Ref Clark: Do We Need 'Warm & Fuzzy'?

[theshadow]

Read Richard Cohen's column in the Washington Post, at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27039-2003Sep17.html

I don't care if a candidate is Mr. Personality, but do most Americans really need this? This assumes, of course, that Cohen's assessment of Clark is accurate; it seems like a desperate hatchet job to me.

[clar]

1. I read the article

and don't think it's a hatchet job. In fact, Cohen slams Dean far more aggressively than Clark. It's just part and parcel of running.

[DrFunkenstein]

2. Ouch! Poor Dean Gets Trashed!

"The only candidate who has so far generated any excitement is Howard Dean. But if the Bush team could digitally create the perfect patsy candidate it would be Dean.

He's gaffe-prone, defensive when criticized and, fairly or not (mostly not), will be characterized as an elitist liberal. Besides, he is the governor of a virtual quilt -- a state (Vermont) with 114 covered bridges and fewer minorities than the DAR.

Clark is a different story altogether. Like Dean, he opposed the war in Iraq -- but it's hard to hang a peacenik label on someone with a Silver Star. "

[clar]

3. I can take the Dean slam

but if members of the punitocracy want to keep vacationing here without being tarred and feathered, they better lay off the Vermont attacks.

[DrFunkenstein]

4. How Do You Think I Feel?

My candidate's another Massachusetts liberal!;-)

[renie408]

6. Hey, at least YOUR guy got referred to!!

[DrFunkenstein]

12. Lol! That's Because Edwards Is A Perfect Angel

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[glarius]

5. His assessment of Clark and Gore are way off base

He says that Al Gore and now Clark, do not come over well on TV...I disagree strongly....I always thought the phony line the media kept repeating about Gore, that he was stiff and cold on TV just wasn't true...This puzzled me, because he always seemed like a nice, intelligent, humourous man to me....And Clark comes across as open and friendly also....There must be an ulterior motive here.

[renie408]

7. Oh, I have to disagree there

I always thought that Gore looked like if he could learn to bend at the waist or move or something, he might have stood a chance. Gore impresses me as an internal person in a very external world. Unlike Clinton, who is about as external as they get. Not that I am saying that Clinton didn't have a good bit going on behind the facade (some of which I wonder about), I just think that he was good at projecting the emotions he wanted to evoke in others. That is the thing that makes Edwards remind me of Clinton. It is less in a direct manner or method of speech, it is more in the way he projects feelings and his ideas.

[glarius]

10. Sorry...I don't agree at all about Gore....He NEVER seemed like what you

describe, to me....He was not liked by the media for some reason and they trashed him constantly....undeservedly, I thought...I'm not American so my opinion isn't important, but I was always puzzled by the way he was characterized....He comes across as INTELLIGEN, WARM AND HUMAN to me...:shrug:

[renie408]

11. That would be because we are two different people

and are not actually the same person required to see things the same way.

I didn't pay much attention to the media on Gore. I watched him in debates with Bush and in televised speeches, etc. Maybe part of Gore's problem is that after Clinton, anybody would seem wooden, I don't know. But I don't think that the media invented the stuff about him seeming stiff out of thin air.

But that's ME. This isn't something that can be proven or disproven as fact.

[Trajan]

8. Hear Hear Glarius ....

Gore was a warm and engaging media presence who could inspire and motivate his listeners .... he certainly had that effect on my wife and I ....

The ad nauseum attacks gain traction over time ... I hope Dean, Clark and the others can weather the storm ....

[meegbear]

9. Welcome to politics ....

they'll find something wrong with every candidate, regardless of who it is or if it's true.