In 2004, George W. Bush did not run against John Kerry. He ran against Michael Moore. That would be the guy who looked at the pro-Saddam Iraqi insurgents who slaughter unemployed Iraqis and their children wholesale and saw Minutemen. The guy who openly entertained the idea that 9/11 was a U.S. government conspiracy, and who was and is unable to understand the U.S. economy in any other terms than a vast conspiracy of the rich, who somehow all work together harmoniously against the rest of us. John Kerry, who for all his faults was clearly the better candidate, didn't dare denounce Moore and his faction for fear of splitting the Democratic party, and that cost him the election.
The Democrats couldn't have dreamed up a better revenge scenario. For now, Barack Obama is not running against John McCain, but against that far weaker and more vulnerable candidate, George W. Bush. Obama's policy is complex and well thought-out, but his campaign is brutally simple: "McCain = Bush." Two nouns and one verb; that's as simple as it gets, and extremely effective when Bush has a 25% approval rating.
And, just like Kerry in 2004, John McCain is prisoner to his party and cannot denounce the candidate his opponent is running against. You have to give McCain credit for going as far as he has: he had the guts to say that the Republicans blew it from 2001-2008 in letting spending, earmarks and mortgage debt get out of control. But he can't risk naming names. He can't say that one specific Republican, Goerge W. Bush blew it, and led the rest of the party over the cliff to disaster. Because if he did, the Republican base would desert him.
Indeed, McCain is even more stuck than Kerry was in 2004. Kerry could probably have denounced Moore and still won; the American center would have warmed to him much as it did to Clinton after his Sister Souljah speech, while the far left hated Bush so much that they would have forgiven Kerry almost anything. But McCain is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. He can't win without the die-hard Bush believers in the Republican base, nor can he win without the center, which is disgusted with Bush. So the Democrats get to enjoy a dish best served cold.
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