Sometimes, after a gruelling day at work, it doesn't pay to turn on the news. The big political story on ABC's Evening News tonight featured Jake Tapper's reporting on Senator Clinton's Senate nomination acceptance speech in Buffalo. But his lede had nothing to do with the Senate race in New York. It was all about how "presidential" her speech seemed to him and what a shoo-in she was for the nomination in 2008. Not to worry though. This bald assertion was supported by the Democrats he chose to feature in his on-air piece. (In fairness,
his web piece is a little more balanced, but who will read that?)
More below.
You'll be pleased to know that Tapper gave air time to a couple of folks well known for their wisdom and party loyalty: Ed Koch, Donna Brazile and Nora Walcott, a Missouri county chairperson. Koch, you may recall,
endorsed Bush in 2004. Brazile plays - fairly unconvincingly these days - a Democrat on TV. Walcott expressed doubt that liberal Clinton would do well in her state, or in Ohio and Florida. That's it. That's the range of opinion Jumpin' Jake used to support his opinion that Senator was a prohibitive favorite for the nomination in '08, but would need to pull to the right to win the White House.
"I think that everybody agrees that she will be the Democratic candidate and that's not in question," said former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
"Upstate New York is like Middle America," said Democratic advocate Donna Brazile. "And they're the type of voter she will need to win and pull together if she decides to run in 2008."
You see, the problem is that Clinton is perceived as too liberal. That's their story and they're sticking to it, and that is going to be the prevailing meme throughout this election - that she's inevitable in '08 and that her chief obstacle will be the perception that she is too liberal.
I know some comrades here like Senator Clinton in '08. I know others find it tiresome that this is even a topic for discussion. But this is precisely the kind of press that we're going to be seeing more and more of. Those of us who disagree have to keep remonstrating that Clinton is not inevitable and she is not too liberal! Just because the MSM and hacks like Koch, Stephanopoulos and Brazile say it over and over again doesn't make it so.
This kind of unrelenting flacking for one candidate in the MSM, I believe, will damage the process. The fight will be tough enough as it is. If we end up with a candidate for whom the party faithful won't phone bank, won't go door-to-door, won't poll watch, etc., we will most certainly lose.