Friday, January 16, 2004
The Wrong Man
One more thing to read on Friday night: Doug Ireland's chronicle of that great Democrat flip-flopper, "Dead Dick" Gephardt. The best news from Iowa this week is that Gephardt is slipping in the polls. If the trend holds and Ireland is right, his campaign will be over after Monday night.
I am sure that Dick Gephardt is a nice man who loves his country, and there was a time--maybe in the 1970s--when he might have been presidential timber. But those days are gone. Today, a Gephardt-style thirst for courtly bipartisanship, which is still prominent in the Democratic Party, is getting the party killed. Time and again in his presidential campaign, just as in the 2002 midterm campaign, he's shown he won't fight--sometimes, he's acted as if he doesn't even know the Democrats are in a fight with the Republicans. He certainly doesn't seem to know it's a fight to the death. Howard Dean knows it. Lately, John Kerry has shown signs of understanding it as well. Gephardt doesn't, and it's good for the country that his retirement from public life is only a few days away.
One more thing to read on Friday night: Doug Ireland's chronicle of that great Democrat flip-flopper, "Dead Dick" Gephardt. The best news from Iowa this week is that Gephardt is slipping in the polls. If the trend holds and Ireland is right, his campaign will be over after Monday night.
I am sure that Dick Gephardt is a nice man who loves his country, and there was a time--maybe in the 1970s--when he might have been presidential timber. But those days are gone. Today, a Gephardt-style thirst for courtly bipartisanship, which is still prominent in the Democratic Party, is getting the party killed. Time and again in his presidential campaign, just as in the 2002 midterm campaign, he's shown he won't fight--sometimes, he's acted as if he doesn't even know the Democrats are in a fight with the Republicans. He certainly doesn't seem to know it's a fight to the death. Howard Dean knows it. Lately, John Kerry has shown signs of understanding it as well. Gephardt doesn't, and it's good for the country that his retirement from public life is only a few days away.
