When To Say When
February 15, 2004
by Glenn Pfeifer

When to say when. When to throw in the towel. When to hold up and when to fold up. When to walk away and when to run.

It seems, finally, that some of the participants in the Democratic primaries are actually going to pay attention to what is happening in the Democratic primaries. It was getting as though you wanted Gephardt and Mosely-Brown back in it because they, at least, seem to have been smart enough to leave the mess when they did. It seems Sen. Joe Lieberman and Gen. Wesley Clark have finally stopped listening to their supporters and began to study those often-overlooked voting results (can you hear this Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich?) and have just bowed out gracefully. Give them credit. Some others don’t seem to be getting it.

Howard Dean has vowed to continue fighting on. Whether his fight truly manages to wrest the leadership of the democratic party and the big ticket to the November show remains to be seen. Lately, his victories seem to be more elusive than ever, (can you count to zero?) and the fight he takes to his counterparts may have less and less to do with the White House while it does more and more damage to the house divided amongst itself – his own party.

Case in point: Dean scaled back his efforts in South Carolina and other February 3 contests after disappointing defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. Addressing supporters in Washington state Tuesday night, Dean vowed to stay in the race.

"This is all about who gets the most delegates in Boston in July, and it's going to be us," Dean told supporters, referring to the city where Democrats will gather for the nominating convention. – from CNN.com (2/4/04)

Somebody remind me, but wasn’t this all about defeating George W. Bush in November? Are we all Democrats here? This type of rhetoric is what turns people off to the entire process. It is all about personal gain – put yourself first and spin the rest of the stories to appease to the masses. Now don’t get me wrong – all of the candidates from the very start of this thing seem to be worthy leaders. (Except for maybe Sharpton, who plays the race card as shamefully as anyone and may be the least qualified candidate to hold any salaried position, let alone one of the toughest jobs in the world.) But when the tide carries one, possibly two people to the top, the others would do the whole party more justice by stepping to the side and supporting the front runner. Bill Bradley had 0 wins by March in the campaign in 2000 and put his support (for better or worse) behind Al Gore. I think it’s time for Dean to do the same.

Edwards also vows to fight on, he of single victory. In his home state. And not by a ton. But he continues with what he calls the only positive campaign out there – giving him at the very least alternate sound bites to Kerry when the Massachusetts Senator chooses to talk tough against the administration. Edwards seems like a fine man with a deep, moral sense of character – Jimmy Carter re-dux perhaps. Fine man. Not the best President. I’m sure W already has his “another Southern Democrat” speech written should Edwards become his challenger. Hell, he can even borrow his dad’s...oh...forget it...that one didn’t turn out too well.

But seriously, isn’t this entire process of primaries meant to bring the party to unanimous support behind the best candidate – the one who can actually win?!

So here I am, on the ever-growing, extremely informative and entertaining 2Walls.com to give the Dems a little advice – to show them the way to victory and the path to righteousness…AMEN! Ahem…I mean, excuse me…I got little carried away. The recent Dr. King birthday festivities and Black History month overtakes me on occasion.

The road to victory, the party’s best hope in November, is of course a combined ticket of the front runners. How astute of me, right? So, let’s hope that the November ticket can now become Kerry/Edwards, or even Kerry/Clark. Both of those couples I feel have a legitimate shot at the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Ashcroft/Biggest Special Interest Spender ticket in November. Let’s hope someone from either campaign reads 2Walls.com, takes my advice, and schedules that top-to-top meeting real soon.

(Glenn Pfeifer is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)