How to Build the Perfect Democratic Contender
nytimes.com
June 29, 2003
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
WASHINGTON — For despairing Democrats looking for the perfect candidate to run against President Bush next year, rest assured: he or she is out there.
Well, sort of.
Yes, most Americans in a recent New York Times/CBS News poll could not name a single Democrat seeking the presidential nomination, evidence that this crew is not making a deep impression on the national psyche.
And, yes, conversations with Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire, where people know something about these things, are more likely to turn up an unhappy accounting of candidates' shortfalls than a celebration of their strengths.
Yet if all of the nine candidates have their weaknesses, most bring a few strengths. As that realization takes hold, it is not uncommon to hear Democrats fantasize about creating the Frankenstein candidate (though some Democrats prefer the term Composite Candidate) — picking among the strengths, while leaving the weaknesses behind.
"The self-deprecating charm of Joe Lieberman — you have got to start with that," said Anita Dunn, a Democratic strategist. "And Bob Graham's résumé. Al Sharpton's one-liners! No one has better one-liners than Al Sharpton. Howard Dean's ability to excite activists and new people."
Ronald A. Klain, a Democratic strategist and senior aide to Al Gore in 2000, said this kind of pining is common early in presidential campaigns, when candidates are green and unknown, and voters, especially in the out-of-power party, are grumpy. "We go through this every time — `Oh, would there be a candidate who had had F.D.R.'s vision and John Kennedy's charisma,' and all this other stuff," Mr. Klain said.
So it is that John Edwards, the North Carolina senator, may seem a little too young and slight to be Leader of the Free World; in White House circles, he is mockingly known as the "Breck Girl." But it is not hard to find Democrats who would like to bottle his charm and personable campaign style. John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, may not seem as if he would be happy eating corndogs in the jostling crowd at the State Fair in Des Moines. But leave the congeniality to the résumé-challenged Mr. Edwards: Mr. Kerry has a war record that any candidate would love — two tours in Vietnam that brought him a few medals, and a tour back home leading the opposition to the war.
Mr. Lieberman's campaign is introducing many Americans to the customs of the observant Jew, such as not working on Saturday. It also appears to have awarded him the franchise on the moral and ethical issues. The penchant of Senator Bob Graham to keep detailed notebooks chronicling the most mundane of chores — think: got up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head — may give Democrats pause. But Mr. Graham, as a former member of the Senate intelligence committee, has authority in his challenges to Mr. Bush's efforts to protect the nation from terrorism. Better than that, he is from Florida.
Is there any candidate who can boast more legislative experience and ties to traditional sources of Democratic support than Representative Richard A. Gephardt, the former House minority leader? (Of course, that could be his big weakness as well.) Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, may seem ideologically out of step with a lot of voters, but he has already shown his ability to draw a lot of new people into the system.
For all that, if history is any indication, the nominee will end up a stronger candidate: the ultimate winner will study and learn (some might say steal) from his or her opponents over these intense coming months together.
Still, as Jano Cabrera, a senior adviser to Mr. Lieberman, points out, perhaps Democrats should be careful what they wish for. "I suppose it depends on what qualities one were to pick," he said. "You might end up only representing the aloof, Breck-haired, meticulous notebook-keeping wing of the Democratic Party that doesn't like to work after sundown." |
