Word: gephardts
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...going to say what's fashionable in our politics--that I'm a Washington outsider, that I couldn't find the nation's capital on a map, that I have no experience in the highest levels of government. I do, and I think that experience matters," Representative Richard Gephardt said last week, toward the end of the speech in which he announced his candidacy for President. "I'm not the political flavor of the month. I'm not the flashiest candidate around. But the fight for working families is in my bones. It's where I come from...
...moment of stunning authenticity, which roused a partisan audience--and a dozing press corps--at the end of a thoughtful, well-written drone. Poor Gephardt: put a microphone in front of him and he sounds like he's trying to climb the down escalator. He also has the coloring and demeanor of macaroni and cheese. Recently, he compared himself to a pair of old sneakers. This, believe it or not, is a strategy. In fact, it's probably a pretty smart strategy: Gephardt is attempting to fuse the two qualities that will be the most important in the coming presidential...
...Gephardt and Senator Joe Lieberman are bookends, of a sort. Gephardt represents the decent past--the blue-collar, Roosevelt coalition, Midwestern populist, Old Democratic Party. Lieberman represents the recent past--the high-tech, welfare-reforming, free-trading New Democratic Party. And both seem slightly irrelevant so far. Both are solid citizens, but older, less hip than their competitors; neither seems comfortable being ushered to the stage with rock music. Neither lights any fires on the stump. They are probably the two most hawkish Democrats in the race. These are not advantages with party activists at the moment...
...contrast, Gephardt and Lieberman, and North Carolina Senator John Edwards, seem to be moving, and talking, in slow motion. All three spend a fair amount of time telling their personal stories, which are compelling. All three say they are fighting for average folks like their parents. All three voted with the President on Iraq and try to confront that issue straight on. Edwards is best at this: "I know you don't agree with me on Iraq," he told an audience in Indianola, Iowa, which seemed to be entirely composed of peace activists, "but I want to tell you directly...
...There is a certain sadness to watching both men work this time around - especially in Iowa last week, where peace is the issue, hot is the style, and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean is rapidly becoming the flavor of the month. Ask an Iowa Democrat about Gephardt or Lieberman, and the most common reaction is a sigh. Meanwhile, Dean is wicked fun, a candidate who works without text and without net, excoriating his fellow Democrats for supporting President Bush on Iraq (while cleverly leaving a way to support Bush himself - if Saddam is found to be developing nukes...