Titanic Campaign
David Broder will certainly get a load of emails from the usual suspects after they read today's column. Broder has the unmitigated gall to point out the icebergs ahead for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 elections.
As the Democratic presidential race finally gets down to brass tacks, two issues are becoming paramount. But only one of them is clearly on the table.
That is the issue of illegal immigration. A very smart Democrat, a veteran of the Clinton administration, told me that he expects it to be a key part of any Republican campaign and that he is worried about his party's ability to respond.
I think he has good reason to worry. The failure of the Democratic Congress, like its Republican predecessor, to enact comprehensive immigration reform, including improved border security, has left individual states and local communities to struggle with the problem. Some are showing a high degree of tolerance and flexibility. Others are being more punitive. But all of them are running into controversy.
I noticed a new Siena College Research Institute poll of registered voters in New York. It found heavy opposition to Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to permit undocumented aliens to obtain driver's licenses; nearly two-thirds opposed the latest version.
Broder is not the first to point out the vulnerability of the Democrats to this issue, of course. What is actually more interesting is a question that has been largely off the table so far but will become a front and center issue: what to do about Bill.
The former president's intervention — volunteered during a campaign appearance on her behalf in South Carolina — raised the second, and largely unspoken, issue identified by my friend from the Clinton administration: the two-headed campaign and the prospect of a dual presidency.
In his view, which I share, this is a prospect that will test the tolerance of the American people far more severely than the possibility of the first female president — or, for that matter, the first black president.
As my friend says, "there is nothing in American constitutional or political theory to account for the role of a former president, still energetic and active and full of ideas, occupying the White House with the current president."
No precedent exists for such an arrangement, and no ground rules have been — or probably can be — written. When Bill Clinton was president, the large policy enterprise that was entrusted to the first lady — health-care reform — crashed in ruins.
Again, Broder is not the first to point this out, but the question really remains unexplored at this point. Because there really is no precedent for such an occurrence, having a former president back in the White House with no elected powers is unheard of. It is a legitimate thing to wonder - and worry - about. America has largely avoided dynastic Presidential families until George W. Bush. Frankly, that dynastic succession has been a point of contention since 2000. It will be a negative factor for some voters. In a tightly contested contest with a nearly evenly split electorate, any factor that splits of votes may be critical.
The 2008 Presidential election is shaping up to be a titanic struggle. It would be a good idea to remember another Titanic and the danger of icebergs.
By Mwalimu Daudi, November 15, 2007 @ 9:54 am
There are two other issues that could sink Democrats: ethics and Iraq. If Republicans grow a spine and hold Democrats accountable, Election Night 2008 could be a long one for Broder & Co. in the MSM.
By DavidL, November 15, 2007 @ 10:25 am
The question so much isn’t icebergs as it is the obsession of the democrats to steer into them. The Ameican public doen’s want ittegal on our roass, on a path to ammesty or in our country. It seems evident that the democrats feel they can not maintain control of the government without musteriing in new blocs of voters.
By Mockinbird, November 15, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
Given the way Eliot and Hillary have flip flopped over issues lately, I can’t imagine either doing a good job of steering our Ship of State.