The Democrats, as much as it pains me to admit this, are a desperate lot. In order to attract some press coverage, they have stooped to questioning each other's patriotism. This is not in and of itself a new thing, but the way it is being done should be taken as an indication of how little traction any of the Democratic Presidential candidates have. At this point, any publicity is a good thing even if the accusations are baseless and silly. At least someone's paying attention.
The aftermath of the war in Iraq has not been easy for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.
The former Vermont governor, who boosted his political standing among antiwar Democrats with a series of attacks on President Bush's policies in the months before the war, has been on the defensive since the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Yesterday, the campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who earlier was accused of trying to straddle the question of whether he favored going to war, sought to make things worse for Dean. Kerry aides questioned Dean's credentials as a potential commander in chief after the former governor was quoted on Time.com as saying, "We have to take a different approach [to diplomacy]. We won't always have the strongest military."
Dean's statement, made to a New Hampshire audience earlier this month, "raises serious questions about his capacity to serve as commander in chief," Kerry communications director Chris Lehane said in a campaign news release. "No serious candidate for the presidency has ever before suggested that he would compromise or tolerate an erosion of America's military supremacy."
Never mind the fact that Dean has actually raised a valid point. It's all about waving the flag and proving yourself more patriotic than your opponents. Of course, it's also about doing something- anything- to attract some attention to the moribund Democratic Presidential race.
If this is the best my party can do, Shrub isn't going to need Florida in order to steal the 2004 election. It could well be a repeat of Nixon-McGovern or Reagan-Mondale.
Of course, I can always console myself by remembering that Shrub's Daddy won the first Gulf War and then proceeded to lose the 1992 Presidential election. Who says history can't repeat itself?
