Why Dean Can Not Win the General Election

[VoteClark]

Say what you want about the Dean getting the nomination. I could see it either way, him losing or winning. But let us talk about what the real chances are of Dean really winning the General Election.

First the postives about Dean:

1) He was a governor, yeap, and that is a strong case for being able to tell people you are able to govern.

2) He is a fiscal conservative. This is good, it shows people you are responsible for budgets.

3) He is fisty. Having lots of energy is something that is needed to run in a presidential election, not to mention that you really care.

4) He is a Doctor. That is good, someone that is not of the traditional political mold that understands the white collar professional working class.

5) Health Care. This is good too, it shows he has genuine affection about the health care policies of the country.

6) Pro-guns. This is great, many people in the Western and Southern States are always afraid that Democrats are after their guns.

I know there are more postives here. However, those are main ones that will help him.

But here are the negatives that will keep him down.

1) He is known for his Civil Unions bill. He is tagged permently by the right and media as being someone that is going to give gays equal rights. This is a real fear amoung many conservatives and moderates in the Southern and Western States. He will never be able to shake the pro-gay label and will lose 2 votes for every one he gets in key moderate states. Rove will make no bones about painting Dean as the man that is attacking your marriage. Every Southern Republican Governor and Senator and Representive, and every Christian Televangelist will come out and knock him down as if he was Satan himself. They will say he is for sexual liberaltion and sin. We all know they will do this. This is more of a threat to many people than the remote possiblity of someone taking their gun away, which Bush would not do anyway.

2) Who can Dean choose for VP without looking like a hypocrit that will actually help in either popular votes of electoral votes? He has already attacked the war, so he can't choose any Democrat that has voted for the vote, or publically at any point supported the war. If Dean tried to attack Bush on the war Bush could say, "listen, even you own VP agrees with me" and Dean would be laughed at. Which in essence says that only someone to the left of Dean would be choosen without any real problem. Dean choosing someone to the left of him would result in a field day for Rove and Media as they paint him and his running mate as the Liberal Duo fighting for gay rights and having little to no military experience.

3) Education. Like it or not, Dean's fault or not, Vermont is the most expense state to get you teen daughter or son a college education. Rove will expose this as Dean's fault and it will turn off the swing voter soccor moms that are saving every penny and still can't figure out how to pay for the college education of their children.

4)His looks. Yes, I know, we the Democrats don't care about looks, just the issues. But get real. Dean stands at 5'7 in boots and has a tiny little mouth with a silly smirk on it as he waits for a question to be finished. He might be able to work on the smirk, but he can't do much about the other. He isn't ugly, but most Presidents need to be a little taller and a little better looking.

5) His speaking ability. He tends to laud out things without actually thinking about it. Shooting off your mouth when millions are watching and saying what you didn't really mean is not the best way to win an election. Dean will say something then spend twenty minutes explaining what he really meant by it. You can't do that. You have to be clear and quick. He isn't dumb, but he is not a skilled polished communicator. His off th cuff marks rally people up, but they also do him serious harm.

6) No Military experience. The Democrats have a 35 point lag in the polls when it comes to national security and the military. Hard for Dean to put a dent in that number when he has no foreign experience of any kind. Saying he can win anyway is like saying a well build ship can make it across the ocean even though it has a giant hole in the side of it. People are not going to vote for a man that has no foreign policy when they are freaked out about terrorism. The 35% gap has to be addressed, no if, ands, or buts about it.


Now, the only hope or prayer for Dean to win would be one of three things. 1) The economy goes down to levels of the Depression. 2) He chooses Graham, who's poll numbers are worse then Bush's on the economy. 3) Choose Clark for his VP.

Now, I don't think the chances are good for Dean even with Clark on the ticket. Clark would make Dean look bad and the two are opposites in personality. I don't think Clark would accept. Graham would, but lets' face it, he isn't going to carry Florida. So that is slim hope for the Democrats to win if Dean gets the nod of the Dems.


:kick:
J4Clark