NEW NEGATIVES
If nothing else comes out of the election of 2002 it is the
knowledge that Al Gore is completely obsessed with
his defeat in 2000, and that he is dragging his Democratic Party
into whatever dark hole his mind resides in.
Take what happened this past week in Maryland, when Gore stumped
with that state’s gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend. Understand that Townsend is perhaps, next to
California’s Bill Simon, the worst campaigner this
year. By all rights, she should be down ten, no 15 points in the
polls. But in a Democratically controlled state, she was lucky on
Wednesday to be up by one or two points against Republican
Bob Ehrlich.
Then Al hit the road with her. His campaign speeches focused
almost exclusively on his loss in 2000, with barely a mention of
Townsend. Gore’s speech received major play across the state. And a
day later, Democratic tracking polls showed Townsend had lost three
points in the polls and trailed Ehrlich going into today.
“Someone is going to have to look at how many candidates Gore
campaigned for in the last week of the election and how many of
them lost,” says a Democratic National Committee staffer. “He was
just a disaster. Whoever was supposed to prep him did an awful job.
All he talked about was himself. No upbeat message, no rallying cry
for the candidates. Just him.”
In fact Gore’s performance was so bad that Democrats immediately
sent out an SOS and brought Bill Clinton into
Maryland to campaign for Townsend in one last attempt to save her
political career.
“That just has to burn Gore up,” says the DNCer. “And if it
doesn’t it just shows how detached Gore is about the mess he’s
in.”
NEW LETHARGY
Last Friday night, Democratic National Committee advisers working
with remnants of the Paul Wellstone campaign and
with Walter Mondale’s advisers were debating among
themselves whether to go ahead with a public debate between their
last minute candidate and Republican Norm Coleman.
Tracking polls were indicating that if Mondale did not debate his
opponent, he would lose.
“It was pretty clear we couldn’t keep Mondale in a secure
undisclosed location,” says a Mondale campaign adviser in
Minnesota. “We had to put him out there.”
Mondale debates Coleman today, and both Democrats and
Republicans say the former vice president’s victory depends on his
performance. “He’s been cramming, and studying up. We’re surprised
by how detached he appears to have been from issues. Everyone’s a
bit nervous.”
The nervousness arises due to Mondale’s less than steady
performance late last week and over the weekend in front of the
cameras. On several occasions, the 74 year old appeared unsteady,
speaking more slowly and deliberately than in his early 1980s
heyday.
“Look, he’s an old man,” says the adviser. “We knew that going
in, and we expect that this old man is going to kick Norm Coleman’s
[rear] on election day.”
