The re-emergence of Democratic populism

By: Corey
Published On: 7/2/2006 9:41:20 AM

Joe Klein has a teriffic article on Time Magazine's website that covers the re-emergence of the new Democratic candidate: the populist.  The article covers 2006 candidates like John Tester, Sherrod Brown, Jim Webb and recent Democratic victories by candiates like Brian Sweitzer and Ken Salazar.

It's worth the full read.

Clearly, we are about to have a fun year in our beloved democracy. The Republican strategy is simple: focus on the really important issues like flag burning and gay marriage and keep accusing the Democrats of wanting to cut and run in Iraq. This time, however, the Democrats will be fighting back.

...

Not every Democratic candidate is a populist this year+óGé¼GÇ¥after all, Hillary Clinton is running for re-election+óGé¼GÇ¥but Webb, Ohio's Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown and a raft of congressional candidates are running as no-holds-barred gutbucket populists, and most of the other Democratic candidates have touches of populism in their pitches.

...

Asked about alternative fuels in his first debate with Burns, Tester went full-court farmer. "If I weren't here right now," he said, "I'd be out getting a vegetable press so I could press my own oil to burn in my tractors and trucks." There wasn't much Burns could say to that. He had been out-Montana'd. He tried to blame the Democrats for blocking energy legislation. "Last time I checked," Tester shot back, "your party controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress." Which may be the ultimate comeback Democrats have this year.


Comments



Goods news for Webb-Great for Tester (thegools - 7/2/2006 10:59:32 AM)


Well.... (Craig - 7/2/2006 11:54:49 AM)
...Klein basically dared the Democrats to nominate Tester and Webb, and the Democrats decided to see his bet.

And I'm glad they did.



Refreshing (Corey - 7/2/2006 1:26:26 PM)
Ditto, it's refreshing to see a few Democrats drawing a line in the sand and standing up for themselves and values in the face of these ridiculus and tired charges from Republicans.


Joe Klein (KCinDC - 7/2/2006 2:06:09 PM)
Joe Klien has a teriffic article ...

Wow, you don't see that sentence often, at least not on liberal sites (maybe conservative ones occasionally post about his latest terrific article on how Democrats are unhinged or wimpy).


Maybe Webb's defection was what it took (Craig - 7/2/2006 4:19:58 PM)
Maybe Webb had to defect to wake Joe Klein out of his slumberous occaasional "Dems are wimpy" rants.  I mean I doubt even Allen's people would call Webb a wimp.