Are you happy now?
About six months ago, a new word started appearing in political circles. Nervous about the rapid rise of insurgent candidate Howard Dean, establishment Democrats scrambled for an issue that would discredit Dean and scare voters into supporting the status quo. But they had a problem: on the issues, Dean was right on. He had opposed the war in Iraq, opposed No Child Left Behind, and opposed the President's tax giveaways to the wealthy. The leading Washington candidates had supported all of these, and voters were turning against them. They desperately needed a new way to attack Dean...
Introducing, "electability!"
The idea was flat out brilliant: tell Democrats that instead of voting their own beliefs, they should try to guess the beliefs of
other, more conservative voters and vote like
they would! Soon voters everywhere were repeating the mantra, What Would Conservatives Do?
"Electabilty" became the buzz phrase of every candidate except Dean, who was still foolishly campaigning as an actual Democrat. Supporters of Edwards and Clark especially loved the word - no longer did they have to defend their candidates on their records. Instead they could argue that Dean was doomed to lose because he wasn't "electable" enough!
Then a funny thing happened. Voters in Iowa, hell bent on deciding who other people would find least objectionable, decided to vote for John Kerry. Then voters in New Hampshire figured, "Well, Iowans are other people. Therefore other people like John Kerry. So... John Kerry is the most electable!" And they voted for Kerry as well. Pretty soon it became like a giant game of telephone. "The last person said `Scuse me while I kiss this guy,' so I'd better say it too!"
Edwards and Clark supporters yelled in vain, "Stop! When we said `electable,' we didn't mean John Kerry!" But it was too late. In their race to destroy Howard Dean, they had created a monster. Voters had decided to vote not for the candidate they liked the most, but the one they liked the least. In trying to find an "electable" candidate, they'd decided on a dull Massachusetts liberal.
So my question to Clark and Edwards supporters is: are you happy now? And if you could go back in time, would you still talk about who is "electable," or would you maybe talk about who is right?