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February 12, 2004
(Almost) Beat Kerry to Save Him (Or sleep with him to beat him) ++
Maybe (like me) you've learned to stop worrying and love John Kerry, but if you live in Wisconsin, it's possible you don't need to vote for him. Keeping the other candidates in the race might not be such a bad thing for Kerry: The longer he goes on beating the crap out of the other candidates, the longer America wakes up every few mornings and sees him as a winner, a person that everybody else likes. And as we know, everyone loves a winner. Also, the more this goes on, the shorter he's sitting out there all by himself, taking fire from the Bush campaign. This will translate into a medium-length Bush vs. Kerry battle, and that's the kind of campaign in which Bush will be most vulnerable.
It would be fun to see Kerry marching through all those Southern states acting like he's campaigning real hard against John Edwards, "fighting for every vote," so both of them get maximum exposure to all the voters down there as they make the case against Bush, and then after a good honest fight, Kerry beats out Edwards, who gave it the old college try and appealed to a bunch of Southerners. Then when it's finally time for Edwards to bow out, Kerry will pick him as his VP (please God), and they climb into their bunk beds on the Real Deal Express and have a big love in with everybody from Georgia to Arizona.
I said a long time ago that the Democrats need to settle on their choice as quickly as possible so that the candidate can build momentum going into the general election, so I don't have a problem with all these reports of Kerry's "coronation," but keeping up the appearance of an actual competition can only help Kerry. Besides, if another candidate bounces back to actually give Kerry a challenge, we can all sit around and marvel about how great American democracy is. [Update: Or about how easy it is to be derailed by reports of marital infidelity.]
The NYT has an article this morning about the benefits for Kerry of having the apparent "battle" for the nomination drag out longer. One Democratic pollster sums it up this way:
It keeps him in the news, it keeps him dominant, and as long as there's the appearance of a contest, it gives him a victory each week, and even if it's simulated drama, the focus is on him. I think that creates momentum for him, and I don't think either Edwards or Dean appears to have any chance of blunting his surge. I don't see any downside.
