Hasta la vista, Bush brigade?
thestatesman.net
<<...most political observers in Washington give Clark little chance of surviving the primaries, when candidates must appeal to party activists, rather than voters at large. Grassroots Democrats will have to decide, however, whether they hate Bush more than they resent a carpetbagger such as Clark. My hunch is that their hatred for Bush now far exceeds all their other passions. They may well rally around Clark, and if that happens Bush could well be beaten, despite his huge war chest and the advantages of incumbency, just as the Democrat establishment in California was trounced by Schwarzenegger.
At the moment, Clark is certainly the only Democrat who really frightens Bush. He trumps Bush on national security, but, more importantly, he may be able to win over centrists and wavering Republican voters, turning next year’s election into a contest for the political Centre instead of a battle between the extremes. Bush, by contrast, is no longer capable of competing for the Centre, after presenting himself in the last election as a centrist “compassionate conservative” and then turning out to be the most divisive President of modern times.
The rediscovery of America’s tolerant, progressive political Centre by non-partisan non-politicians, such as Schwarzenegger and Clark, is extremely bad news for President Bush and his belligerent hard-right lieutenants. So maybe it is time to say hasta la vista, neo-cons...>> |
