Left Out

Missed opportunities in taking back the White House

Comments (0) By Marc Cooper Thursday, Jan 29 2004

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But the Moore love affair with the oddball Wes Clark causes me no pain. The more Moore discredits himself the better. The left deserves political leadership from someone other than a self-promoting clown. (Or a professional race-baiter like Al Sharpton, who can be seen on a 1983 FBI surveillance videotape talking about laundering drug money with former mobster Michael Franzese, a Mafioso-turned-undercover-FBI informant posing as a cocaine dealer.)

All is not lost.Not yet. The strongest institutional voice the left retains in this presidential contest is the struggling Howard Dean campaign. Dean’s presence makes the race a better one, for sure. A prolonged, hard-fought contest between Dean and Kerry and conceivably John Edwards can only benefit the Democratic Party as well as the wider public debate. The campaign can take some unexpected turns as it heads south and west, and Kerry still comes off as a remote stiff, but for the moment Dean is the long shot. If he survives next week’s round of primaries he could find much friendlier territory later in the month in the liberal and union strongholds of Michigan and Wisconsin. Dean could win in either of those states, especially the latter. But I’m no longer sure what difference that might make.

It’s a helluva position for the left to be in, having all of its eggs in the baskets of a couple of erratic candidates. Next time around, let’s do it better. Let’s make them come to us.