>Status: U
>Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 21:33:58 -0700
>From: marco capelli frucht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Organization: ati
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>To: Williams Institute <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Democrats should be very afraid of GB2
>
>Hi Michael,
>I could have sent you the whole page, but I know how long it takes
>you to load in graphics and the cost, etc.
>So here's the text.
>The page if you care to go to it is at:
>http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/nichols%20-%20dems%20-%20072299.htm
>
> ----<><><><>----
>
>Democrats should be very afraid of GB2
>
>MILWAUKEE -- Democrats should be afraid, very afraid, of George W. Bush.
>
>Yes, of course, there are plenty of reasons why the front-runner in
>every poll leading up to
>the 2000 presidential campaign might yet lose.
>
>Yes, with barely a single term as governor of Texas to his credit, the
>great Republican
>hope is less qualified to occupy the Oval Office even than Ronald
>Reagan.
>
>Yes, the Texas governor's "compassionate conservatism'' is every bit as
>vague as the
>"putting people first'' line peddled by Bill Clinton in 1992.
>
>Yes, Bush has been sucking up dubious money faster than Al Gore at a
>Buddhist temple.
>
>Yes, yes, yes, yes, there are plenty of arguments for dismissing GB2 as
>little more than a
>famous name in an ill-fitting suit.
>
>But Democrats who think they will retain the presidency by dismissing
>GB2 as a
>manufactured candidate who can't get the taste of the silver spoon out
>of his mouth are in
>for a rude awakening.
>
>GB2, who made his first Wisconsin campaign stops here on Wednesday,
>proved himself to
>be the ablest first-time presidential candidate to work this state since
>Bill Clinton in 1991.
>Indeed, while Republicans like Bush campaign official Jim Klauser
>grumble at the notion,
>comparisons between GB2 and the current chief executive are entirely
>appropriate.
>
>Like Clinton, GB2 eschews coherent ideological statements in favor of
>platitudes, and, also
>like Clinton, the Texan makes the formula palatable by peppering his
>speech with lines
>like, "The next president must close the gap of hope,'' and promising to
>unleash "a quiet
>river of goodness and kindness that cuts through stone.''
>
>By fuzzing the political margins, GB2 is turning the 2000 presidential
>race into a
>personality contest. And that's a race he can win.
>
>The GOP front-runner shares Clinton's ability to connect with people
>instantly. Equally at
>ease speaking Spanish with kids at the Bruce Guadalupe Community School
>in south
>Milwaukee and talking politics with the state's wealthiest Republicans
>at the Midwest
>Express Center downtown, GB2 is no standard-issue GOP pol.
>
>When GB2 meets people, he grabs their hand, leans in almost too close
>and fixes them
>with eye contact of a quality that some married couples never achieve.
>GB2 lingers, he
>asks questions, smiles easily and gently calls the people with whom he
>has gathered to
>follow their better instincts.
>
>When GB2 talks about "responsibility'' -- as GOP presidential candidates
>do with tiresome
>frequency -- he is not merely picking on welfare moms, he is also
>telling right-wing
>Republicans to get a life.
>
>Standing amid a group of GOP legislators, he threw his arm around the
>shoulder of state
>Rep. Bonnie Ladwig, R-Racine, the source of some of the Legislature's
>loopiest proposals.
>Still on a high from his visit to the Guadalupe School, GB2 told the
>group that Wisconsin
>Republicans should do more to reach out to Milwaukee's burgeoning Latino
>community.
>
>In particular, he said Republicans must jettison divisive proposals such
>as "English-only''
>legislation. "English-only basically says to Latinos you don't count.
>It's insulting,'' said
>GB2, who has given portions of his two gubernatorial inaugural addresses
>in Spanish.
>
>It is doubtful that GB2 knew that Ladwig was chief sponsor of the
>misguided
>"English-only'' bill currently languishing in the Legislature. But the
>Racine County
>Republican could not have missed the fact that her brand of
>compassionless conservatism
>won't find much sympathy in a GB2 GOP.
>
>That may disappoint Ladwig, but it ought to terrify Democrats.
>
>For the past decade, the Democratic Party has counted on the Republicans
>to nominate
>inept and inarticulate presidential candidates who are hobbled by an
>inability to credibly
>distance themselves from the hate-mongering of the radical right.
>
>If Democrats think GB2 is a Y2K version of his father or Bob Dole, they
>are in for the
>biggest political surprise since Republicans laughed off Bill Clinton as
>"the corrupt
>governor of a small Southern state.''
>
>John Nichols is the editorial page editor of The Capital Times.
>
> Recent columns by John Nichols
>
