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Jewish World Review June 20, 2006 / 24 Sivan, 5766 Moonbats as kingmakers By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Hillary Clinton was booed and John Kerry applauded at a major meeting of self-styled
"progressives" last week. I suspect both were pleased with the responses.
Sen. Clinton was booed because she said it wasn't a good idea to set a firm deadline for
withdrawal from Iraq. Sen. Kerry was applauded for repudiating his vote to authorize the war.
Both were speaking at the "Take Back America" conference in Washington D.C. June 12-14,
sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future. It and a gathering of liberal Web loggers in
Las Vegas June 8-11 illustrated the widening gap between the political center and the
Democratic party's loudest voices.
An unwelcome, for Democrats, by product of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law is
the increased importance of very liberal activists. That law sharply restricted contributions
to political parties from fat cats. Democrats were far more dependent upon such contributions
than Republicans were.
So those who can mobilize many small contributions through the internet, like Marcos Moulitsas
Zuniga (Daily Kos), are the new kingmakers.
What the Kossacks want above all is for America to get out of Iraq. The centrality of this
passion is illustrated by their effort to purge from office Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), whose
only deviation from liberal orthodoxy is his support for an American victory in Iraq.
Calls for withdrawal have taken on urgency since the U.S. Air Force interrupted a meeting being
held by Abu Musab al Zarqawi in a safe house near Baquba June 7. We can still lose if we
withdraw quickly, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) in effect said on the weekend talk shows.
Most Americans do not share this perverse passion. A majority thinks it was a mistake to go to
war in Iraq, opinion polls indicate. But a majority thinks it would be a bigger mistake to
leave precipitously.
Elected Democrats know this. Sen. Kerry promised at the "Take Back America" conference to
introduce a resolution calling for withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of the year. It
got just six votes when the Senate voted on it June 15. In the House the next day, 42
Democrats joined 214 Republicans in opposing a fixed deadline for withdrawal.
Hillary Clinton is a prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president in
2008, so she can position herself for the general election. The booing she received at the Take
Back America conference could be her "Sister Souljah" moment.
Sister Souljah was a particularly obnoxious black racist who her husband criticized before a
black audience during his 1992 campaign for president, thus endearing himself to moderates. By
putting some distance between herself and the moonbats, Sen. Clinton burnishes her own
credentials with centrists.
But though Ms. Clinton's nomination is likely, it is by no means assured. While the moonbats
fume about her (mostly rhetorical) deviations from the left-liberal line, more moderate
Democrats fret about her electability.
Ms. Clinton does not poll well, especially when paired against GOP moderates such as Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz) or former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Though she has a famous name and a ton
of money, she lacks her husband's political skills, and just isn't very likable.
History indicates this could be a problem. The last northern Democrat to be elected president
was John F. Kennedy in 1960. He was likeable. But he still wouldn't have won without some
creative vote counting in Chicago and Texas.
Sen. Clinton has a tough tightrope to walk. She cannot embrace the moonbats without harming,
probably fatally, her prospects in the general election. But she cannot afford to offend them
more, lest they coalesce around a candidate strong enough to beat her for the nomination.
That isn't John Kerry. But if Al Gore were to enter the fray, the moonbats would rally to him,
and he has enough heft either to win the nomination outright, or to open the door for another,
by destroying the aura of inevitability about Hillary.
Meanwhile, by driving the party ever leftward, "progressives" are reducing the value of the
nomination for whoever ultimately wins it. The last Democrat to run on a platform calling for
American defeat was George McGovern in 1972. He lost 49 states.
The only Democrat besides Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton to be elected president since 1960
was Jimmy Carter, who was an obscure former governor of Georgia until he won the Iowa caucuses
in 1976.
Mr. Carter had basically camped out in Iowa for the two years previous, and bested bigger
national names there. Interestingly, another southerner, former North Carolina senator John
Edwards, currently is leading the polling in Iowa.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. Comment by clicking here.
© 2006, Jack Kelly |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
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