We need a Tony Blair? Presidential Politics

Now, here's a different way to look at it.

The Times of London makes some interesting observations on who we should choose to run in 2008. Basically, we need a Tony Blair, a likeable fellow (or lady) that won't turn off people who don't belong to our party. They make some interesting notes on Democrat victories in the West:

Others point to contrasting lessons from the few Democratic successes in local elections last Tuesday. In heavily Republican Montana, the governor’s race was won by the Democrat Brian Schweitzer. His victory was attributed to his decision to choose a moderate Republican as his lieutenant-governor running mate.

In the western state of Colorado, which also voted for Bush, Ken Salazar pulled off an even more startling victory in a Senate seat. The Democrat candidate not only held off Pete Coors, a billionaire beer magnate, but won what had seemed a safe Republican seat.

At least part of Salazar’s success was attributed to his folksy campaigning style — he toured the state in a cowboy hat, driving an ancient pickup truck that endeared him to rural conservative voters.

The so-called “moral” issues that were supposed to benefit Republicans proved mostly irrelevant to Salazar’s carefully crafted bid for the political middle.

To Chuck Dolan, a Democratic strategist who guided Kerry to a narrow win in the northern swing state of Wisconsin, the message was clear. “We have to look at how we are doing in the south and how we are doing in rural areas,” he said.

Part of the challenge is for sophisticated urban Democratic candidates to find a way of talking convincingly about key heartland issues — God and guns. When Kerry dressed up in camouflage fatigues and went goose-hunting in Ohio, he was at least making an effort to woo the rural vote, Dolan said. But another strategist noted: “There has to be more to our message than waving a shotgun at voters once every four years.”

Emmett O'Connell | November 24, 2004 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) Permalink: We need a Tony Blair? Presidential Politics

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