#19 A Gut Campaign (1)

I saw Howard Dean on the rerun of last Thursday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He could barely get a word in edgewise as JS skewered the Democratic party for incredibly finding a way to lose the presidential election this coming November. However, as my calculations in post #17 indicate, right now the Democrats are likely ahead of the Republicans in electoral votes if the election were to be held right now. I count it 240 D, 237 R, and 61 T(ossup).

Of course, it's a long long time from May to November (yes, the song says December, but the composer wasn't following this election), and anything can happen.

But "anything" had better not happen. Some specific thing is needed, a Democratic victory, to avoid four more years of dubya's failed policies at home and abroad, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so I'm suggesting that whoever wins the Democratic nomination for president needs to take two vitally important actions: pick the right Vice Presidential candidate, and run a campaign based on the issues that most affect American citizens, the gut issues which normally do convince voters whom to vote for.

I've written several times about VP candidates, and think Sherrod Brown, Ted Strickland (both from Ohio), Bill Nelson (Florida), and James Webb (Virginia) to be the best choices politically. Webb is my personal favorite but, based on the realities of the electoral college, the least politically useful choice of the four. Based on 2000 and 2004 electoral college results, Ohio or Florida can single-statedly swing the election to the Democrats; Virginia doesn't have enough electoral votes to do so on its own. On the other hand, Webb is an Annapolis graduate and served as a Marine in Vietnam. That background might balance out to some extent John McCain's military credentials.

The gut issues on which I believe the Democratic candidate must campaign are the three E's and an I: the Economy, Education, the Environment, and Iraq.

I don't have much to say about Iraq that hasn't already been said. However, the candidate cannot, MUST NOT, refer to Iraq in any way as a waste; MUST NOT in any way imply that the men and women who died there died in vain. That kind of phrasing will be viewed as an insult to those service-men and -women, and to their families and friends. Over 4,000 Americans have died there, and their memories must be honored far more than the Bush administration had apparently valued their commitment. Remember that their Humvees were not adequately armored, their body suits were not adequately armored, and their weapons were not as reliable as they needed. When Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about sending troops into battle without adequate materiel, he replied, You have to fight the war with the army you have.

Further, the Democratic nominee may not want to state the following viewpoint as bluntly as I'm going to state it, but--if dubya's daughters had been the first two servicewomen to be sent to Iraq, he might not have been so quick to begin a war without a plan to complete it. More universally, if the person who starts a war had to send his children to the front lines first, we'd likely have fewer wars.

Next time: A Gut Campaign (2)