The
New Republic's publisher, Marty Peretz, is a long-time friend and former professor of Vice President Al Gore from his Harvard College days.
In an article today in the magazine's online edition, Peretz essentially endorsed Gore as the Democratic Party's best hope to recapture the White House in 2008. Acknowledging that he'd not consulted Gore before expressing his views nor aware that Gore would indeed be a candidate in 2008, Peretz writes
I suspect that Al Gore will be annoyed at me for writing this article. He has never so much as hinted to me that he is or will be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president... I haven't even hinted to him that I am writing it. This is written out of solidarity with those political moderates and liberals who are desperate to find a nominee about whom both their minds and spirits can be intellectually sure and psychologically fervent.
link (free registration required to read article)
More below the fold.
The
New Republic routinely has taken a beating here on Daily Kos for not only blindly supporting Joe Lieberman and his pro-Bush policies (see this
excellent article by Harold Meyerson in yesterday's
Washington Post) but one of its writers, Ryan Lizza, mocking the YearlyKos Convention (see my diary
here) earlier this month in Las Vegas. The current flap between Kos/Jerome and another
New Republic writer, Jason Zengerle, has been widely documented over the blogosphere since yesterday. Kos wrote about it
earlier today. While I'm not a fan of the magazine, I think it is unproductive for Kos to see this flap as an 'us vs them' issue. The stakes are much larger than whatever disagreements may exist between the magazine and, as Kos says, the blogosphere.
What does Peretz think of the rest of the 2008 Democratic field? Essentially calling Hillary Clinton unelectable and unlikable, here's how he assesses the other candidates
I will not make arguments against the rest of the list. Still, some comments are in order. Mark Warner is a favorite with the big-finance Democrats who can't abide Hillary. That is certainly a bond, even a cementing bond. But their theme is that Warner was one of the founders of Nextel. Which reminds me of Ross Perot. He also founded a high-tech company. It is an excuse not a reason. I don't know much about Vilsack. And not many in the politically attuned fold do either. Maybe he'd be able to put Iowa into the Democratic column. Evan Bayh is a nice man, and sound on many issues. Sorry, he doesn't strike me as at all deep. Biden asks many questions and lets no one answer them. I supported him financially when he first ran for the U.S. Senate. He's made little of his place on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Russ Feingold may be too left-wing even for the Upper West Side of New York. Wesley Clark, well, what General MacArthur said is true: Old soldiers fade away. Even not-so-old soldiers fade away. His most enthusiastic audiences seem to be in the United Arab Emirates. TNR readers know my views on John Kerry.
Many here will not like Peretz' unflattering comments about Howard Dean either. Nor his exclusion of John Edwards and others from the list above. But, on one issue, the magazine and Daily Kos can agree: Gore is probably the Democrats' best candidate in 2008. Here's why
* The first pragmatic reason to be for Gore, then, is that he is electable. He won once. He can win again. This is not simply a slogan; it is a serious thought. I find, moreover, that there is an undercurrent of guilt around the country about the fact that the presidency was taken from him.
* [O]n foreign and military policy generally, his record going back decades is tough-minded without being belligerent, conciliatory without being soft. I do not doubt his resolve about Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons.
* On domestic economic matters, Gore is a free-market realist rather than a free-market fanatic.
* He is not afraid of science and technology because he knows science and technology. And, yes, he did more to foster the democratization of the Internet than anyone in public life anywhere.
I think Peretz is on to something. While a fair level of support for Russ Feingold and Mark Warner exists today on Daily Kos, several polls taken here suggest that were Al Gore to declare his candidacy, he'd be the overwhelming favorite of online Democratic activists. Kos even acknowledged that fact on his Meet the Press appearance almost two weeks ago.
We ought to keep our "eyes on the prize." Disagreements on matters small and large will erupt from time to time between various factions of the Democratic Party. That's nothing unusual. In fact, it's par for the course. We wouldn't be Democrats otherwise, would we?
I think this is one issue that even Kos would agree with the New Republic on.