Democrats on Super Tuesday picked a candidate who cannot possibly win the White House in November. In choosing John Kerry of Massachusetts, Democrats have broken from the pragmatism that dominated their party’s profile under Clinton and Gore in the 1990s. Clinton was a very unethical person but at least he had charisma and he always had a bigger than life presence about him. The Democratic Party has now moved back to the liberal extremism of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. And I predict that in November, the results will be another disaster for the Democrats.
President Bush should be able to take advantage of this by waging a smart and well thought out campaign. Here are the three areas the Bush campaign should concentrate on:
First, Bush should use the next six months to educate voters on Kerry’s opposition to the death penalty, his crazy vote against the 1991 Iraq war, and his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act. In other words, define Kerry as an ultra liberal. Bush has to zero in on him and push him to the left right now. He could put this election away if he used this strategy.
Second, Bush needs to make Americans understand that the war on terror is still our major priority. He needs to elevate the sense of threat so that his advantage as a war president begins to count. Kerry seems to think that the war on terror should be fought through the criminal justice system. Voters recognize that Bush is right when he says that this is a war against nation-states that sponsor terror, not a hunt for criminal bands in the mountains. Kerry has tried to defund the CIA and he also has apposed funding for the Iraq war. Our national security would be in jeopardy if Kerry were to become president. Bush must use his profile as president to make Americans understand how crucial staying the course in the war on terror is to our safety. He must stress the need to make America safe from terror and he must also stress how important it is to stick to this task.
Third, Bush must begin to pull American troops out of Iraq after the handover in June. He should leave a sufficient number there, in safe, secluded bases, to intervene if the bad guys try to come back in power. But the daily drip of casualties must end. Then, after he is reelected, he can always put more troops in if they are needed.
Bush’s surrogates should savage Kerry while the president raises the profile of the war on terror and his foreign-policy team brings the troops home. If Bush wages his campaign in this manner, then the election will be over long before either Bush or Kerry is designated as the nominee of each of party.
