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This primary season will be remembered for many reasons, but, for me, it confirms a belief I have been nurturing since the 2000 election: Democrats won't be ready to win until they're ready to fight, and we are in the process of picking the person we think will be the most effective fighter.
Scroll back to the post-2000 election saga in Florida. The Republicans physically stormed the Miami-Dade recount and effectively shut it down. We used lawyers, they used thugs. And who won? Oh, I know, it helped to have a loaded Supreme Court, but there was something primal in the way the Republicans fought us in Florida that reinforced old stereotypes of macho red states and feminized blue states. Many of us were outraged, rather than embarassed, comfortable as we tend to be in our skin. But the old reptile within registered the note: next time, I want to kick THEIR ass.
Throughout Bush's presidency, running up the pre-electoral season in 2003, the Democratic wimp factor was painfully evident. Tom Daschle was the symbol of our frustration; a man who could be sitting on an active hornet's nest without showing any signs of discomfort. Taciturn Tom and Go-Along Gephardt did their best, but they led us to one ignominious defeat after another.
Meantime, Bush emerged in the post-9/11 period as a virile fighter for good Americans everywhere. His strut and sneer an everyday reminder of the attitude that kicked off his whole presidency in Florida back in 2000. The reptile continued to stir.
Into the breach stepped Howard Dean, whose anger was music to so many ears. Stocky and solid, and with the verbal skills of a cagey New York street tough, Howard's popularity ultimately hinged on one simple notion: Finally, we have a man who will STAND UP and TAKE THE FIGHT to Bush.
But Dean's toughness, which is ultimately what we're looking for in this election, didn't hold up under scrutiny. His lack of military experience was a negative in this environment. Even worse, he received a medical deferment and went skiing during the war. And, finally, it turned out he couldn't take a punch without complaining. For me, his tailspin really started when he ran to Terry McAuliffe and ask him to "make them stop" in so many words.
No, we needed more than Howard Dean. We courted Wes Clark. A four-star general vs. AWOL the Flight Suit Boy. That sounded much better to many of us than macho poseur Bush vs. Dean, who did even less to serve his country during Vietnam than AWOL.
But Clark didn't count on one thing: the rise of John Kerry, a war hero himself, who had decades of poltical experience to boot. Kerry, it was also clear, was a fighter who we could seemingly count on to stab the other guy in the back if he had to. He has a dark side. We whose candidates oppose him are sometimes angered by it, but we also realize who he will eventually be up against in the fall. We want an animal on our side this time. We want a killer. We may lose on points, but we will not go down without spilling our guts and drawing political blood this time.
Edwards is too nice and too pretty. His personality and background don't fit with the demands of this particular moment in time.
Lieberman, for all the ridicule he inspires here, also would have mounted a much more effective candidacy had he not been defined as a wimp.
No, this is the year of the manly man. And that, more than anything to me, explains the rise of Howard Dean, the courtship of Wesley Clark, and the pending victory of John Kerry.
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