Lieberman can keep making whiny comments about a Dean Depression all he wants, but Dean can win. And hence, Lieberman needs to shut up because he is going to endorse the party’s candidate or become very, very unpopular with his core supporters. It’s fine to criticize other’s positions, but a sound bite like that could come back in a general election. Given George Bush seems to be about as protectionist as Gephardt, this one is probably a freebie, but it isn’t acceptable.
People don’t care if you have a long thought out position or if you contradict yourself from time to time. They care that they can understand you and for that to happen you have to boil everythign down to simple, understandable positions.
In 15 minutes, he attempted to make up for 15 months of misleading the American people and 15 weeks of mismanaging the reconstruction," he said.
Before people start blasting away in comments, I think Dean should be clearer on trade. One of the many reasons I won’t vote for Gephardt is his tendency towards protectionism. However, Dean isn’t saying much different from Clinton on the issue and frankly, I’ll take Clinton’s trade policy over Reagan or either Bush.
In other news, half of the pain caucus is leaning towards endorsing Lieberman. Bob Kerrey wants someone who is going to tell a safe Democratic audience that they are wrong. That’s nice and certainly Clinton pulled that in 1992. But when did he do it? When independent voters were listening, not during the primary.
Kerrey is a favorite of mine and I voted for him in the 1992 primary–he was out by the time Illinois voted, but I had sent in an absentee ballot. But he is a horrible campaigner and this is why. And it is why Lieberman doesn’t get it. You have to excite the base and the way to do that is to speak to their issues. Once you have done that you can have your Sister Souljah moments. But the base has to trust you first.
Via Atrios again