Are Republicans writing the NYT headlines?

[ProSense]

May 21, 2006
The Nation
Plea of the Democratic Pariah: Forgive My Defeat
By MARK LEIBOVICH
WASHINGTON

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/weekinreview/21liebovich.html


Pariah?



:wtf:

[MH1]

1. But the article makes some good points

As a general rule, it can be an unpleasant career move for a Democrat to run for president, streak to primary victories, win his party's nomination and, ultimately, fall short. For his troubles, he will automatically be consigned by large sectors of his party to a distinctive Democratic pariah status — his campaign ridiculed, second-guessed and I-told-you-so'd endlessly by insiders and operatives who bemoan how "winnable" his election was and "unlikable" his personality is.

They will reflexively lump the runner-up into the party pantheon of losers and hope he stays away. "We tend to treat our losing nominees like Superfund sites," said Bob Beckel, a longtime Democratic strategist who ran Walter F. Mondale's presidential campaign in 1984, a landslide loss to Ronald Reagan.

(snip)

But the Democratic Party represents a rare American enterprise in which experience, intense vetting and a proven record of success will, to many minds, disqualify a candidate from trying again.

I think it's pretty much on the mark.

I agree that the headline sucks, but maybe it will help get the point across.

[ProSense]

2. I agree!

The article does make a lot of good points. Thing is, why are Republicans mavericks?

First McCain, now Chafee:

First lady headlines fundraiser for maverick senator
Boston Globe - May 19 12:39 PM
Even though Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee didn't vote for her husband, first lady Laura

[ginnyinWI]

3. Ha--they ALL will want to be mavericks this year!

They're falling over each other scrambling to get away from this president. Funny that the FLOTUS is ok with them, though.

But a thought struck me last night watching Brooks and Shields: what if * were actually trying to give the House Repubs a reason to back away from him with this immigration split? It makes the conservative element look heroic to the RWers. Of course the moderates might not be as impressed, so they still have a split party over this.

[ProSense]

5. That's it!

It's been happening since the Dubai debacle. The Repubs were coasting along ignoring Bush's negligence on Katrina, then the ports deal thing blind-sided them. Of course, Katrina was bound to catch up to them, and Kerry's report spotlighted the problems. As more Americans begin demanding solutions, Bush is trying to give the GOP an out. The problem is the solutions are what the Democrats have been proposing all along. Typically, without the catastrophic situations Bush has created, the GOP would throw out smoke and mirrors and pretend they're real solutions. That will not work because the problems are very real and very dire. Bush is rapidly pushing the country toward greater disaster.

[karynnj]

4. The title is bad, but if you look at DU has a certain truth

I have more of a problem with the writing of the Kerry part - I had to read the McCurry paragraph twice to get his point - that it is beltway people more than the population at large who ridicule Kerry.

Here are the 2 paragraphs:

"Could it be changing for Mr. Kerry, too? Unlike Mr. Gore, Mr. Kerry had the benefit — or curse — of a high-profile Washington job to return to. Earlier this year, GQ published an unflattering profile of Mr. Kerry that relied heavily on anonymous quotes from former staffers and Beltway Democrats portraying him as a scorned and pitiable figure. The article was e-mailed with a measure of unrestrained glee around Democratic offices on Capitol Hill.

"The bitterness towards Kerry is much greater from the chattering classes in Washington," said Michael D. McCurry, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. Mr. McCurry posits the example of his father, a Democratic activist in South Carolina, who still admires Mr. Kerry and resents the ridicule that's been heaped on him by onetime loyalists. Mr. Kerry's current staff is quick to share news of the large turnouts and ebullient receptions the senator is getting as he travels the country, exploring another run in 2008."

The probem is the first sentence of the second paragraph. The "much greater" implies a comparison - but doesn't say with whom. From the latter part it becomes clear that it is the population as a whole. So Kerry doesn't have inside the beltway support, did he ever? That Kerry is getting large ebullient receptions and people respond to his fund raising appeals may suggest the problem in the Democratic party is the lame ass party insiders.

[ProSense]

6. I don't trust anything

McCurry says. After his Huffington rant, which reminded me too much of Joe Klein's, I don't have a high opinion of him. He should have had more tact than he displayed. He lost his cool, and that was not cool!

[karynnj]

9. I trust what he said here

I think his point is that people like his South Carolina Democratic activist dad still respects Kerry. It actually surprised me that he did say something nice.

I thought he had seemed one of the few useful Clinton people in 2004. My guess is that any problem he had was that he wanted Kerry to be like Bill Clinton.

[blm]

10. McCurrey was close with BOB Kerrey long before Cllinton. McCurrey may be

softened now towards John Kerry's situation as Bob Kerrey recently came out in support of Kerry's withdrawal plan, and Mike may be seeing that the Clintonites have been so protective of their BushInc allies.

[karynnj]

11. That's interesting

I had never heard that and had seen in various behind the scenes books that there was no love lost between Kerrey and Clinton.

It may simply be that he was making an honest evaluation - it really does seem that the insiders are very quick to be very very snarky about anything Kerry does - which to me just makes them look cynical and calculated versus the earnest, principled Kerry. If what McCurrey is saying is typical for active Democrats in the field, that is really good news.

I was surprised because his dad was from SC. I would think the snarky comments would ring less true to active swing state Democrats, who would have had a considerable amount of first hand experience. In their case the beltway comments would directly condradict their personal experience. In SC the election was likely as remote as it was in NJ.

If they keep this up, they may let the 2004 nominee successfully run against the DC Democratic establishment. They might unintentionally create exactly what Kerry needs to run as an outsider, who has seen the inside and knows how it works, but who refused to be corrupted and as you've pointed out millions of time has fought government corruption on both sides.

[TayTay]

8. Karynnj, I couldn't agree more.

The Democratic Party has a problem with it's professional and grassroots people not seeing each other very well at all. Look at the recent Paul Begala imbroglio at HuffPost. Begala ridiculed Gov. Dean's 50-State strategy and denigrated the field organizers that the DNC has put in place in all 50 States, including Mississippi, Alabama and Utah. I think the Washington establishment (and this includes Majority Leader Harry Reid, btw, imho) want to impose orders from above. That day is passing.

Sen. Kerry did a great job in the last campaign in many ways. The Washington Dems may not want to see that but a lot of the 'rank and file' Dems saw him as a 'class act' and a 'wicked smaht' guy who just barely lost. I wonder sometimes how much of that snideness from the 'insiders' the campaign is able to shake off.

Go back and read this thread from the Texas Forum on DU. Look at the pics. This was a Kerry event in Austin Texas in April of 2005. What does this tell you? (Besides the fact that Texans take the very best Kerry pictures in the whole wide world? Besides that. But oh my those are gorgeous pics.) READ ALL OF THIS THREAD.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=180&topic_id=12757&mesg_id=12757



There is a serious disconnect between 'We the People' and the gang in DC. A serious disconnect. (Kerry the courageous indeed!)

[jenndar]

7. Mark Leibovich likes to be provocative.

He's done pieces on THK, Santorum, etc., that aren't uninformative, but have a serious soap-opera feel to them.