Excellent analysis of the pitiful Democratic party race in 2004.....A MUST READ !!!

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/G...CA7BCF50DD.asp

The Democrats are clueless on re-election

Bill Shipp

Draft Zell Miller. Rehabilitate Roy Barnes. Find Max Cleland. He?s looking better by the minute. Do something. Quick.
If you?re running the national Democratic Party, you ought to be having a nervous breakdown about now. You?re in a corner, and your options are running out.
The presidential election is closing in fast. President George Bush looks strong, but he has weak spots. The economy is stagnant. The Iraqi war went OK, but just OK. We didn?t get the guy we were after. Again. With the right candidate, you could beat Bush ? or at least give him a run for his money.
But you?ve got nobody, right? Oh, nine certified Democrats are running. They?re already out there mixing it up on the C-SPAN debate circuit, trying to make voters believe they?re real. Take a close look, and you?ll realize: They?re a frightening group.
This is the weakest pack to seek the Democratic nomination since George McGovern carried the flag against Richard Nixon in 1972. On second thought, McGovern would seem a giant among these pygmies.
Check out this list: Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Howard Dean of Vermont and Al Sharpton of New York.
With the possible exceptions of Edwards and Graham, no one stands a chance of taking a Southern state, and those two are long, long shots for winning the nomination.
Perhaps this lineup looks all right from a national perspective. But from a Southern viewpoint, these are lost lambs. The national Democratic Party has purposely severed its Southern roots and lost the South, probably forever, unless it can find a candidate with moderate to conservative credentials.
For the sake of argument, let?s say Sen. Zell Miller, even at age 71, decided to go for the Democratic nomination. Great choice. Instant credibility with Southern voters. Advocates more tax cuts and smaller government. With Bush on the war and on the federal budget. Favors helping the elderly and battling poverty among blacks. Solid record as senator and governor. Among the most popular figures in his home state. But he would not stand chance of winning the nomination. He is too Southern and too moderate in a party that has drifted so far to the left that only certified liberals need apply for nominations.
This trend is not brand new. Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn coulda been a contender in his heyday in the Senate in the 1980s and 1990s. But he was an expert on military matters and, therefore, unacceptable to the party of doves. He also was Southern, a trait that caused many leading Democrats to turn up their noses in contempt.
Former Gov. Roy Barnes might have been Democratic-ticket material if he had won re-election as governor. On second thought, he wouldn?t pass muster either. He subscribed completely to President Bush?s ?No Child Left Behind? education program. The national teachers? unions, an essential part of the Democratic coalition, would have destroyed a Barnes campaign before it could start. The teachers? unions hate all this ?accountability? talk.
Remember Sen. Max Cleland? His defeat is instructive in studying the collapse of the Democratic Party in the South. He lost his Senate seat because he couldn?t say no to the Senate Democratic leaders who demanded he oppose the Bush administration on every important issue, even as President Bush?s popularity soared in Cleland?s native Georgia.
The national Democrats are so far out of touch that they have been trying to recruit an Atlanta-based black candidate (either Attorney General Thurbert Baker or Mayor Shirley Franklin) to run statewide for the U.S. Senate next year.
Neither has a chance of winning. In the case of Attorney General Baker, Democrats would lose their most powerful state office if he chose to heed the Democrats? siren call. National Democrats don?t care about local matters. Losing a toehold in the Georgia Capitol wouldn?t faze them, as long they make a show of unity among their liberal constituencies. Win or lose, an black senatorial bid in Georgia would make wonderful national headlines.
Just how and when the Democrats lost their Southern compass is uncertain. One could argue that Republicans have played the race card repeatedly and subtly since the 1960s to lure majority whites away from the Democrats. But it is more than that. Democrats are so out of step with their own past that is hard to imagine that towering figures such as Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt were traditional Democrats of their time. Or that a Democratic Jimmy Carter could run and win in the South, at least once.
Americans deserve a strong alternative to an incumbent president, no matter who, in every election cycle. The present-day rudderless Democrats, so far, show no sign of coming up with that alternative for 2004.
You can reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30160 or e-mail: bshipp@bellsouth.net, Web address: http://www.billshipp.com