December 13, 2003
IT'S HIS PARTY:
Stop Dean: Al Gore's endorsement signaled an pivotal moment for the Democratic party. Who can stop Dean now? (Fred Barnes, 12/22/2003, Weekly Standard)
Chances are, Gore's endorsement didn't sway many voters. But it did signify a pivotal moment for the Democratic party. The party has shifted. The antiwar, Bush-loathing, culturally liberal left now has the upper hand. Its dominance will likely culminate in Dean's nomination.This is an event to be feared. Why? Because it will harm the Democratic party and lead to a general election campaign brimming with bitter assaults on the very idea of an assertive, morality-based American role in the world. And all this will play out as the war on terrorism, and the outcome in Iraq, hang in the balance. Gore's lurch to the left and Dean's likely nomination mean trouble.
Can Dean be stopped? A stop-Dean movement may appear quixotic, but it's not. Dean has no lock on Iowa, and a lead even as large as Dean's in New Hampshire is always precarious. Many Democrats are terrified that a nominee who vehemently opposes the war, likens the Bush administration to the Taliban, and plans to raise taxes on the middle class can't be elected. But they've been scared into silence by Dean's tough talk and momentum.
The worst offenders on this score are Dean's Democratic opponents. Dean is vulnerable on at least two issues, taxes and the war. But his rivals have confronted him effectively on neither. At the Democratic debate in New Hampshire last week, Kerry was asked by ABC's Ted Koppel why he hadn't raised his hand to show he thinks Dean could defeat Bush. What an opening! Kerry was free to insist, before the largest New Hampshire audience he'll ever have, that Bush would crucify Dean on the tax issue. But he lamely explained the reason he didn't raise his hand was his belief "in my vision for the country." Only when interviewed after the debate did Kerry attack Dean's tax hike proposal, declaring taxes the chief difference between himself and Dean. It was too late. No one was watching.
Thirty-five years of opposing war and twenty-five years of opposing tax cuts would seem to have taken their toll. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 13, 2003 6:34 AM
This cycle, the people who choose the Democratic nominee will not choose someone who says what Barnes wants Kerry to say. Next cycle, they might.
Posted by: David Cohen at December 13, 2003 8:30 AMThe echoes will not show any moral courage against each other - it is easy (and cheap) to attack Bush and parrot the demented left, but it is quite another matter to stand and define themselves against each other. All the excusing and blindness of the Clinton years are coming home to roost, especially for Lieberman and Gephardt.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 13, 2003 9:21 AMFred left the Anti-Globalists, the anti-capitalists and the anti-American factions out of the coalition. They can't all be in the Green Party. "It Isn't Easy To Be Green", except on the "Left Coast" of course.
Posted by: genecis at December 13, 2003 10:59 AM