I’m spending some time in Washington DC, where I’ll be starting a new job this September in George Washington University’s Dept. of Political Science and Elliott School of International Affairs. There was a Kerry fundraiser yesterday where Bill Clinton was speaking – I went along with my wife because I thought it would give some interesting insights into how Clinton was going to sell Kerry’s candidacy on his upcoming “book tour”:http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink?q=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/politics/campaign/14CLIN.html?pagewanted=print&position=. As it did.
Clinton spoke for about 15 minutes. There were three main points to his speech. First was a slightly defensive apologia for Kerry’s lack of public profile – Clinton spoke about how difficult it was to get media space for a challenger at this stage of the Presidential campaign. Second was a thinly-veiled attack on Bush. Clinton spoke at length about how John Kerry would be a President who was comfortable with people who were smarter than him, and who were prepared to contradict him when he was wrong. This seemed to me to be a smart use of Clinton’s experience in running the Oval Office. It didn’t come across as raw partisanship (the criticism was implicit), but pointed up by contrast the plain, simple badness and incoherence of the executive policy-making process under GWB. Third, Clinton tried to sell Kerry as a caring Democrat, by talking about Kerry’s commitment to helping deprived youth during Clinton’s Presidency. This wasn’t very convincing – there wasn’t any specific information, or even anecdotes, about what exactly Kerry had done. All in all, it served to confirm my overall impression that the Democrats are still having difficulty in selling Kerry as a positive quantity, rather than as an alternative to the (undoubtedly execrable) incumbent. Some of this could be my bias as a non-US lefty who has no emotional commitment to the Democrats, but it seemed to me that Kerry still has a lot of work to do if he’s going to maintain his narrow lead, let alone extend it.
{ 19 comments }
rosa 06.15.04 at 3:41 pm
If the D’s try to sell Kerry as a caring person they’re going to get laughed off the stage. He’s pompous, stiff, and intellectual. He may care for the average Joe in the abstract, but he obviously doesn’t care for Joe when he meets him in the flesh.
If you’ve got dried figs for sale, don’t try to sell them as a juicy fruit.
Keith 06.15.04 at 4:34 pm
I have a hard time getting behind the democrats as a possitive force and I am a US lefty. They just don’t really seem to care a whole lot. They care more than Bush and I think genuinely want to do a better job but they lack the passion or conviction necesary to really get disenfranchised voters (like myself0 fired up.
dm 06.15.04 at 4:47 pm
Actually, Kerry seems cold and aloof only when televised.
When one actually meets him “in the flesh”, he’s quite personable. This is one of the reasons he did so well in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries — a lot of the voters had an opportunity to meet him, and those who did not, probably knew someone who did.
q 06.15.04 at 4:58 pm
_Democrats are still having difficulty in selling Kerry as a positive quantity_
Maybe this is not a Kerry effect, but a DEMOCRAT effect. Kerry is OK and Bush is underwhelming, but they still tie closely: why? There seems to be a resistence to unseat the incompetent incumbent Republican president with a Democrat. Does Kerry needs to distance himself from the Democrats?
AAB 06.15.04 at 5:12 pm
Why do people care if a candidate is personable or stiff. We are not selecting a neighbor here. Mostly the policies the president makes affect the public and those policies should have been the deciding factors (may be 95% of the deciding factors) in selecting a leader.
Cranky Observer 06.15.04 at 6:16 pm
> Kerry is OK and Bush is underwhelming,
> but they still tie closely: why?
I hate to have to say it, but both are very closely tied to the current corporacracy. Do you think that Kerry will take on the RIAA or Clear Channel? Do anything serious about the database industry and personal privacy? Try to seriously challenge the military-industrial complex (sure the F-22 is neat, but $220 million per copy???)? I don’t think so either.
Now, since we have seen with Bush what delights unchecked rule by neocons can bring, voters are tilting a bit toward Kerry. And I hope he wins. But forgive me if I am not overly enthusiastic.
Cranky
Brendan 06.15.04 at 6:49 pm
It’s true that Kerry is an uninspiring candidate. I don’t think that Clinton’s book tour will help Kerry, it will serve to remind people of the charisma deficit between Clinton and Kerry. The Democrats have a great chance to win the election, given the current absolute debacle in Iraq. However, unless Kerry can change the existing perception of him (as accurate or inaccurate as that may be), this election will be much closer than it should have been, and if the economy continues to improve on paper Kerry may even (gasp!) lose. I wish there were a better Democratic candidate this time.
Giles 06.15.04 at 7:07 pm
“a President who was comfortable with people who were smarter than him, and who were prepared to contradict him when he was wrong. ”
Sounds like Bush.
“Third, Clinton tried to sell Kerry as a caring Democrat,”
Sounds like “compassionate conservatism.”
