> From: "Michael Hoover" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >First specific DLC accomplishment was to convince 11 southern states to
> >hold their prez primaries on same day in 1988 for purpose of boosting
> >their clout, enhancing position of south in nominating process and
> >helping "moderate" southern candidates. Gore won a few of these so-called
> >"Super Tuesday" races that year.
>
> What a weird spin on the 1988 primary debacle for the DLC? What Super
> Tuesday did was hand Jesse Jackson a chance to rack up some of his most
> impressive states and, for a short period, seem to threaten to win the
> nomination. Gore generally failed miserably, while Dukakis managed to
> maintain his stead delegate gains that eventually left him the last white
> guy standing to defeat Jesse.
> Super Tuesday did its job finally in 1992 in helping elect Clinton -
> although the irony was that it helped Clinton defeat Tsongas because Clinton
> could pick up Jesse's black vote support, while Tsongas I believe took the
> majority of the white vote in a lot of the Southern states.
> -- Nathan Newman
no spin, no debating points to win...allow me, however, to revise and
extend my remarks...
DLC promoted "Super Tuesday" as vehicle for centrist/southern dems based on
assumption that party couldn't win prez election without winning south.
Proponents looked to Robb & Nunn as best choices but neither decided to run.
DLCers were left with Al Gore after one their own, Gephardt, decided to
run opposing organization's position on free trade. Gore won 4 ST states -
Ark, Ky, NC, Tenn (5 if you count Okla where another former DLC chair,
McCurdy was from) and his campaign had some temporary life. Jackson won 5
states - AL, GA, LA, Miss, VA. Significantly, Dukakis won 2 biggest states
- FL & TX.
No, 1988 "Super Tuesday" didn't work out as its architects had planned
with respect to either candidate choices or to bringing conservative white
Dems back into party. By late 1980s, southern whites were more likely to
vote Rep than in any other region of country. Smaller 1992 "Super
Tuesday" - FL, LA, Miss, Tenn, Tx - worked (I guess) from standpoint of its
creators in producing more moderate victor in Clinton. But this result was
achieved via very low turnout. Moreover, more southern whites voted in Rep
primaries in 1992 than in Dem primaries for first time.
no spin, no debating points to win... Michael Hoover
