Word: gephardts
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...serious candidates who have yet to catch fire: Joe Lieberman (despite high name recognition in the polls), John Edwards (despite financial support from his fellow trial lawyers and some creative speeches about specific issues) and Bob Graham. At the top are John Kerry, the party establishment's favorite; Dick Gephardt, the Midwest labor candidate. And Howard Dean...
...wake of Bush's flying stunt, a new and unfair test was proposed by journalists--the aircraft-carrier primary: Which of the Democrats could have duplicated Bush's photo op without seeming foolish? Not Lieberman, and certainly not Dean. John Edwards and Dick Gephardt are plausible flyboys, and Bob Graham might have been at one time. No, Kerry wins this contest hands down. His military record is his ticket to this dance. On the day before the debate, Kerry did something no other Democrat in the race could do. He gave a moving tribute, surrounded by Vietnam combat veterans...
There are times when Richard Gephardt, A truly decent man, seems the embodiment of all that is clunky about the Democratic Party. His 1988 presidential campaign was militantly dismal. At one point, he criticized Ronald Reagan's 1984 "Morning in America" advertising theme: "It's closer to midnight," Gephardt insisted, "and getting darker all the time." This is another inveterate Democratic problem: every silver lining comes equipped not just with a cloud, but often with a full-fledged hurricane and heavy coastal flooding. Who would want to spend four years with such spoilsports whining away on TVs in the kitchens...
...offered a handful of big ideas, some of them quite good. But the centerpiece of Gephardt's candidacy--his universal health-care plan--is immense and anachronistic. It offers huge subsidies to large corporations that already offer health insurance to their workers. It mandates that small companies offer health insurance as well. This is a classic Old Democratic plan, pegged to a constituency that is shriveling: the Big America of Rust Belt manufacturing and trade unions. Entrepreneurial America--the immigrant grocers, the hi-tech start-ups in Sun Belt garages, the source of most economic growth--doesn't need...
...Gephardt is right about one thing: the Democrats have to offer a clear alternative to Bush domestically--and opposition to any but the most targeted tax cuts is the place to start. This is less risky than it might seem. The public hasn't been hot for tax cuts for quite some time. (In 1998 Clinton managed to stop congressional Republicans on this issue with four words: "Save Social Security First.") But if Democrats are going to oppose tax cuts--which are pretty much the entirety of Bush's domestic policy--they are going to have provide a compelling...