Andrew Hagen

Michael Barone provides historical perspective on Bush’s attempted historical shift. (*) The reelected President has the best chance of passing his program into law in the first or second year.

In the wake of Tuesday’s election, the Democratic Party has no leader. Kerry is just a Senator again. Daschle is ousted. Bill Clinton is sick. Al Gore is angry. Terry McAuliffe has announced he is stepping down as Chairman of the DNC effective in February. (†) Harold Ickes and Howard Dean are rumored as possible successors. Harry Reid will be the new Senate minority leader.

That leaves Nancy Pelosi. CNN reports: (‡)

House Democratic leader Pelosi put it another way. “Quite frankly, I think the table is set for us in the next election,” she said. “We have lost just about everything that we can lose.”

Meanwhile, President Bush deftly held a major news conference Thursday. He performed with great confidence and skill. (§) President Bush stated he will push (conservative) judicial nominees, partial privatization of Social Security, an overhaul of the tax code, and so on.

In response, the Democrats have nothing to say, even if they had a recognizable leader. The Democratic Party has committed itself to deeply unpopular positions against the war, for gay marriage, and for lax enforcement of immigration laws. I don’t see any plan so far to keep the Democrats from falling to permanent minority party status.

President Bush’s path to reform is clear. What can the Dems do?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 7th, 2004 at 22:19 and is filed under Progressive politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.