Erc
Junior Chimp
Posts: 5,823
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« on: November 13, 2004, 01:24:05 PM » |
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There is a segment of the usual Republican base that is at least somewhat dissatisfied with Bush and the current state of the Republican party. As the last election and numerous polls have shown, however, this segment isn't that large, and is composed of people who generally don't matter (Pat Buchanan, conservatives buried deep in the liberal strongholds of California, New York, and New England). Even then, the Democrats really failed (at least in my estimation) to put forth a candidate who could appeal to these segments (and, therefore, to the undecideds as well). Of course, it would have been worse with Dean, but at least Dean would have energized the base. Combine Kerry's failure to rally the base around him with his failure to get undecideds and marginal Republicans, and boom.
The only place Kerry did succeed in this election was in New Hampshire (and to a much lesser extent MN/WI), which is filled with so many of the social and foreign-policy non-conservative conservatives that Kerry's limited appeal to these groups actually allowed him to take the state...by 10,000 votes.
Dean's political ambitions are not exhausted yet, mark my words. He's running again. Unless the 'Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party' finds a better liberal candidate (and other than Hillary, who is there?--well, other than Gore), he'll be their darling, no matter his prior centrism. And then it'll be up to some centrist to stop him--which shouldn't be that hard to do, given the legacy of the scream. But you never know...
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