Can The Center Hold?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre 
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

(WB Yeats, The Second Coming)

John Fund invokes Yeats poem in the title of his Opinion-Journal piece about two Democratic primary elections of great interest. There is, of course, the hoopla over in Connecticut, Fund also point out the Georgia primary where Cynthia McKinney is fighting for her political life. First Lieberman's struggle in Connecticut:

Two primaries next week will tell a lot about the strength of the hard-left wing of the Democratic party. In Connecticut, moderate Sen. Joe Lieberman faces a challenger whose single issue is opposition to the Iraq war. In Georgia, ultraliberal Rep. Cynthia McKinney faces a runoff against a moderate opponent who is wooing liberals with the slogan: "It's time to restore respect to progressivism." Despite all the hype about the power of the liberal blogosphere, the odds are better than even that voters will reject the more liberal candidate in both races and send the message that the sensible center still has a home among Democrats.

Conventional wisdom has it that Senator Joe Lieberman will lose his Aug. 8 primary. A mid-July Quinnipiac poll showed businessman Ned Lamont leading the three-term incumbent by 51% to 47% among likely primary voters. Democratic consultant Bob Shrum thinks the race is over and that Mr. Lamont can even defeat Mr. Lieberman should the senator run an independent. He says a Lamont primary victory will ensure that "we'll see by the end of 2007 virtually every Democratic [presidential] candidate, including Hillary Clinton, favoring a date certain for withdrawal" from Iraq.

Not so fast. First, Mr. Lamont's lead is within the Quinnipiac poll's four-point margin of error. Secondly, it's notoriously difficult to identify likely voters for a low-turnout primary in the dog days of August. Third, there are signs that Mr. Lamont may have "peaked too soon" in his challenge to the incumbent. He is now facing increased scrutiny on the thinness of his political résumé, his unfamiliarity with many issues, and his refusal to release his tax returns. At the same time, Mr. Lieberman's campaign is showing signs of renewed vigor.

Then McKinney's Battle Royal:

Under President Bush, she upped the volume of her outrage when she called for an investigation into whether the president had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2002, primary voters threw her out of office, but when her seat became open again in 2004 she made a successful comeback with a low-key campaign that relied on her name recognition.

That recognition was increased earlier this year, when Ms. McKinney physically assaulted a Capitol police officer who tried to question her when she bypassed security without displaying a pin that identifies her as a member of Congress.

Black voters may have finally had enough of her political antics. Last month, former county commissioner Hank Johnson won 45% of the vote, just behind Ms. McKinney's showing, forcing next week's runoff. Mr. Johnson called Ms. McKinney's behavior "an embarrassment to the people of the district" and vowed to "take care of home first" by focusing on local issues rather than foreign policy. To buttress his point, Rep. McKinney was joined at her primary-night rally by Cindy Sheehan, the extremist antiwar activist whose son was killed in Iraq.

Fund's conclusion? Lieberman wins, McKinney loses and the centrists still have a place in the Democratic party. One hopes he is right, because an unelectable party in a two party system spells trouble for the whole structure of our government.