Not so crazy - Howard Dean: Palin could beat Obama

Howard Dean is now the latest most notable lefty to warn Palin could beat Obama (Andrew Sullivan, and Donna Brazile are others). Dean warns that with a weak economy Palin has a chance.

The Hill: Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman who helped Democrats capture the White House in 2008, warns that Sarah Palin could defeat President Obama in 2012.

Dean says his fellow Democrats should beware of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that Obama would crush Palin in a general-election contest next year.

“I think she could win,” Dean told The Hill in an interview Friday. “She wouldn’t be my first choice if I were a Republican but I think she could win.”

Dean warns the sluggish economy could have more of a political impact than many Washington strategists and pundits assume.

“Any time you have a contest — particularly when unemployment is as high as it is — nobody gets a walkover,” Dean said. “Whoever the Republicans nominate, including people like Sarah Palin, whom the inside-the-Beltway crowd dismisses — my view is if you get the nomination of a major party, you can win the presidency, I don’t care what people write about you inside the Beltway,” Dean said. [MORE]

Whether Howard Dean actually meant this remains to be seen. However, what he says is true.

The media is in overdrive trying to sell the narrative that Obama is hard to beat in 2012. They are using early polling to show that Obama will beat all the Republican 2012 hopefuls. This is nonsense. The 2012 elections are just under a year and a half away.

In politics a year and a half might as well 100 years. It is impossible to predict what the political climate will be that far out. Just think back a year and a half ago, would you have thought we would be at war in Libya or have killed Osama Bin Laden or that Obama would have finally release his birth certificate? None of these things could be known, yet they all have political implications.

What we can say with certainty about 2012 is that if the economy doesn't start making significant improvements, Obama's reelection chances will grow thinner and thinner. Americans are already growing impatient with this economy. Another year and a half of this economy and it hard to imagine a majority of Americans choosing four more years of Obama, even if Palin is the candidate.

I have always held that beating Obama in 2012 will require three things. First, one must hit Obama hard for his failures on the economy, jobs and the deficit, while at the same time offer a clear alternative path forward. Second, one must not offer up a bunch of distraction so that Obama can avoid discussing his failures. Third, one must be a real brawler, ready to take all the hits Obama will throw and be ready to dish it out in equal measure. Any Republican who can consistently do all three things will have more than a good chance of beating Obama.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: NewsMax
Via: Htrnews
Via: The Hill

Howard Dean says, “Kill the Senate Bill”

Howard Dean, still a respected voice amongst liberals, has called for the current Senate healthcare reform bill to be killed. While Dean and conservatives are all on the same page, Dean’s reasons are quite different from ours.

From The Plum Line: 

In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to me.

The gauntlet from Dean — whose voice on health care is well respsected among liberals — will energize those on the left who are mobilizing against the bill, and make it tougher for liberals to embrace the emerging proposal. In an excerpt Kinzel gave me, Dean says:

“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”

Kinzel added that Dean essentially said that if Democratic leaders cave into Joe Liebermanright now they’ll be left with a bill that’s not worth supporting.

Dean had previously endorsed the Medicare buy-in compromise without a public option, saying that the key question should be whether the bill contains enough “real reform” to be worthy of progressives’ support. Dean has apparently concluded that the “real reform” has been removed at Lieberman’s behest — which won’t make it easier for liberals to swallow the emerging compromise.

Even though the Medicare buy in and the public option are removed, the current Senate bill stills allows government backdoor control over the private health insurance industry. This is really what the left is after anyway. By dictating to health insurance companies what must be covered and how, the government has the power to dictate these companies right out of business and thus bring about single payer healthcare as the only option left.

For Howard Dean and like-minded liberals, this backdoor method is not speedy enough and runs the risk of being undone. Liberals like Dean expect Obama with total control of both houses to flat out bring about single payer or at the very least introduce the public option. Lets be honest, this is no different from the way conservatives expected Bush with his majorities in both houses to bring about Social Security reform or immigration reform.

Dean may get his wish. Sooner or later enough Democrats are going to realize that they are in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. Once that happens, there will be little reason not to go for the most liberal bill they can muster.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Plum Line