The race to place (W.W.Win, Whoever Will Win , replaces ABB)

[papau]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/01/15/the_race_to_place/

The race to place By Ellen Goodman, 1/15/2004

IN EVERY PRIMARY season there is that electric moment when many candidates start jockeying for second place. This is celebrated by the media as a victory nearly as important as that amorphous goal of doing "better than expected."

So we approach the hour when an estimated 100,000 citizens will arrive at 1,993 rooms in Iowa to huddle and count. Pollsters say that Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean are vying for first place, John Kerry and John Edwards for third. But the Democrats already seem well on their way to winning second place - In November.

This has been the season of attacks and counterattacks of the sort that make Karl Rove smile. It got so bad at the final candidate's forum that I surfed from Demolition in Des Moines to "Sex and the City."

MoveOn.org may have gathered 30-second anti-Bush ads from newcomers, but the pro-Bush folks will be cutting and pasting from the professional Democrats. The GOP sound-bite bank runneth over. Most of the attacks have, of course, been directed at Dean, who was designated the front-runner before a hand was raised or a ballot was cast. He's been targeted by opponents and media alike for having risen out of nowhere-dot-com to be number one.
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... the Democrats are writing the attack ads for them....(while) The great hard core of Democrats have already picked their candidate: Whoever Will Win....It's not that they aren't trying to figure out who would make the best president. It's that dyed-in-the-wool Democrats -- the bluest of the blue tribe -- have agreed with a fervor that I haven't seen in a long time that any of four or five of the contenders would be better than the man in the White House.
While the candidates are up on the big screen arguing about their policies, there's a subliminal crawl running through the minds of voters that looks like this: Howard Dean, authentic fighter or gaffe-prone? . . . Wesley Clark, strong general or unready for prime time? . . . John Kerry, experienced or uninspiring? . . . Dick Gephardt, solid or stolid? . . . and on and on.<snip>


....Most of these Democratic candidates believe with a pumped-up passion that they are the real W.W. Win. It's what fuels the 24/7 campaign. And it's how they justify attack ads.But the Democratic voters want to keep their eyes on the prize. The November prize has got to be BTE: Better Than Expected.