Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Wisconsin
The 40 percent of non-Democrats who voted for John Edwards in yesterday's Democratic primary in Wisconsin may have thought they were harming front-runner John Kerry by splitting the vote, but in fact they did him, and all Democrats, a big favor.
The candidate who is most harmed by a longer Democratic primary process is George W. Bush, because as soon as the race for the nomination is over, two things will happen: the press will stop covering John Kerry except in reference to Bush, and Bush's own campaign will be able to let loose, without distraction, the mountain of slime they have piled up for Kerry.
Whether they like it or not, the mainstream press is obliged to cover the Democratic primaries. As long as there is a contest, their coverage will give Democrats the platform from which they've made headway with the public by pointing out the realities of Bush's catastrophic policies.
It's the only thing that has brought substantive criticism of Bush to television. And we have no doubt that once there is no reason for the media to cover "the race" for the nomination, they'll go right back to the strange and obsequious silence that has marked their approach to the president since, well, since he announced his candidacy for office.
We also doubt that John Edwards and John Kerry will now turn on each other. Neither man is stupid enough to fall into that trap. Both surely recognize that the key to success--for them and for the party--is to continue to focus their weapons on the ultimate target: Bush.
If there's a down-side to Wisconsin for either of them, it's that with the imminent demise of the Dean effort, CNN's GOP campaign mole Candy Crowley (who can't even pronounce her own name right), will be freed up to latch onto one of the remaining Democrats, in much the same way that the Alien tried to do to Sigourney Weaver.
Call us cynical, but we're betting CNN assigns her to Kerry.
The candidate who is most harmed by a longer Democratic primary process is George W. Bush, because as soon as the race for the nomination is over, two things will happen: the press will stop covering John Kerry except in reference to Bush, and Bush's own campaign will be able to let loose, without distraction, the mountain of slime they have piled up for Kerry.
Whether they like it or not, the mainstream press is obliged to cover the Democratic primaries. As long as there is a contest, their coverage will give Democrats the platform from which they've made headway with the public by pointing out the realities of Bush's catastrophic policies.
It's the only thing that has brought substantive criticism of Bush to television. And we have no doubt that once there is no reason for the media to cover "the race" for the nomination, they'll go right back to the strange and obsequious silence that has marked their approach to the president since, well, since he announced his candidacy for office.
We also doubt that John Edwards and John Kerry will now turn on each other. Neither man is stupid enough to fall into that trap. Both surely recognize that the key to success--for them and for the party--is to continue to focus their weapons on the ultimate target: Bush.
If there's a down-side to Wisconsin for either of them, it's that with the imminent demise of the Dean effort, CNN's GOP campaign mole Candy Crowley (who can't even pronounce her own name right), will be freed up to latch onto one of the remaining Democrats, in much the same way that the Alien tried to do to Sigourney Weaver.
Call us cynical, but we're betting CNN assigns her to Kerry.
