Dick Morris bewails the impact of Howard Dean:
In forcing the party left, Dean is picking up where Jesse Jackson left off, creating a gantlet of liberal litmus tests that a nominee must pass to win the nomination – locking him into positions that invite certain defeat in November. No candidate can win a presidential race advocating gay marriage and opposing the military action in Iraq.
In other words, Dean is not only going to cost the Donks 2004, he’s going to do long term damage. “[I]f somebody doesn’t stop Howard Dean, he and his ideas will be permanent plagues on the Democratic Party, forcing nominees to toe a line that so offends traditional values as to make its candidates unelectable.” Morris makes the case that Dean may well defeat Kerry in New Hampshire, or force him so far to the left to win that he is unelectable in the Fall.
Wow, I nearly swoon at the deligthful prospects thus opened up. Let us devoutly hope that Morris is correct.
Michael Barone, being Michael Barone, makes a more measured and scholarly case, but still sees strong potential for Dean to grab it all: “Core Democrats, the 20 to 25 percent of the electorate who hate Bush and ooze contempt for him, are flocking to the banner of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who last week had a big lead in the Internet poll run by MoveOn.org.” Barone notes that this “snob factor” will be a big deal in the primaries. If you don’t hate Bush, the core Donk voters won’t vote for you. I like it. Let the Donks clutch their imaginary superiority to their bosoms as they sink to the fathomless bottom of an icy and nightblack sea. Yes. Yes.
If the Democrats move left,doesn’t that mean that Republicans will move left,too,in order to capture the center?Hasn’t Bush already started doing that?