General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: They told Gore not to investigate the 2000 election for the good of the country.. [View all]karynnj
(59,503 posts)The issue that year was national security and war. Both issues that Kerry had enormous credibility on. People forget that in fall 2003, Bush was at 60 percent. He was polled as easily beating any Democrat, including Dean he was matched against. Kerry was then such a long shot that he was not polled against Bush until he won Iowa.
Note that where many here argue that Dean lost due to the media attack on his scream -- the story had that not have happened would have been that he lost by TWENTY PERCENT to Kerry in Iowa -- and he and Gephardt had been the people expected to win. In reality, people on the ground in Iowa saw Kerry steadily gaining support. One Iowan I met said that one difference between Kerry and the rest was that once a person agreed to be for Kerry -- they stayed with him.
One thing that really may have helped Kerry in the end was the events (more than the coverage) in the last weekend. Kerry was joined by the Republican law enforcement officer who was the marine Kerry saved in Vietnam. I was watching TV in NJ -- and that Kerry story was as close to reality looking like a 1940s movie where the somewhat shy hero is praised by a man he saved long ago. Meanwhile, the Dean story was the one where he told a 70 plus year old to sit down. Yeah, the guy was heckling him, but awful optics.
The Republicans had to completely smear Kerry's honorable service where the Navy awarded him two presteigic awards and where he was wouned 3 times. More relevant - though downplayed by the media - he was an early voice warning about non state terrorism and advocating for tools to follow the money. These tools, which have proven valuable were finally enacted after 2001. Dean would have been charactertized as having used a medical deferment and then spent cosiderable time skiing. (That is apparently only good if you are a Republican.) This would have been contrasted with Bush as a war time President (and to a far lesser degree, someone who served in the NG.)
Dean could not have blown Bush out of the water in the first debate on foreign policy. Kerry's dilagence as a 20 year member of teh Senate Foreign Relations committee and his unusual skill at debating showed -- and even Republicans did not really contest that he won that debate.
I have met both Dean and Kerry -- Kerry at a book signing for his Teresa's book and Dean at a Burlington VT Democratic event. Kerry was by far the more impressive. In fact, Dean actually was less impressive in his comments than Madeline Kunin, another former VT Governor.