Southerners Suffer Too 1.05.04

Somewhere in Iowa, our Democratic hopefuls are scribbling notes and meeting with their campaign folks, thinking about how best to lay the smack down on the other 6-8 folks who also think they can beat Bush. Kind of like Will Smith thought he could beat Mike Tyson.

Hearing the Democrats argue and bicker and “attack Howard Dean” is depressing. All of this talk from Kerry, from Dean, from Lieberman (he’s still running?) shows flashes of men who simply want to win, not present their ideas in the hope that the best ideas will win. Silly us. The ideas don’t win; campaigns do. We know that after 2000, because the National Shrub didn’t weigh Americans down with too many ideas. Though he didn’t win, he came close enough to take office.

As the Democrats pick at Howard Dean, as is a politician’s style, they also talk about their viability as a candidate. “My military service” appeals to the Southerners, Kerry says. “Southerners are suffering too,” says Dean. The Democrats are reaching for votes of people who don’t understand them, talking about them as if they were from another country, not part of our nation. That is not a good sign.