Junto Boys

There are two different kinds of politicians. Some have ideas that they want to implement. Others want power for its own sake. How can you differentiate? Those who want power for its own sake will generally oppose any position their opponent takes.

Bob Dole’s train wreck campaign in 1996 was full of this. While not a true conservative, Dole took outrageous positions on things like Hollywood movies. It seemed so hollow but it was a direct opposition to Clinton who was being funded by those same people.

I can only think the Democrats are headed down the same road with Howard Dean or whoever else. Joe Lieberman is trying to stake out a moderate position, but it’s falling on deaf ears.

Determined to persuade Democrats that he is the only candidate capable of defeating President Bush (news - web sites), the Connecticut senator said the party must focus on strengthening America's security and economy and will, in turn, win over moderate voters.
"Some Democrats, on the contrary, still prefer the old, big government solutions to our problems," Lieberman said in a speech to the National Press Club. "But, my friends, with record deficits, a stalled economy and Social Security (news - web sites) in danger, we can't afford that."

Now we have Gore returning (though reportedly not running) to give a speech to the anti-war crowd.

Amid talk he's being urged to jump back into the presidential race, Al Gore has arranged to speak out on Iraq to a large anti-war group at New York University on Thursday.

I think he is dying to get back into the race. His book sales were so ugly last Christmas he knew he would have trouble getting out of the primaries. Now that the candidates all seem the same, he can offer the voters something different, experience. I bet he gives a few speeches the next couple of months and then checks the Zogby poll numbers to see if he is getting any traction. If his numbers don’t improve, he never considered running. If he breaks away from the pack, he “reluctantly” gets into the race because the country needs him.

I’ll tell you this. Al Gore still wants to be President and knows that Hillary is also waiting to jump in January if conditions warrant it. If Gore is going to make a move, it will have to be before the beginning of the year. He thinks his best bet is to oppose Bush's strengths. If Gore really wants to say that Iraq should have been left in tact, he has a large misunderstanding of the American public post 911. But he probably thinks that he can't win over many Bush supporters as a parrot. Reagan Democrats returned to Clinton or Perot in 1992, because as a centrist, Bush didn't offer moderate Democrats much reason to stray from their own party. Lieberman has a better understanding of this than Gore.

By dropping out last year, Gore has been able to think and talk strategy without having to go on TV and answer a bunch of fool questions from reporters. He doesn’t need to stay in the public eye to keep his name recognition. Watch the Zogby numbers in the next couple of months. Gore wants a Nixon style political comeback. If Gore succeeds, he'll need an economic depression to beat a man of action like Bush.