidates--they were all so inflated with hope you worried that one of them might explode and set off a chain reaction. [...]

But insofar as the optimism on display this weekend was genuine, it may have sprung from a more elemental source: helpless, baseless rationalization. When things look as bad as they do for the Democrats right now, how likely is it that they'll get any worse?

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the answer may well be "pretty damn likely." Why? Well, look at the candidates. Of the six who spoke, none emerged as anything near a consensus favorite. That may not seem surprising. But by many accounts, it was Bill Clinton's impressive showing at this same meeting in the summer of 1991 that propelled him to the front of the '92 field.

But the Dems' lack of distinction hardly ends there. You can start by noting that the best orator among the participants, the Rev. Al Sharpton, is also the most unelectable. Sharpton was the funniest of the speakers as well, though in one sense his best jabs were at the essential unseriousness of the event. Asked how he would handle the federal deficit, Sharpton said he was uniquely qualified because "I've been in a deficit most of my life." The line that got the heartiest laughs: "Some people say, 'Al, can you win?' Well, Bush didn't win and he's president!"

If Sharpton were mounting a serious campaign for the nomination, he would not have been received so warmly. But he cozied up to the insiders
by effectively declaring his candidacy the front for a voter-registration drive.

Alan Keyes won just about every Republican debate he was allowed to attend, but there was no natural constituency in the lilly-white GOP for his candidacy asa a racial matter and the eventuals nominees were inevitably going to be nearly as conservative as he, so it didn't matter how well he did. But the Democrats are unlikely to nominate a genuine liberal and there is a racial constituency for the Reverend in their party, so he can stay in the race as long as he wants to and make a difference in more than a few states. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2003 5:01 PM