I read the article. The basic premise is what I listed yesterday as Kerry's main strength -- positive media coverage and momentum from victories. People are picking him because they think he can beat Bush. Others are picking him simply because he won last week's state. It's pretty simple, really. In the general, Edwards and Clark would pull in all the voters that Kerry would, plus they would pull in more of the center. Kerry is not the best candidate in the general, this much is obvious.
Yeah I don't know how well he'll pan out in the long run. He's riding a wave right now and once that comes in and people get off the Anyone but Bush mantra, they'll have to analyze that anyone.
Why do you think people will get off that mantra? He may not win the general, but if nothing else, Bush has done what many people have thought impossible-he's united the Democratic Party. It's gonna be a close, close election.
That means nothing. They're going to unite behind the eventual nominee, that's what it means. In the past, under a different President, there's a good chance that Dean supporters and Kerry supporters would clash and lead to animosity after the nomination was sewed up. Not this year.
i just read that dean said he thought edwards would be a better candidate in a national election than kerry.
No. Plus there was a gigantic ABD movement outside of the competing campaigns. Both the DNC and the DLC were opposed to Dean as nominee. The DNC, DLC and an unusual number of Dem voters are behind Kerry. The ABK movement right now is restricted to the remaining opposition and their hard core supporters. That's as of now. Things could change. But as of now, there's no comparison between the 'unity' behind Dean and the unity behind Kerry.
Will's column was great, by the way. There's another great column on the same site about Clark's exit -- really good reading.
<a HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/11/politics1618EST0759.DTL">Edwards hopes voters see him as viable alternative to Kerry</a>
If he really thought that, then he would drop out of the race right now, and put everything he has behind John Edwards, since Edwards is doing better than him. But then again, Howard Dean might believe this, since he doesnt think we need a president with any true foreign or military experience. Give me a break. If Edwards or Dean were the nominee George Bush would use the war on terror as his reason to keep his job. George Bush is a war time president, and we cant have a foreign policy lightweight as our nominee. In 92' or even 2000, maybe an "outsider" would be a good candidate, but not now. The stakes our too high. That's the reason people our turning out for Kerry. Kerry went into Iowa the last weeks of the campaign with NO MOMENTUM, he told his story and he got the win. ANY candidate who won these past races would have this said against them. Using the exit polls from New Hampshire, is not going to cut it either, thats one state. So I know Will Saletan is someone at this site, and thats great and all, but he's dead wrong on his analysis. Its superficial, and unless he's a mind reader, it's baseless.
Is Will still lamenting that Lieberman, the only totally pro war Demo, dropped out of the race?. I guess no need for Dean bashing article number 22. Let's wait for the ones on Kerry. Is the National Review is in Will's future? What about it Batman? I usually find your views on these things enlightening.
Dude, I was telling Lieberman to get out because he's hopeless as a candidate. The least I could do was give him a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. And yes, I'm a centrist. So shoot me. Uh, no. I bet Rush didn't mention that one. Sorry I've been away from the board, fellas. The presidential race is going so fast and furious right now that it's all I can do to catch the occasional Rockets game on TV. Can't tell you how thrilled I was at Yao's performance Wednesday night. Not so much his technique as his mentality, calling for the ball, jamming with authority, scowling ferociously and practically whooping on his way back up the court. It looks like he's picking up some serious American attitude to go with his talent. If so, he'll be a complete monster.
