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Candidates! Candidates! Candidates!
By Ned | March 5, 2007
Two of the real long shot nominees in the presidential race are Bill Richardson (D) and Sam Brownback (R). Now a lot of people are counting Brownback out for the Republican nomination, but I’m fairly worried about underestimating him - he’s exactly what the party needs to make sure the religious right doesn’t jump ship. He’s not some cynical weasel like John McCain or a shallow puppet like our current president - this guy’s a true believer, and his conviction is absolutely terrifying. Or as Stephen off of Ezra Klein’s blog said:
Without the presidency of George W. Bush, Brownback wouldn’t have a chance. But an Evangelical Christian (well, I guess) has held the White House for close to two terms now. So let me be the first, apparently, to predict Sam Brownback as the GOP nominee in 2008. Then he’ll pick some less religious Republican as his running mate - perhaps even Chuck Hagel in an attempt to court the “maverick” voters McCain will lose when he suffers his nervous breakdown.
As for Richardson? David Brooks, one of the most frequently irritating of those pundits with a faux-centrism fetish, seems to think he has a chance. And who can argue with him with powerful rhetoric like this:
Most of all, he’s not a senator. Since 1961, 40 senators have run for president and their record is 0-40. A senator may win this year, but you’d be foolish to assume it.
…
But he also cut New Mexico’s top income tax rate from 8.2 percent to 4.9 percent. He handed out tax credits to stimulate economic growth. (He’s the only Democrat completely invulnerable on the tax cut issue.) He supports free trade, with reservations. And he not only balanced the budget — he also ran a surplus.
On cultural issues, Richardson has the distinct advantage of not setting off any culture war vibes. He was in college in the late 1960s, but he was listening to the Beach Boys, not Janis Joplin. He was playing baseball in the Cape Cod League, not going to Woodstock. He idolized Humphrey, not McCarthy.
Richardson is actually something of a throwback pol — a Daley or La Guardia who doesn’t treat politics as a moral crusade. That might appeal this year.
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Finally, there is the matter of his personal style. This is his biggest drawback. He’s baggy-faced, sloppy (we like our leaders well groomed), shamelessly ambitious and inelegant. On the other hand, once a century or so the Democratic Party actually nominates somebody the average person would like to have a beer with. Bill Richardson is that kind of guy.
He is garrulous, amusing, touchy-feely (to a fault), a little rough-edged and comfortably mass-market. He’s Budweiser, not microbrew. It doesn’t hurt that he’s Hispanic and Western.
Brooks isn’t describing leadership and conviction, he’s describing a set of demographics. Just look at him comparing the Democratic candidates to brands of beer. That’s really all you need to know about this column - it’s a product choice, not a contest to see who can inspire and lead a world superpower.
I don’t think Brooks understands any of that. He doesn’t get the stakes of presidential elections, and that’s why he can fritter away an entire column in a national paper on horse race logistics instead of real issues.
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November 29th, 2007 at 1:32 am
[…] about the 2008 from before I headed off to my TPM internship was in my prediction that there was more to Brownback’s campaign than met the eye. Turned out there was actually exactly as much to Brownback’s campaign as met the eye and it […]