Posted on 12/31/2003 12:26:05 PM PST by Holly_P
Howard Dean may turn out to be the worst candidate for president since the Democrats chose Sen. George McGovern to carry the party banner in 1972.
Yet, no ranking Georgia Democrat has dared say what most of them know: ''This guy Dean won't do. Let's find somebody else.''
To be sure, former Gov. Roy Barnes has endorsed a fellow trial lawyer, John Edwards of North Carolina, who may shortly vanish from the Democratic map. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young has thrown in with retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who has Southern appeal but appeared too late to win the presidential primary game. Of course, we all know that Sen. Zell Miller has embraced President George W. Bush. However, renegade Miller hardly counts as a Democratic leader anymore. And Barnes and Young are ex's with no present position - and little influence - in what remains of the Democratic Party of Georgia. (In a weak moment, House Speaker Terry Coleman of Eastman slipped a few bucks to the Dean campaign, but the contribution hardly committed Coleman inextricably to Dean.)
Dean came to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago for a fund-raiser at the home of silk-stocking lawyer Ed Sims, who, by the way, was state Democratic chairman when Miller was governor. With the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus at his side, Dean made the obligatory stops in the African-American community and attended a couple of other events. The list of invitees to join Dean in Georgia reads like a ''Who's Who of the Wrong People,'' said one waspish wag, referring to the gaggle of far-out liberals and black militants who flocked to Dean's side. So what is wrong with Dean, the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee?
For many of us, he strikes the right chord on several issues. He opposed the war in Iraq. He questions Bush's economic policies. He despairs of the growing federal deficit. In addition, his past political credentials appear sound enough. Despite his upbringing in the affluent Hamptons and on Park Avenue, he became a prudent, middle-of-the-road governor of Vermont.
Still, something about Dean disturbs. For starters, any Democrat or Republican who gives up a medical education to become a politician ought to be subjected to a psychiatric examination before being allowed to stand for elective office.
Worse, Dean speaks of the South and Southerners as if we were a third-world protectorate not completely connected to or accepted by the United States of America.
His Yankee condescension almost glows in the dark.
Dean recently appeared in a black church in Columbia, S.C., and, in an uncharacteristic singsong tone, shouted: ''In this house of the Lord, we know that this power rests in God's hands and in Jesus' hands for helping us. But the power also is on this, God's Earth - remember Jesus said, 'Render unto God those things that are God's but unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's.''' The sermon does not quite hang together, but you get the idea.
Dean later confided to The Boston Globe he intended to speak out more about his Christian beliefs as he campaigned across the South because Southerners expected such talk. He said he personally considered his religion a private matter.
''People in the Northeast don't talk about their religion,'' he told the Globe. ''It's a very personal matter, and that's the tradition I was brought up in.''
Hey, doc, here's a news bulletin from deep in the jungles of the benighted South. Many Southerners consider religion a private matter too. We are not all members of the same hallelujah chorus - or even the same klavern, for that matter.
Back in October, Dean seemed to strike a refreshingly candid note when he declared: ''I want to be the candidate for the guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats.''
When Al Sharpton and a couple of other Democratic candidates roundly criticized his remark, Dean apologized profusely. He claimed he misspoke, though the truth of his statement is self-evident. To make sure no one really believed he was interested in Democrats attracting the alienated and often dismissed white male vote, he went on to admonish us Southern aborigines: ''We have got to stop having our elections in the South based on race, guns, God and gays.''
Come to think of it, Dean may turn out to be worse than McGovern was. At least the senator from South Dakota was a genuine World War II hero. A back injury prevented Dean from serving in the military in Vietnam, though the disability did not seem to hamper his skiing on the slopes of Vermont.
McGovern won a surprisingly high 25 percent of the Georgia vote against President Richard Nixon in 1972. Dean will be lucky to break 20 percent against Dubya. Even the yellow dogs have serious doubts about Dean.
Bill Shipp is editor of Bill Shipp's Georgia, a weekly newsletter on government and business. Send mail to P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30160 or e-mail: bshipp@bellsouth.net.
What does his parents income have to do with anything? Wealth is an obstacle to being prudent and middle of the road?
Nonsense. I say it was a smart move. The hours are better, the pay is about the same (150K), and you don't need malpractice insurance.
So true. He doesn't have a chance in the South. Go Howard!
History says otherwise. No president since Woodrow Wilson has won the presidency without winning some states in the south. In fact, the only way democrats have ever won is if they are competitie in the south.
Dean is also insulting flyover country from MN down to TX. Right now the over/under is 5 states for him.
That's why there are so few real Christians there. And why it's so liberal.
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