Terminal Case…
It's not immediately obvious what Ms. Cahill brings to Sen. Kerry's table -- other than the fact that she's not Jim Jordan. Her liberal credentials certainly appear to be in order, but the fact that the junior Senator from Massachusetts is hiring the senior Senator's chief of staff to take over his floundering presidential campaign has a definite hospital smell to it:
"Paging Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Kennedy to the ER. Code Blue."
The thing is, all the liberal blood transfusions in the world can't change the fact that the rise of Howard Dean has essentially rendered Kerry superfluous. Dean has stolen Kerry's oxygen tent (to extend my increasingly forced medical metaphor.) He's sewn up the upscale white liberal vote and nailed down the New Hampshire primary -- two areas where Kerry was supposed to enjoy a natural competitive advantage. He's annihilated Kerry's original fundraising advantage. He's even managed to survive his own mouth, which has tendency to say things that would destroy lesser candidates. At least among his core constituencies -- the very same constituencies Kerry desperately needs to reach to stay viable -- Dean now appears to wear teflon armor.
All Kerry has left are his war hero resume and his wife's fortune. The former has little appeal to the upscale left, which has returned to its McGovernite roots. And Gen. Clark is a much more plausible choice for hawkish moderates -- as well as for pragmatic liberals who think only a candidate with strong national security credentials can beat Bush.
That leaves the fortune, which Kerry is considering tapping if he follows Dean's lead and exits the public campaign financing system. But for Dean, leaving the system was a show of political strength -- in that it will enable him to exploit more fully the fantastic grassroots fundraising system he's created. But for Kerry, it would be a sign of weakness, an admission that only his vast personal wealth makes it possible for him to remain competitive with Dean's money machine.
You have to wonder if the result wouldn't be a drastic tapering off in Kerry's outside fundraising (why throw good money after bad if the candidate is going to do it for you?) forcing him to rely more and more heavily on his own money. Not the best way to demonstrate your political vitality.
It's hard to see a way out for Kerry -- barring a sudden and complete implosion in the Dean campaign, which is going to take something much worse than a Confederate flag bumper sticker. If, like most Democratic nominations, this one boils down to a race between a "liberal" and a "moderate," then Kerry has already lost the primary within the primary. Now it's Dean versus the anti-Dean. And Kerry isn't even in the running for the latter position.
Maybe it's time for someone -- the family physician, or a close relative -- to take Sen. Kerry aside and give him the bad news. "John, you may want to sit down. The test results have come back, and, well, there's something I have to tell you..."
http://www.billmon.org/