It was 2007. Three Democrats were in the running to be the party’s presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton was at the top of the polls. Barack Obama, a newcomer to the national stage, was rising. And then there was the white guy who was bringing up the rear.
Cue the realists.
“Are you kidding me? The Democrats are thinking of running a . . . [arms raised in exasperation followed by an “I can’t believe what idiots they are!” snort of derision] a woman or a black guy for president? Do Democrats have a death wish?”
Followed by the calm voice of reason.
“Look, we’ve got this young, good looking, all-American white guy with a big, winning smile, a wife who’s a cancer survivor and four made-for-TV children. He’s a safe bet. It’s supposed to be the Democrats’ turn after eight years of Bush. C’mon, let’s not blow it!”
That safe white guy was John Edwards. John Edwards, who began an affair in 2006 and learned the woman was pregnant in May 2007. He denied press reports of the affair, then he denied he was the father of the woman’s child. He withdrew from the race in early 2008 and later admitted everything.
John Edwards, the great, white male hope.
The black guy with three funny-sounding names became the Democratic candidate. Oh sure, it looked like he was popular, he was doing well in the polls. Lots of white Democrats said they would vote for him. But when it comes time to cast their secret ballots, we were warned, they will vote with their secret, racist hearts. Bye bye Barack Obama. Hello President John McCain. Because, let’s face facts, AMERICA IS NOT READY TO ELECT A BLACK PRESIDENT!
Except the voters elected Barack Hussein Obama. And four years later they elected him again.
The moral of the story is . . . Actually, the story has two morals. First, there is no such thing as a safe bet in politics. Second, there is no such thing as a “Can’t Win” candidate.
It’s 2019 and lots of very serious people are warning that the country isn’t ready for a woman president, even though Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than Trump, and Trump needed every bit of help he got from Russia’s trolls and Comey’s pronouncements about Hillary’s emails to squeak out a victory in three battleground states and win in the electoral college.
And voters aren’t ready for someone too far to the left because, even though voters want Obamacare expanded and they agree that the rich have too much money and guns are too easy to buy, they won’t vote for someone Trump calls a socialist.
And another black candidate can’t win because, well, just because.
That leaves the great, white, moderate male hope, Joe Biden, even though he’s showing signs of weakness and may lack the mental and physical stamina to go the distance. If not him, we have a few other moderate white guys with less than one percent in the polls.
Biden may have what it takes to win. I honestly don’t know and neither does anyone else, about Biden or any of the other candidates who are in the running. We have two-and-a-half consecutive terms of Can’t-Win presidents under our belts. Any pundit who believes it’s possible to rate the electability of the Democratic candidates is a fool.
So I have an idea. Let’s have Democrats vote for the candidate they really like in the primaries. Then let’s pick the man/woman, Black/White/Asian, lefty/moderate who triumphs to be the candidate who goes head to head with Trump in the general.
I’m willing to take my chances with the voters. Chances are all we’ve got. There’s no such thing as a sure thing.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2019.
David if one looks past msnbc the russian trolling was seen by very few voters and had no decernable effect. don’t take my word for it look at the evidence from investigating experts. propaganda by those who want to avod blaming hillary our not facts. As for president beto o’rourke is a young kennady give it a shot. He will need stacy abrams for his veep. If groper joe is nominee and the greens nominate some hollywood type 2016 all over again. donnie deutiche show on saturday explored the effects of jill stein candidacy on clintons defeat.
Biden owns the black vote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDNbC-MzzLw
further left so did hillary in 2007 not 2008. while it is true that black women will likely decide the nomination groper joe biden is like the rio grande river a mile wide and an inch deep. tulsi gabbard would also be a dynamite candidate she is aggressive as AOC who is not old enough to run.
I just watched last word and he had a professor on who studied the 2016 election and correctly called the 2018 election. Appealing to so called moderate republican women cost clinton 2 democrat votes for every moderate republican vote she picked up. 6 million democrats mostly black who voted in 2012 didn’t vote in 2016 and another 1.5 million voted for jill stein. In detroit 70,000 democrats mostly black who vote didn’t vote for president just down ballots hillary lost michigan by 10,000 votes. Selling a base candidate to moderates is a lot easier then trying to get the base to vote for a moderate. Biden talks about appealing to moderate republicans just as clinton did and again ignore black voters.
Did the last word professor mention Russia and how they stole the election?
It’s really not a matter of how they lost, but why they lost.
Wasting time on politics again, I have to say, with stolen ballots with Russian trolls, money scandals of trumps used money to bribe, cut out the truth and buy his own votes, what idiot that is honest would go against Trump? The man is a spoiled brat kindergarten throwing a fit because he broke captain America doll and mommy wont buy him another one! He has no integrity, filter and lets not forget morales! So the rest of the candidates cheated… so the rest had a background, so..so… but nothing in comparison to Donald trump is it? Sure he has done some great just like others have too. But what do you expect people to stand face to face with Trump and measure up to the embarrassment of human being? Yes, I had hope that some one taller, smarter, a little better hair and with more money showed up! Anyone willing to take on trump is a hero in my mind. Because to end up with shaming name callings in public ridiculed and paid BS to steer the campaign to trumps favor, is a person with balls of steel! May the best man win, no I did not say may the man with more experience in cheating and more money, win. Democrats or Republicans…what ever you call yourself, I call you American… make America great again!
Again russian trolls didn’t not steal the election. an insignificant number of voters even saw them and despite continual harassment by clinton worshippers no one said their vote was changed. Russian trolls is much easier to blame then clinton ran a horrible campaign turning off black and progressive voters trying to get republicans to vote for her, who loathed her!
If that is true we deserve to be reimbursed.
The nearly two-year special counsel investigation of Russian election interference led by Robert Mueller cost nearly $32 million in total, a new filing shows.
Who came up with this hairbrained idea?
You secured the convictions of President Trumps campaign chairman, his deputy campaign manager, his national security advisor, and his personal lawyer, among others, Nadler said at the start of Muellers historic testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week.
So OUR Congress makes up lies to charge others with crimes? This will not end well.