Dick Gephardt is moving into Hospice mode.
At a senior center in Pella - yes, the Pella of window-making manufacturing fame - Gephardt was trying to run his stump speech past a small crowd of about 60 Gephardt loyalists. He tells the story of town devastated by jobs shipped overseas, and a voter who pulled up the home plate from a school now closed because of the town's declining prospects. The man gave Gephardt the home plate and besieged the Missouri congressman to work hard to protect American jobs so the homeplates at the town's other school ballfields would not go next.
Gephardt stays on his protectionist message. He's unwavering, and sincere as always. Gephardt is truly one of the most genuine and likable people in national politics. But likeability ain't electability. Protectionist promises and personal pitches do not turn people off so much as they end up tuning them out.
Gephardt is fading, and he knows it. Perhaps unwittingly, he practically admitted as much when feebly asking the attendees in Pella for their vote.
"I'm not asking for me. It's not about me. I don't do this 18 hours a day, seven days a week for me," said Gephardt.
His voice is hushed, not energized. And then came the line that sent every scribe scribbling:
"I don't need to be president. I don't care about it."
Dick Gephardt can feel his numbers and crowds shrinking. He has had a remarkable, earnest, dedicated, ethical and policy-substantive career in Congress, and may he stay there as long as he wishes.
But his presidential aspirations are on a respirator in places like Pella, and his obituary will be written Tuesday morning.