Nathan Newman wrote:
>The Dems didn't lose due to a centrist message-- they lost because
>progressives tore each others hearts out because different partisans each
>had a candidate they thought worth killing each other over.
-And because Green used Al Sharpton to scare white voters. Lost more -votes than he gained that way.
That was rogue operatives by every evidence (although they were just going one stupid step over the negative line Green was laying with his negative ads), but relative liberal-conservative positioning in a particular race is very different from more general strategy on who to run. Freddy Ferrer four years ago positioned himself on the more conservative side of the race for strategic purposes and then ran to the left this year looking at the other candidates running.
All of that is pretty normal politics anywhere (hell, Lenin himself would run against "social democrats" one day, then denounce "ultraleftists" the next- positioning is eternal in politics.)
What was abnormal was the blood feud between the private and public sector unions over the Green-Ferrer race and the racial politics that exploded. And it would never have gotten to that point if Green hadn't lost his domination of the race by his craven position on extending Guiliani's term.
Politics in its concrete races is too odd to always force it into simple templates. The irony of the campaign is that Green, by trying to support Guiliani, lost credibility with voters. Ferrer, by opposing Guiliani, actually suddenly took on the tough image people liked about Guiliani and gained support. If he had won the runoff, he likely would have won the election - so we'd be sitting here marvelling at how Guiliani's little gambit had ironically elected the candidate most critical of his administration.
And if you want evidence of the success of Democratic centrist strategy, look down at Virginia were a Dem candidate took the governorship for the first time in over a decade based on just that gameplan.
Politics in America is 425 separate Congressional seats, 50 states, and something on the order of 6000 smaller municipal sites -- all with their own demographics and set of rules for success. Left strategy is not announcing a single set of principles to win everywhere but having a core set of values and having the organizational strength to flexibly deploy candidates as needed on different terrains.
-- Nathan Newman