Keeping Kerry at a Distance

[newyawker99]

In South, Democrats Running for Senate Stress Independence
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer


COLUMBIA, S.C. , May 28 -- Some Democratic candidates might feel sheepish about distancing themselves from their party's presidential candidate. Not Inez Tenenbaum, who Democrats desperately hope can win the open U.S. Senate seat in Republican-leaning South Carolina this fall.

Her campaign Web site prominently displays a newspaper article that says, "Tenenbaum has been careful not to become too closely identified with the national Democratic Party or with the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry."

Few Democratic officials in South Carolina or elsewhere are criticizing Tenenbaum's faint loyalty, however. They know that southern Democrats find it increasingly difficult to win statewide elections without distancing themselves from the party's more liberal policies and leaders.

They also know that this year's crucial battleground for control of the Senate is in Dixie, where Republicans are eager to grab five seats being vacated by Democrats. The Democrats' hopes, meanwhile, rest largely on moderate, independent contenders such as Tenenbaum -- along with Erskine B. Bowles in North Carolina and perhaps Betty Castor in Florida -- who focus heavily on local issues and doggedly avoid the liberal label and discussions of Kerry vs. President Bush.


MORE....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64377-2004May28.html

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. I'm sick and tired of the South!!! We Northeasterners are just....

as America as everyone else!!!

The South needs to understand we Northeasterners!!!

We are Americans too!!!

Jim Crow South!!! :argh:

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. North vs. South

PROGRESSIVE1,

Please understand that real Democrats in the South don't think like the idiots you see on tv. We accepted defeat long ago and aren't still fighting for the "Glorious Cause." Real Southern Democrats are sick and tired of having their flag highjacked by some redneck fool that thinks you have to love Bush to love America. We're not all like that. Please have some sympathy for us...it's like we're working for the Resistance in WWII down here, and yes, sometimes I do equate Southern, and in particular Georgia, Republicans to Nazis. The similarities on some things are a bit frightening (or at least some of the ones I remember while obtaining my degree in history).

[ulysses]

2. "the party's more liberal policies and leaders"

Yes, Kerry the outrageous liberal.

:eyes:

The center isn't slipping rightward how, again?

[flaminbats]

3. Should Sam Nunn be John Kerry's running mate?

Participate now in this poll and help Georp this DU poll for one of our best Senators!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=132