Sounds like a not so subtle stiffing overall by Clinton on Kerry.
q 06.15.04 at 7:18 pm
There is an argument that says that given the poverty of the current choices, you are better off with Bush because he has been severely and permanently wounded, and an old damaged president is likely to cause less damage abroad than a new powerful one.
The foreign policy of a “clean slate” Kerry who has the same foreign policy as Bush could be a recipe for total disaster.
Of course, the election is not just about foreign policy.
Mario 06.15.04 at 8:12 pm
Sorry, but Kerry is running the perfect campaign so far. First, Bush is busy inflicting on himself the death of a thousand cuts, so why get in the way. Second, Kerry needs to be seen as the new guy to get people excited. Keeping a low profile now is exactly what he wants to do. He’s not even a blip on the radar screen to most American’s right now. That’ll change soon enough.
mcpeepants 06.15.04 at 8:19 pm
What makes you think that Clinton wants Kerry to win?
elliander 06.15.04 at 8:24 pm
As a leftish voter, I’ll obviously vote for the guy, but I haven’t seen any positive reason to do so yet, as opposed to the anybody-but-Bush rationale. I think it’s partly the problem that all Dems have had lately: when trying to sell themselves to the middle, they water down their positions and their tone. Don’t wanna seem radical or strident, or, gasp, a liberal!
This is a strategic error, I believe, because the undecided, swing-type voters are, almost by definition, not issue-oriented. They would likely vote on personality, charisma, etc. If true, neutering oneself by “running to the middle” in the general election is a mistake.
What did Gore stand for in the last election, other than a Social Security lockbox? Even when they’re elected, they’re still practially worthless, as evidenced by their total abdication of opposition to Bush’s war plans. But that’s another rant…
Ophelia Benson 06.15.04 at 8:31 pm
“Some of this could be my bias as a non-US lefty who has no emotional commitment to the Democrats”
Hmmyeah – as the comments make clear, there are plenty of US lefties who also have no emotional commitment to the Democrats, for compelling reasons.
Matt Weiner 06.16.04 at 3:02 am
Kerry is OK and Bush is underwhelming, but they still tie closely: why?
Echoing what Mario said, maybe, there are observers of electoral history who say that the challenger is never that far ahead of the incumbent at this stage of the race. Most Americans–who don’t obsess over politics the way blog-readers do–may not have a clear idea of who Kerry is yet.
I don’t love Kerry but I like him. On the domestic economic front it seems to me that the big challenge will be to rectify the budget while doing one’s best to undo Bush’s massive gifts to the superrich, and I think Kerry’s heart is in the right place there, as is pretty much any Dem to Lieberman’s left. On foreign policy, I was impressed that Joe Wilson and Rand Beers endorsed Kerry early–they know a lot more about national security and foreign policy than I could ever hope to, and if they say Kerry’s the best man around I’ll trust them.
nick 06.16.04 at 2:10 pm
Should ‘caring’ be an issue this time around? I sort of agree with the general buzz that this election is about the perception of strength and competence — a Daddy election, rather than a Mummy one — and Kerry fits that bill.
The foreign policy of a “clean slate†Kerry who has the same foreign policy as Bush could be a recipe for total disaster.
Perhaps, but many countries seem prepared to sit on their hands until November and then give Kerry a softer ride, in the hope that he’s more open to persuasion.
Doug 06.16.04 at 3:02 pm
It’s easy to overplay the “need for a positive vision,” and plenty of establishment Washington would like nothing better. That’s a setup for requiring Kerry to be letter-perfect, with anything less meaning you have to vote for Bush. I don’t think so.
What do we remember more of from 1992, “putting people first” or “It’s time for them to go”? It was, and they did. It is, and with luck, they will.
Larry C. 06.17.04 at 4:43 pm
Reading John Kerry’s website is so disappointing. I don’t want to change captains on the Titanic, I want to get off the ship!!!
Katherine Hunter 06.17.04 at 5:38 pm
watching C-span a couple of years ago I saw John Kerry’s intelligent and eloquent defense of drilling in ANWR / remember, with Kerry, we dont get Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, et al good enough reasons, for this old lady, to vote for Kerry / he sure wont be a worse president !
Ras_Nesta 06.18.04 at 4:04 am
Jesus f*cking Christ. Are we voting for a Prom king or leader of the last superpower? No wonder everyone else in the world thinks that we’re a bunch of superficial dimwits.
Oh, and if you didn’t think Gore stood for something other than “lockboxes” in 2000, you could have turned off the braying TV media whores, gotten off your ass, and educated yourself on his policies. Sheesh. I hear the same willful ignorance about Kerry creeping in now.
No more Democratic whiners! The world and our children are depending on us to throw these criminal motherf*ckers out of office.
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