FORK-WORTHY

Lieberman a tough sell among Jewish donors (Ralph Z. Hallow, July 8, 2003, Washington Times)

Joe Lieberman, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination for 2004, isn't breaking any records for collecting campaign contributions from fellow Jews. Some of them argue this isn't the right time for a Jewish candidate.

Potential Jewish donors fear a Jewish president could stir up anti-Semitism in the middle of the war on terrorism and the military occupation of Iraq, Jews in both parties say.

"To be Jewish is to sometimes feel insecure in the world," says Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic presidential-campaign consultant.

In theory, the senior senator from Connecticut has a lot going for him as the only Jew among the nine Democrats in the intensifying hunt for the 2004 nomination.

But some of his co-religionists also say Jewish donors feel drawn to President Bush, who is turning out to be the best friend Israel has ever had in the Oval Office.

"The smart political money in the Jewish community right now is sitting on the sidelines or supporting the president," says Lee Cowen, a
Washington-based Jewish fund-raiser.

Edwards tries to boost N.H. campaign (Patrick Healy, 7/8/2003, Boston Globe)

After six months of aggressive fund-raising but sparse campaigning, presidential contender John Edwards sought yesterday to energize his New Hampshire political operation with a get-tough speech decrying corporate greed and proposing rules on stock options and executive pay.

Edwards, a first-term Democratic senator from North Carolina, also launched a scathing attack on the Bush administration's domestic agenda last night, at the first of 11 ''town hall'' meetings this summer. He said the president ''pretended'' to act like an average American, but had enacted policies that harmed public schools, the environment, civil liberties, and America's standing in the world. Edwards praised his fellow Democratic candidates, but said he was the only contender with a ''forward-looking, optimistic, positive'' message that could defeat Bush.

''He's a phony. He is a complete phony. The way you tell a counterfeit and the way you tell a phony, you put the real thing beside it in 2004,'' Edwards said.

N.H. voters puzzled by Edwards' campaign: 'I thought he was going to make a bigger splash' (MARK JOHNSON, Jul. 08, 2003, Charlotte Observer)

Edwards said his campaign must still court donors but is pivoting to "retail politics," going to voters in person.

"We spent most of the first six months raising money so that we had the resources to run a serious presidential campaign," he said. "... The fund raising will become a less significant part of what we're doing."

Kerry and Dean consistently top the polls, draw more media attention and live in states next door. An added leg up is that the Democrats involved this early in the campaign are "the party activists and people that turn out all the time," said Michael Kitch, a former state Senate aide to both Republicans and Democrats who now writes for a Laconia newspaper. Those Democrats are more liberal, Kitch said, and more likely to back Dean or Kerry over Edwards, who, despite a relatively liberal voting record, advances a moderate image.

The moderates, suburbanites and independents who could boost Edwards' campaign have yet to focus on the race, said Dante Scala, a political analyst at St. Anselm College in Manchester.

Veteran campaign strategist Ed Turlington, who chairs Edwards' operation, said the campaign's plan is long term, not a month-to-month scramble for New Hampshire poll numbers even if they are low now.

Memo: To Aspiring Democratic Presidential Candidates

(1) There's a reason sitting Senators don't get elected President. If you haven't been fund-raising and retail politicking full time for the past six
months, you'd better be from IA, NH, or the immediate vicinity of one or the other.

(2) It's a bad time in the life of the nation to be transparently inauthentic.

(3) The post-impeachment, post-Florida Democratic Party is too hate-filled and radicalized to nominate a faux conservative again. Run Left. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 9, 2003 8:36 AM