Jonathan Freedland (Guardian Utd): In search of a candidate

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Wednesday January 21

In search of a candidate
Generic Democrat could beat Bush. But it's one of the four actual contestants that has to be chosen
By Jonathan Freedland

There is one man who can beat George Bush. Send out a search party: his name is Generic Democrat. Latest polls show that when Americans choose between the current president and a hypothetical figure known only as "the Democratic candidate", the two end up in a statistical tie. Some surveys have even shown our friend Generic Democrat with a slight edge.
The trouble is, Generic cannot be on the ballot paper in November. The Democrats need to have chosen an actual person to take on the president by then, and that task just got a lot more complicated.
For while Bush was putting the finishing touches to the State of the Union address he gave last night, the Democrats were slugging it out in what is now a genuine four-way contest. That is good news for Bush, as yesterday's breakfast TV in America testified. Footage from Iowa showed four exhausted, sweaty Democrats physically punching the air or rhetorically jabbing each other while a White House photograph captured a contemplative Bush preparing for last night's speech. Not-so-subliminal message: Let these guys squabble in the playground; I am presidential.

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A view from across the Pond, where they still enjoy a free press.