Dobson's Choice
Michael Totten says James Dobson has the potential to be "the right’s Michael Moore." True. Dobson has a base in an extreme wing of the party, and he can turn them out on election day. But he's poison to the center and the moderates. The next Republican presidential candidate ought to make a point of disowning him (but at the same time embracing some saner evangelical figure).
Kerry's failure to do the same with Moore and his ilk -- I won't say it cost him the election, but certainly it would have changed the map a bit in his favor.
In fact, his whole approach to that problem, whether you regard Moore as a font of political wisdom (as my co-workers do) or not, illustrates the real Kerry Problem. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was out there. Moore was more visible on the campaign trail that any Democrat but Kerry and Edwards. Yet Kerry made a point of not seeing the movie, and was at pains to inform the media of this. That prevented him from having to deal with it. And while he made no overture to Moore, neither embracing nor rejecting him, he allowed Jimmy Carter to bring him up to a catbird seat at the DNC.
He seemed to wish this problem would just go away. He thought that by ignoring it, he could reduce it to the level of a "nuisance." Instead, it just got worse and worse. In the end, Moore's attempt to rally the slackers and anti-war fetishists probably didn't cover the number of moderates who were alienated by his bid to be P.T. Barnum the kingmaker.
Kerry's failure to do the same with Moore and his ilk -- I won't say it cost him the election, but certainly it would have changed the map a bit in his favor.
In fact, his whole approach to that problem, whether you regard Moore as a font of political wisdom (as my co-workers do) or not, illustrates the real Kerry Problem. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was out there. Moore was more visible on the campaign trail that any Democrat but Kerry and Edwards. Yet Kerry made a point of not seeing the movie, and was at pains to inform the media of this. That prevented him from having to deal with it. And while he made no overture to Moore, neither embracing nor rejecting him, he allowed Jimmy Carter to bring him up to a catbird seat at the DNC.
He seemed to wish this problem would just go away. He thought that by ignoring it, he could reduce it to the level of a "nuisance." Instead, it just got worse and worse. In the end, Moore's attempt to rally the slackers and anti-war fetishists probably didn't cover the number of moderates who were alienated by his bid to be P.T. Barnum the kingmaker.
Labels: Michael Moore
