National Democrats
Reintroducing Obama
Barack Obama needs a Manhattan Project. No, not a bomb. But an intensive strategic and research project like the one the Clinton campaign undertook in 1992, when they figured out why Clinton was running third (behind Bush and Perot) – and how to fix the problem. The ’92 Clinton campaign is more famous for its…
Read MoreThree Trends
It seems to me, over the years, I’ve witnessed two political earthquakes that changed the ground rules in American politics and gave birth to new political movements. The pictures on TV of American soldiers and refugees fleeing Saigon on the skids of helicopters said to the generation of men and women who’d fought in and…
Read MoreCaution to Business: Left Turn Ahead
Toe-sucking transpartisan consultant-turned-pundit Dick Morris, the only man alive who advised both Bill Clinton and Jesse Helms, is right about one thing: Politics in America is headed left. Race may keep Barack Obama from becoming President. But otherwise 2008 looks like 2006 continued. That could mean more Democrats in the Senate and House. It could…
Read MoreDead White Males
The world up and moved on its axis yesterday morning while I was listening to National Public Radio. It started innocently enough. Cokie Roberts was talking about her two books, Ladies of Liberty and Founding Mothers, when a lady called in to thank her for recognizing the ignored Female Founders of our nation – then…
Read MoreBy the Numbers
Here are some numbers worth pondering as you ponder this year’s elections in North Carolina. On May 6, 1.58 million people voted in the Democratic presidential primary. That’s more than the 1.52 million who voted for John Kerry and John Edwards here in November 2004. Thanks to this year’s registration surge, there are now 2.6…
Read MoreThe Mystery of 2008
I had an argument with my friend the pollster. I told him – in no uncertain terms – Barack Obama’s a rerun of George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. And said, We’ve seen this story before. The Democrats fall in love, young people swoon, then the day after the election they wake up and…
Read MoreTed Kennedy and Ham Jordan
Cancer felled Hamilton Jordan and was found in Ted Kennedy the same day. Everybody knows Kennedy. But how many know Jordan – and his connection with Kennedy? Before Karl Rove, James Carville and Lee Atwater, Jordan – pronounced Jer-dan – was the original modern Southern-fried political operative. He was the strategic genius behind Jimmy Carter’s…
Read MoreWho’s the Number 2? Who Cares?
Now that the Democratic presidential race is all but over, everybody’s attention turns to running mates. Will Obama pick Clinton? Or Edwards? Or Rendell, to carry Pennsylvania? Or Richardson, to appeal to Hispanics? Or does it matter? Myth has it that running mates deliver states – or constituent groups. But John Edwards didn’t make North…
Read MoreHillary’s Fiction
The folks who troop to the polls to vote in Democratic primaries, like the folks who vote in Republican primaries, are not ticket-splitters. They’re not independents. They know where they stand and – barring some unnatural act – when they return to the polls in November they will vote (as they have done for as…
Read MoreTides
The media’s all but written Hillary’s obituary (for the third time) but this time it looks like they’ll make it stick. But before Hillary rides off over the horizon and disappears under a cloud of super-delegates she’s given Obama one more royal thumping in West Virginia by 67% to 26%. Now this seems like good…
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