Dean vs. Clark
13 Nov 2003
The Democratic Presidential race is going to come down to Howard Dean versus Wesley Clark.
You can bank on that.
Here's the scenario.
Dean, strengthened by the support of AFSCME and SEIU, will knock Gephardt out in Iowa. Then Dean will trounce Kerry in New Hampshire, which will end his hapless campaign. (Both Gephardt and Kerry crippled themselves by voting for Bush's Iraq blunder.)
With Dean riding high, the Democratic Party establishment will prevail upon Joe Lieberman and John Edwards to bow out so that there will be no one remaining in the field to Dean's right except Clark. (On the left, Kucinich, Sharpton, and Moseley Braun will nip at Dean's heels, which is great, according to the anyone-but-Dean crowd.)
Then there will be a battle royal.
On the one side will be the grassroots, anti-war, liberal insurgency that has backed Dean to the hilt.
On the other, the powerbrokers, the Clintonites, and the pundits, who say Clark is the most electable. They all will try to browbeat voters to be good little boys and girls and vote for the general.
But Clark didn't help his standing with activist primary voters when he came out this week for a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning.
Clark's got a ways to go yet, and the final mano-a-mano between him and Dean could get ugly.
Democrats need to be wary of scuffing up their eventual nominee so badly that he'll be damaged goods come November.
-- Matthew Rothschild
progressive.org |
