Blog For Arizona

The Upcoming Debate

There is little doubt that the buzz is all about Dean and Clark at the moment. Specifically, many are watching to see if Clark can become anything other than the warrior Prince of the Democratic establishment. His repeated gaffes, flip- flops, and seeming alergy to any substantive positions, are going to over-shadow even his admittedly attractive bio if he does not show some substance in tomorrow's debate.

If he fails to outline a realistic and thoughtful domestic agenda, he will continue the slide he has been suffering since shortly after entering the race to an enthusiastic surge of support which propelled him instantly into the top tier of the Democratic pack. In this debate, the line "I've only been in the race 9 days" is no longer going to wash. If he tries a similar cop out, he'll quickly be met with the come-back "and you've only been a democrat for 4 days."

Yes, Clark finally bothered to actually register as a Democrat in his place of domicile; weeks after announcing he was seeking the Democratic nomination for President. Somehow that strikes me as either un-militaristically sloppy, or just plain in-your-face hubris. If Clark's casual attitude about his party status doesn't put a huge dent in him, I'll be one very surprised pundit. Even the most desparate Democrat will not be so completely heedless of who she supports that she ends up nominating a Republican, just because she thinks he might be able to beat Bush.

An amusing anecdote: A colleague of mine, fairly highly placed in the Clark camp, was going to guest-blog here representing Clark. He had decided he would write a defense of Clark's support for the war. He was half-way through the essay when he realized that he has misread Clark's confusing position on the war. Clark had condemned the war (we're pretty sure about that anyhow). So he abandoned his essay. Finding no essential difference between Dean's position and Clark's he had nothing to write about. It just goes to show that even some of the man's most ardent supporters don't always know where he stands; one wonders if Wesley Clark knows either. I guess we'll have an opportunity to see in the coming debate.

I'm very curious to see if Kerry, Lieberman, and Gephardt continue to focus their faux fire on Dean over Mediscare and the politics of the past, or if they reserve a few rounds for the establishment's new favorite, who is likely be cutting into their funding and support, Wesley Clark. I'm also curious to find out whether Clark, if he still lacks a message of his own, will substitute attacks on the other candidates for substance.

Now that Graham is gone, and with him his reasoned and substantive tone (he was one of the original group of candidates including Braun, Sharpton, and Edwards never to engage in public attacks upon his fellow candidates), I wonder if the attacks are going to become more shrill and dominate more of the debate. I'll be attending the events in Phoenix tommorrow; including the Generation Dean Rally at ASU, the debate watching party, and the after party with Dean. I will be doing security in the interstices, and will hopefully get a chance to talk to supporters of the other candidates. It should be a very interesting day.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 10/08/2003 03:22:00 PM