DEMOCRATS ALREADY FOCUSING ON LOSING IN 2008 Talent Search Under Way in Massachusetts
Having licked their wounds from the 2004 presidential election, the national Democratic Party is already focusing on the future - with an eye toward losing in 2008.
"Everyone here is very well aware that we have a losing streak to protect," said Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe. "We are going to do everything in our power to keep that streak alive."
The DNC hit the ground running moments after Sen. John Kerry's concession speech last Wednesday by officially announcing that the party would "totally write off the South" in 2008.
"We have told the South to take their electoral votes and shove them," he said.
In order to find the right nominee to take the party down in flames in 2008, the DNC has already begun their quadrennial talent search in Massachusetts, Mr. McAuliffe confirmed.
"In order to lose, it's very important that we allow the Republicans to brand us as Northeastern liberals," Mr. McAuliffe. "Choosing a nominee from Massachusetts would help us help them make that case."
Mr. McAuliffe said that while there was "no guarantee" that the party's talent search would yield the next John Kerry or Michael Dukakis, "We've got our fingers crossed."
But the party chairman was quick to add that the 2008 nominee need not be from Massachusetts "as long as he has an irritating voice and a wife who can prove that she'll be a genuine liability."
Elsewhere, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader disbanded his national campaign staff, explaining that she had to finish her sophomore year.