The Democratic political strategy needed for the Democrats to retain the presidency is discussed. Both the Presidential Elections of 2004 & 2008, and the midterm election of 2006 are also reviewed.
Five years ago, the Democratic Party had a major problem as the Election of 2004 approached. With George W. Bush, the man who claimed to have an ongoing conversation with God, in the White House and with Rush Limbaugh, as the unofficial, but very effective, Propaganda Minister, the country was faced with the threat of a de facto one-party system take over. Certainly, the Republicans were in complete control of the system.
The Republican "big boys" had taken some hurt early in the administration as the Dot.com stock market bubble burst. However, they were rapidly recovering as administration tax cuts were implemented and big contracts came out of Iraq.
The little guys - the basic constituency of the Democratic Party at that time - were still taking it on the chin due to the lack of jobs, etc. Even the middle class, which is largely Republican, were continuing to hurt with the loss of jobs, many of which were lost through outsourcing.
The biggest problem for the Democratic Party in the election of 2004 was that they had lost their number one candidate, Al Gore, and had to train his replacement. The heir-apparent, but not well-known, Senator Kerry, was having to establish himself and wage a tough campaign against multiple opponents in the Democratic primaries.
Another problem for the Democrats in 2004 was that many of the American people appeared to have largely bought the phony arguments put forth by the Republican Party justifying the Iraq War. Additionally, Rush Limbaugh - the unofficial Republican propaganda minister - had been extremely effective attacking the Democrat Party on his talk radio show and a substantial number of the American people were influenced by him.
With all the problems discussed herein lying out in the open for all intelligent citizens to see, the 2004 election was obviously the time for "all good men, i.e., Democrats, to come to the aid of their country," e.g., and run for president. So what happened?: the "good men" begin to wilt just as the Democratic party and their country needed them.
Al Gore, the previously anointed candidate, had bowed out of politics. Former Senator Bradley was nowhere to be seen. One of the good street political fighters in the party - Senator Tom Daschile - had also bowed out (he lost his Senate seat in the election of 2004 so maybe he is not the street fighter I thought). Hillary Clinton was waiting for 2008. The party of Harry Truman didn't seem to have quite the fight in it that it used to have.
The Democratic Party had to develop new candidates for the new political scene of 2004.
Fortunately for the Democrats, there were a few good men, e.g. Senator Kerry, Senator Edwards, Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Gephardt, US Representative Kucinich, General Wesley Clark, the revolutionary figure of Governor Howard Dean, etc., who all came forward willing to become the newly anointed Democratic political leaders. It worked out pretty well, after all (well, not really. Senator Kerry was soundly beaten in the election of 2004 by President Bush.)
The midterm election of 2006 put the Democrats in control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. It was an overwhelming and surprising victory for the Democrats. But, the Democrats had a major advantage in the election of 2006 in that the American people turned against the Iraq War which was still heavily supported by President Bush and the Republican Party.
The Democrats actually needed little strategy in 2006. The Republicans practically handed them the election with their support of the Iraq War.
As the 2008 presidential election approached, the big question involving Democratic strategy was "Would the Democrats be able to maintain their momentum from the 2006 midterm election and retake the presidency?"
Democratic candidate Senator Barrack Obama proved to be a genius at fund-raising in the 2008 election. But he also adopted a very clever election strategy in that he essentially ran against the unpopular President, George W. Bush, who was not on the ballot. He virtually ignored official Republican candidate, Senator McCain. Of course, Obama's election was helped greatly by the developing severe economic recession which began to arrive midway in the election campaign. As the representative of the incumbent Republican Party, the blame for the recession was thrust, partly at least, on Senator McCain. That issue coupled with some very ineffectual campaigning by McCain led to a disaster at the polls.
McCain was a nice guy but don't nice guys always finish last?
Former Vermont Governor and 2004 candidate for the Democratic nomination - Howard Dean - was selected as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. During the primaries of 2004, Presidential Candidate Governor Dean had stated that he was from the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." Now, as Chairman, he was getting his chance to breath new life into the Democratic Party political organization. His efforts looked good but it was still unknown how much of the recent Democratic success was due to Dean's efforts and how much was due to the presence of the proven incompetent, lame duck President, George W. Bush.
In the Presidential Election of 2008, the Republican Party was very vulnerable to attacks by the Democrats because of the extensive political baggage carried by President Bush and the Republicans. Remember:
a. Economic Markets Collapse: Both the stock market and the credit markets are in collapse. Economic problems are always blamed on the party in power (Republicans until early 2009).
b. Iraq War. The Iraq War has gone on for longer than World War 2 and Americans are finally getting tired of it.
c. Florida in Election of 2000 and Ohio in Election of 2004. Whether political dirty tricks were involved does not really matter. The perception among many is that such tricks were involved so it is almost a free issue for Democrats to attack the Republicans.
Political Issues, 2008 discusses these and other political issues.
1. Election, 2008. There are many political issues in the country but the overriding issue is conservatism vs liberalism.
The Democrats took a bad beating in the election of 2004, however, the Democratic Party was not destroyed and, they finally got their political strategy together against the incumbent, lame-duck president, George W. Bush. They won by large margins in both the midterm election of 2006 and the presidential election of 2008. The Democratic Strategy was finally victorious.
Last Updated: 03/10/10
E-mail me at vanc13@cox.net