Chris Bowers on
MyDD recently wrote about the dearth of potential progessive presidential candidates. Well I would like to put forward a name for your consideration. It is a name the dKos community is familiar with, because he is one of our own, a frequent diarist and contributor. I am speaking of course, of Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.
Everyone here is familiar with Rep. Conyers work on the Downing Street Memo and against the Patriot Act, so I won't belabor the point. What I will say is that his leadership on these and many other issues has shown him to be a tireless fighter on behalf of progressive causes.
He is unafraid to speak his mind, and he isn't cowed by Republican and media criticism, into backing down. On the contrary, when they push him, as happened this weekend with the Washington Post, he pushes back. His response to the Post article is exactly what our party needs in its relationship with the media. It was calm, measured, fact-based, and forceful. Given the platform of a presidential candidacy, I believe he could garner the kind of media attention and response that could help him enter the upper tier of presidential candidates.
None of the candidates whose names have been bandied about have the experience of Rep. Conyers. He has served in the House longer than all but one other person, and he has had experience as a member of the minority and majority. As ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, has had oversight into judicial appointments, the FBI, the INS and many other important areas of policy. He has a resume better than many "top-tier" candidates.
The question is, could he win? Personally, I think after eight years of Republican kleptocracy, America would be willing to vote for any minimally qualified Democrat. Not to say that Rep. Conyers is unqualified, far from it, but that the threshold in an open seat election is lower, and given Bush's horrible mismanagement and dismal popularity and the fact that none of the top Republican contenders seem particularly strong, the Democratic candidate would be the presumptive favorite regardless of the candidate.
Nevertheless, I think Rep. Conyers has particular qualifications above and beyond most other Democrats. First, the obvious. He's black. He would be the first black President. The potential to make history would energize much of the Democratic base, particularly the black community, who would turnout in massive numbers, possibly even better than for Clinton or Gore. But Rep. Conyers' record and message would have appeal beyond the black community. His work in the House has shown him to be a champion of the working class, and having him at the top of the ticket would help us reach white working class voters who might feel ignored by the Democratic party.
Another important question is, could he win the nomination? I won't pretend it wouldn't be an uphill climb, but I think it's possible. If he entered the race, he would be very popular with the progressive netroots base, more so than a Clinton or a Bayh or a Biden. The biggest schism in the Democratic party seems to be between the "Fighters" represented by Howard Dean and the "Triangulators" represented by Bill Clinton. There's something to be said for either strategy, so it's not worth going into here. My point, however is that Rep. Conyers has shown himself to be a Fighter. Most of the progressive netroots are fighters as well, while the rest of the field will probably be Triangulators, so I think Rep. Conyers will be better able to tap into the same energy (and money) that Howard Dean did. Yes, Howard Dean lost, but Rep. Conyers has advantages Dean didn't. He would be well-positioned to unite the progressive netroots and the black community behind him. And in an open seat election with a wide open Republican field, the temptation to play defense by voting for someone in response to their opponent's perceived strengths and weaknesses would be diminished.
To sum up, I think Rep. Conyers would be a great candidate to sell the Democratic message to the country in 2008, and could even have a shot at winning if the netroots gets behind him. So who's onboard the Draft Conyers campaign?