Rich: An Election Year Like No Other

Frank Rich reminds us all that comparisons of 2008 to previous elections are simply null and void.

Allow us to add the old chestnut Rich forgot to mention that both Dems and Repubs love to invoke: George McGovern in 1972, whose campaign was torpedoed only by his VP choice's psychiatric history, and McGovern's handling of that situation. Therapy was still a dirty word back then (and it should be mandatory today). People tend to forget that part of the story and simply like to use McGovern as a convenient chew toy.

That election is kinda burned into my memory. It was my first presidential vote and my first involvement with GOTV during my freshman year of college. It also set me up to expect bitter (!) disappointment throughout my activist life. Rich has given me some hope this time around.

The reason that politicians and the press have gotten so much so wrong is that we keep forgetting what year it is. Only if we reboot to 2008 will the long march to November start making sense.

This is not 1968, when the country was so divided over race and war that cities and campuses exploded in violence. If you have any doubts, just look (to take a recent example) at the restrained response by New Yorkers, protestors included, to the acquittal of three police officers in the 50-bullet shooting death of an unarmed black man, Sean Bell.

This is not 1988, when a Democratic liberal from Massachusetts of modest political skills could be easily clobbered by racist ads and an incumbent vice president running for the Gipper’s third term. This is not the 1998 midterms, when the Teflon Clintons triumphed over impeachment. This is not 2004, when another Democrat from Massachusetts did for windsurfing what the previous model did for tanks.

Almost every wrong prediction about this election cycle has come from those trying to force the round peg of this year’s campaign into the square holes of past political wars. That’s why race keeps being portrayed as dooming Mr. Obama — surely Jeremiah Wright = Willie Horton! — no matter what the voters say to the contrary. It’s why the Beltway took on faith the Clinton machine’s strategic, organization and fund-raising invincibility. It’s why some prognosticators still imagine that John McCain can spin the Iraq fiasco to his political advantage as Richard Nixon miraculously did Vietnam.

The year 2008 is far more complex — and exhilarating — than the old templates would have us believe. Of course we’re in pain. More voters think the country is on the wrong track (81 percent) than at any time in the history of New York Times/CBS News polling on that question. George W. Bush is the most unpopular president that any living American has known.

And yet, paradoxically, there is a heartening undertow: we know the page will turn. For all the anger and angst over the war and the economy, for all the campaign’s acrimony, the anticipation of ending the Bush era is palpable, countering the defeatist mood. The repressed sliver of joy beneath the national gloom can be seen in the record registration numbers of new voters and the over-the-top turnout in Democratic primaries.

Comments

[Porco Rosso]

Re: comparisons to McGovern.

Yeah, in hindsight it turned out that Nixon was a much better choice than McGovern. We've got the oval office tapes to prove it.

You'd think we'd learn from our mistakes...

[Mad as Hell]

Conservatives are incapable of learning anything. They do what they are told to do. They have blinders on, and can't think for themselves. Just put a preacher in front of them, and have him tell them not to vote for the dirty, filthy prolifers, and they'll give up healthcare, good jobs and tremendous schools! For the rethugs who aren't too into the Godly threats, just tell them that the Dems will raise taxes, and they're jello! We just have to hope that the Hillary Dems and the Obama Dems are a whole lot smarter than that!

[RepubAnon]

If you read Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail", you'll find other things that screwed up McGovern's campaign in addition to "I back Tom Eagleton 1000%" and then dumping him a few days later. Hubert Humphrey didn't campaign for McGovern until the last few weeks of the campaign. (Memorable Humphrey quote: "we're not talking about re-electing the president - we're talking about re-electing Richard Nixon").

However, the thing that really stuck in my mind was when the eager volunteers were replaced with "seasoned professionals" -and the "professionals" decided that McGovern should temper his idealism to attempt to increase his appeal to people who weren't going to vote for him in any case. Then as now, the "professionals" lose elections for idealistic candidates whose primary appeal is the youth vote because they don't understand the youth vote.

I remain convinced that Hillary lost the nomination because she got the "professional" consultants this time around. If Hillary gets picked for the ticket's VP slot, those same "professionals" will be "helping" Obama's campaign. That would be just the thing that McCain needs to win.

[Marrena, Ann Arbor, MI]

Escellent comments by Rich, and they sure do give me hope as well. Times HAVE changed, and my hope and prayer is that these horrid years under this neocon cabal can be somehow turned around. As an Independent, I see many people who are linked into 'special' categories, and they are much different than they are 'labeled'... Hate labels, they serve us no purpose. Again, hopeful words, and Thanks for posting them... Are you having live chat Mon night again???