THE STUPIDITY!! IT BURNS!! (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? Washington Post Edition)
Yes, today is David Broder's day to "shine":
David Broder, August 31, 2006:
David S. Broder - The Democrats' Dysfunctional Calendar: Well, the Democrats have gone and messed it up again.... [T]he Democratic National Committee in its wisdom... further muddled the calendar... for choosing the 2008 presidential nominee.... What [the Democrats] mean is that Iowa and New Hampshire, which have led the nominating process since 1976, are overwhelmingly white -- and notably short of the African American and Latino voters on whom Democrats depend in the general election....
This Democratic version of affirmative action leaves a lot to be desired.... [G]ays vote Democratic; shouldn't the states that are home to San Francisco and Key West be allowed to vote early? And if Jewish contributors keep the party solvent, shouldn't New York be up there with the other pacesetters?... [M]adness is what the Democrats have wrought.... What was lost in all this was any sense of public deliberation about the choice of the next president.... What is most needed is time -- and a place -- for [candidates] to be carefully examined.
Historically, New Hampshire has fulfilled that responsibility. Voters there -- in both parties and especially among the numerous independents who also vote in the primary -- take their role seriously. They turn up at town meetings and they ask probing questions. So do the interviewers at local papers and broadcast stations. So do high school students. New Hampshire voters don't need -- or particularly want -- guidance....
[T]he country will be forced to witness the huge field of candidates flashing by in perpetual motion during the December holidays and the frantic first weeks of January, not standing still anywhere long enough to be measured for the job they are trying to win.
Thanks a lot, Democrats.
David Broder, July 23, 2007:
David S. Broder - Urban America's Moment: The Democratic presidential race has developed a different and welcome dynamic -- a sharp competition among the leading candidates to become champions of urban America. With a batch of big-state primaries looming on Feb. 5... Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are focusing on problems of poverty and programs to help blighted neighborhoods. Such problems are... far larger in California, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey and New York -- all of which vote on Feb. 5. That is one reason urban issues have come to the fore....
It has been a long time since the mayors of the country and their constituents received this kind of attention. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has been a forgotten backwater for a decade.... [I]t is welcome news that leading Democratic presidential candidates are treating the cities seriously. Urban America presents a complex picture....
What counts most, though, are not the specific items [the candidates] are offering but the awareness they show of the constituency and the problems -- and the commitment to make urban America a serious part of the governing agenda.
The cities have been waiting a long time for such attention.
And, of course, today's column wouldn't be complete without including the standard swipes at Clinton and Gore:
> Bill Clinton... had little feel for big-city government when he came to Washington.... [H]e had a dynamic first-term HUD secretary in former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros. [But i]n his second term, he let Vice President Al Gore and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo turn the agency mainly into an instrument for Gore's 2000 campaign...
