Historical perspective on Howard Dean from Mark Shields

[helleborient]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/29/column.shields.opinion.perspective/index.html

Read the article...good info. on past quotations that were considered 'gaffes' even though the candidate went on to win big.

Also, historical perspective on how much polls can change during the general election campaign.

A key quote:

"Let's begin with the despondent Democrats of Washington who, at the end of 2003, can best be described as nervous Nellies with weak knees and cold feet.

Have they forgotten or do they not know that the last Democrat to challenge a sitting Republican president, on April 1 of the election year, had the support of just 25 percent of voters and trailed the incumbent by 20 points? That, of course, was Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, who, as late as June of 1992, had just 24-percent support and was running third behind both President George H.W. Bush and independent Ross Perot.

In November 1992, Bill Clinton won the White House with 43 percent of the national vote to George H.W. Bush's 37 percent. (All poll figures used are from national public surveys conducted by the respected Gallup Organization.)"

[Padraig18]

1. Excellent read!

Thanks for posting it! :)

[madfloridian]

2. Ha Ha. Reagan and the trees. Hilarious.

"In Steubenville, Ohio, Reagan offered a classic, "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles." That produced the 1980 campaign's most humorous visual when, before a Reagan speech at Claremont College, a witty grad student hung the sign on a campus tree, "Cut me down before I kill again."

[robbedvoter]

3. Shields predicted Clark will beat W by 4% with Spitzer as VP

Hope you still like him:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/27/cg.00.html
SHIELDS: There will be an upset, and we'll have the second Bush one-term president by 4 percent. The Democrats...
NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
SHIELDS: ... return to (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
SHIELDS: The Democrats for the, Democrats have won...
CARLSON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
SHIELDS: ... the popular vote three elections in a row. Eliot Spitzer...
NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
SHIELDS: ... will take the vow, Eliot's going to take the oath as (UNINTELLIGIBLE), as the...
NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
SHIELDS: ... as president...
NOVAK: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE), everybody else is predicting (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SHIELDS: Wesley Clark.
NOVAK: Wesley Clark, all right. I think, I think it's going to be a lot better year than Margaret thinks. I think the economy is going to be up. This is bad news for the left. I think probably are going to get situation under control in Iraq. And but there's a lot of people who hate Bush, some of them at this table. And he'll only win by 3 points.
SHIELDS: Don't speak that way about your...

[helleborient]

4. This is what it says in the transcript...

"SHIELDS: Certainly people who welcomed the religious conversion of George W. Bush will not in any way criticize that of Howard Dean.

But let's get my ticket, which is Wesley Clark and Eliot Spitzer. Howard Dean and Eliot Spitzer, Richard Gephardt and Howard, Eliot Spitzer, or John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer."


Hmmm...what a sad attempt to co-opt Shields with a misreading of the transcript.

Anyhow, I like Shields regardless of which candidate he supports...he is an intelligent and shrewd journalist.

[helleborient]

5. kick (n/t)

[stickdog]

6. What this? Perspective?

Isn't that against the rules on this forum?