Dramatic erosion in support among white men has left the Democrats in a highly vulnerable position and unless the party strongly repositions itself, President Bush will be virtually impossible to beat in 2004, according to a new poll commissioned for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). ...
DLC leaders have criticized former Vermont governor Howard Dean, whose antiwar rhetoric fueled his rise to prominence in the Democratic presidential race, and today, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), the DLC chairman, warned that the party is "at risk of being taken over by the far left." The choice for Democrats, Bayh said, is, "Do we want to vent or do we want to govern?"
Leaving aside the issue of how the poll might have been designed...
The reality of "white men": The one constant with Dean is that he has the cojones to take it to the Republicans. Why the DLC thinks cojones aren't attractive to white men is beyond me. (Why aren't the DLC hammering on the Bush administration gutting overtime protection, if they want to appeal to men so badly?)
The reality of "anti-war": This is a tired old '60s label recycled by the mentally lazy. There's a perfectly reasonable case that the war on Iraq is bad for America on straight national security grounds. The Democrats can and should make it.
Dean the "far left"? That's truly an alternate reality ... Not that the Republicans won't make ample use of Bayh's little sound bite in 2004.
Get a grip, Al!
NOTE As a yellow dog Democrat, I support anyone who can beat Bush in 2004—even Lieberman. But the DLC isn't helping the cause in 2004 by pulling stunts like this.