Election Year '04
In the next few days we will officially be in an election year. I, along with so many others, have followed the Democratic candidates over the last year. We have seen front-runners fall and new exciting candidates enter the race. This new year comes with Howard Dean positioned to be our candidate against George W. Bush and yet many questions surround his campaign. Wesley Clark has a strong personal story and the ideas to back it up yet his campaign is caught fighting for second place in a crowded field. Although I am a volunteer for the Dean campaign here in DC I am turned off by talk from any candidate about how so and so would be a terrible nominee or "as bad as Bush." Dean and Dean people do this to and I am saying now that I don't like it.
Kerry and Gephart have lost my support along with so many others because of the way that they are seen to snipe at Dean. A fellow campaign watcher, friend, and no fan of Gov. Dean has written a great defense of Dean against these attacks. Clark and Edwards have played nice putting forward their own stories as the centerpiece of their campaigns. And yet Edwards, once so promising, has alienated many within the party by not simultaneously running for the Senate in North Carolina. If he loses the primary, as polling data shows him to do, he will have abdicated a Southern seat in the Senate after one term, no small matter in the closely divided Senate.
Lieberman is forever conservative and his failure to gain traction shows the end of his moderate ideology. Kucinich has run a spirited but failed campaign. For all the sincerity that goes into his chants of "UN in US out" and "eliminate Nafta and the WTO" these viewpoints are not a path to success. With Kucinich, Braun and Sharpton have failed to attract the funds or grassroots support necessary to campaign in even a single state.
As the year begins my hopes are with Dean or Clark. Dean leads the pack and presents a strong front against Bush next year. How he handles the questions around his campaign in the coming weeks will provide a window into the general election. Such questions are inevitable. To have them now allows the campaign to show its strength or its weakness. Clark will also be tested if he becomes the lone candidate against Dean leading in to Super Tuesday. Many campaign watchers have spoken of a Dean-Clark ticket as having the magic to beat Bush. If the campaign gets bloody in its last days this relationship will become impossible.
Looking back on the last year my mind shoots forward to next November. So much has happened over the last 12 months and yet none of it has finished. What each of chooses to do this year will impact the fate of our nation. We are at a turning point.
Who is this guy?
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