Tag: Bob Graham

Missions Accomplished?

As Howard Dean announces his college-friendly education plan (which includes $10,000 a year in financial aid and a quadrupling of Americorps), William Saletan — not one of Dean’s biggest fans — wonders how the Doctor will handle the “postwar” phase of the campaign. Meanwhile, Wesley Clark continues developing the “right-on-terror” strategy (originally articulated by Bob “Osama Bin Forgotten” Graham) by accusing the Bushies of dropping the hunt for Al Qaeda’s leader in their rush to get Saddam. The general’s got a point, particularly when you consider the nightmare rhetoric still emanating from Al Qaeda’s corner. It’s too bad the guy’s so way off on flag burning. (Last link via Value Judgment.)

Tiers and Taxes.

William Saletan goes ga-ga for John Kerry (which would hold more water with me if he hadn’t slavered over Gore back in the day), while Dean snipes at Graham, calling him a “lower-tier candidate.” True enough, but Dean has to be careful – he’s already garnered something of a reputation as Mean Dr. Dean, and coming out for the death penalty won’t help. Rounding out the top tier (I can say it, even if Dean can’t), John Edwards calls for middle-class tax cuts, to be paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy. A smart move, in keeping with the populist track Edwards has staked out, even if I think a payroll tax cut makes much more sense.

“Lockbox” is still up for grabs…

Ryan Lizza looks at the charges of plagiarism and kleptomania resounding across the Democratic field at the moment, singling out the Dean campaign as the most “protective–some might say paranoid.” It seems to me that, while there’s clearly a lot of protective camouflage going on, one would have to expect some degree of overlap in a field of nine candidates, particularly when the allowable range of leftiness is so frustratingly small.

“New” Dems, Old Insults.

If you can judge a man by his enemies, then Howard Dean picked up a key endorsement last week. Via Scully by e-mail, Al From’s Democratic Leadership Council – one of Al Gore‘s main water-carriers in 2000 and an organization which counts Joe Lieberman and Bob Graham among its members – decides to attack Howard Dean as an “elitist.” What garbage…The DLC is going to have find a better way of dealing with their left flank than simply casting old GOP insults their way. It’s exactly this type of Republican-lite thinking endlessly promoted by From’s organization that made Ralph Nader the spoiler in 2000. Don’t think it couldn’t happen again. Update: Perhaps Clinton will straighten ’em out, although it sounds like he’s just reading from the Lieberman-Graham playbook instead. Update 2: Independent James Jeffords criticizes the DLC remarks, calling it “incredible to hear such charges coming from Democrats.” Not as incredible as it once was, I’m afraid.

Primary Colors.

In a cover story for TIME, Joe Klein gives his take on the Democratic field. I don’t agree with everything he has to say (for example, giving Dubya a pass on Iraq), but it’s worth reading nonetheless.

Wages of Fear.

In keeping with his right-on-terror campaign strategy, Senator Bob Graham accuses Dubya of a 9/11 coverup. While I don’t particularly care for Graham’s brand of fear-mongering, he’s got a point this time around…that congressional report should be made public, and particularly if the centerpiece of Dubya’s re-election campaign will involve waving the bloody shirt as planned.

Round 1.

Well, after watching a rebroadcast of Saturday’s first Democratic debate on C-Span yesterday…

The Top Tier: I’d have to say it’s still a three-man race for my vote right now among Kerry, Dean, and Edwards. I personally thought Edwards came off the best, although he benefited greatly from being the first Dem to step “above” the Kerry-Dean fracas. As per the rap on him, Kerry seemed somewhat bored and remote, while Dean – who usually says the right things on paper – appeared pugnacious and self-satisfied. To my dismay, Dean seemed even less personable on the telly than Tsongas did back in the day. So, of the three, I thought Edwards seemed like he had the best chance of not being pigeonholed as a Standard-Issue Out-Of-It Liberal in a debate with Dubya, and he seemed much more comfortable using populist rhetoric than Gore ever did. To my mind, Edwards wins Round 1, although obviously we have quite a few more rounds to go.

The Rest: If I had to pick a fourth choice, it’d probably be Moseley-Braun, who got in the best line of the evening with her Florida recount gag. (“People said that the black vote would decide the election of 2000, and it did…Clarence Thomas’s.“) Gephardt seemed a bit weary of primary shenanigans, Lieberman (who inexplicably is getting the best post–debate press) is in the wrong primary, and Bob “Live in Fear” Graham, Al Sharpton, and Dennis Kucinich were too busy playing Orrin Hatch, Alan Keyes, and Gary Bauer respectively. Didn’t much care for Stephanopoulos as self-proclaimed Kingmaker either (although I guess ABC had to use someone in their stable, and he was the most likely candidate), and I found his “I speak for the electorate about your foibles” routine in Pt. III to be wildly unproductive, if not downright insulting. While his characterizations of the candidates’ flaws might have occasionally been on the money (although occasionally they weren’t…who says Lieberman is too nice to be the Democratic candidate? Too theocratic, perhaps – too Republican, for sure – but too nice? That softball was a gift.), more time spent on issues and less on inside baseball would surely have been in order for the first debate.