Reply #47: Good post, John. It's a shame a reliable DUer like stickdog would resort [View All]

[Karmadillo]

to painting Kucinich as unelectable. We don't know who's electable and who's not until the votes are counted (if they're counted, not always a sure thing these days). Remember how unelectable Paul Wellstone was before the Senate election? Remember how electable he was afterwards?

Proof? Look at candidate stickdog supports. It wasn't all that long ago that Dean was unelectable. Funny how things can change.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/219/oped/_Unelectable_frontrunner_+.shtml

'Unelectable' frontrunner?

A CANDIDATE'S ''electability'' used to be decided on election day. Now, it is the purview of political consultants and media commentators who rule on it months before anyone actually casts a vote. That makes it the next big test Howard Dean must pass -- and he knows it. As Steve Grossman, former head of the Democratic National Committee and now co-chair of the Dean presidential campaign, describes it, Dean's opponents are working to portray him ''as a wacked-out liberal. They are trying to create the image of a guy who is unelectable.''

The Dean campaign is well aware of the risk of being painted the wrong -- or left -- way. ''Howard Dean is going to have to do everything he can to define who he is and what he stands for before other people do it in an inaccurate and hostile way,'' says Grossman.

In the meantime, Grossman cites three specific examples of what he views as an orchestrated effort by Democrats to paint Dean, a fellow Democrat, as ''unelectable'':

Repeated warnings by the Democratic Leadership Council, a so-called moderate group of Democrats who helped elect Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992, that the party cannot afford to present itself as ''too far left.'' The shots at Dean, comments Grossman, ''have been excessively harsh.'' But ''it has had no impact on our campaign. It has enhanced Howard's appeal.''

more...

On edit: Added "more" at bottom of Boston Globe excerpt.