Word: vilsack
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Right now the two Democrats throwing their hat in the ring for 2008 are Tom Vilsack and Evan Bayh. To give you an idea of how unknown these guys are, their Secret Service code names are Tom Vilsack and Evan Bayh...
...obvious advantage too, but so far, it doesn't look that way. A June Des Moines Register poll put him only in fourth place in Iowa among Democratic primary voters, lagging behind Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards. While much of the state's Democratic establishment is backing Vilsack, many elected officials and key activists in the state are considering or have already signed on with other candidates. It's a sharp contrast to 1992, when Iowa Senator Tom Harkin ran for president, and the other contenders essentially conceded the state to him. Edwards has been in Iowa so much...
...obstacles he faces, Vilsack has several strengths as a candidate. Orphaned at birth in Pittsburgh and adopted and raised by an alcoholic mother, he offers just the kind of unique personal narrative that could help him connect with voters. He's been a popular governor, coming back from a 20-point deficit to win an upset victory in the gubernatorial race in 1998 - in the process becoming the first Democrat in 30 years to take the statehouse. He captured 53% of the vote in 2002 only two years before John Kerry narrowly lost the state to President Bush...
...Vilsack will run as centrist with a record of success in a red state, the exact same message that Bayh has - except the Indiana Senator and former governor can also point to his years in the Senate for the foreign policy experience that Vilsack lacks. And in terms of offering a different vision for the country, it will be difficult for Vilsack or any of the candidates to stand out, because all of them largely agree on the issues. In 1991-1992, Bill Clinton could run as a different, new kind of Democrat because many in the party didn...
...count out Vilsack just yet. The last two Democratic presidents, Clinton and Jimmy Carter, both started as relatively unknown governors who initially polled in the single digits too, and recent history has shown that Senators have a hard time portraying themselves as outsiders capable of bringing change to Washington. Neither Obama nor Clinton has declared they are running and if only one of them does, there's a lot of room for another major challenger to emerge. Aides to other Democratic candidates are already starting to quietly knock the big two, saying Hillary can't win the general election...