November 12, 2004
ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF THE ELECTION THE VOTERS GAVE TO ME...:
The Architects of Defeat (Arianna Huffington, Arianna Online)
Twelve days before the election, James Carville stood in a Beverly Hills living room surrounded by two generations of Hollywood stars. After being introduced by Sen. John Kerry's daughter, Alexandra, he told the room, confidently, almost cockily, that the election was in the bag."If we can't win this damn election," the advisor to the Kerry campaign said, "with a Democratic Party more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money as the Republicans, with 55% of the country believing we're heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having won all three debates, and with our side being more passionate about the outcome than theirs, if we can't win this one, then we can't win [anything]! And we need to completely rethink the Democratic Party."
Amen. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 12, 2004 9:48 AM
James, you are not playing to your strength.
Posted by: luciferous at November 12, 2004 9:56 AMIt is fascinating to see the left tear itself apart in arguments over exactly on what specific issues the American people were wrong.
Posted by: Peter B at November 12, 2004 10:16 AMIf you can believe Arianna, the campaign was torn between two equally deluded camps: JFK could win on the economy v. JFK could win on the war. The latter group appears to be slightly more deluded, based on this quote from Cam Kerry: "'There is a very strong John Kerry narrative that is about leadership, character and trust. But it was never made central to the campaign,' he said." Or, perhaps it was responsible for the best run and least effective Democratic National Convention ever.
Posted by: David Cohen at November 12, 2004 10:31 AMAnd if you can't win the election you're entitled to win, you can always try a coup.
"Alert all Party Cadres.
Welfare bums into the streets
for Spontaneous People's Demonstrations..."
I believe that Gator Head has since owned up to it. I assume he has to sleep in the basement for at least another month.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 12, 2004 1:04 PMThere is a strong narative about John Kerry, but it isn't very positive.
Borderline traitor in war.
Do nothing senator focusing on appeasement and pacifism.
Flip flopping digressionary campaign.
Yep, its amazing that this won 55 million voites.
Posted by: AML at November 12, 2004 2:03 PMThe Cajun was ragin' against the "pro-pollution" party on Crossfire last night. He was back into denial after about 10 minutes.
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 12, 2004 5:06 PMThe party rolled snake eyes.
Posted by: genecis at November 12, 2004 8:32 PM