Govs 4, Senators 0. Tough Odds By E.J. Dionne Jr.

Four of our last five presidents — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush — came to the presidency as active or former governors. The clichés about why are well-rehearsed: Governors have executive experience, they exude leadership (or at least they’re supposed to) and they are outsiders (or at least try hard to look that way). Both Clinton and Bush took potshots at their party in Washington when doing so was useful. They were picking up from Carter, the outsider pioneer. Dean is carrying on the tradition.
Most presidents since 1900 have come from governorships (the recent four plus William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt) or the vice presidency. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson all ascended to the Oval Office when the president died. Richard Nixon’s last public office before president was vice president. When he resigned in 1974, his vice president, Gerald Ford, took over. The first George Bush won in 1988 after two terms as veep. William Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover were Cabinet secretaries, and Dwight Eisenhower was a war hero and college president. As Gephardt supporters prefer not to note, the last president to rise from the House was James Garfield in 1880.

The complete article is a good overview of Kucinich. mjh

Challenging Bush: Past Defeat and Personal Quest Shape Long-Shot Kucinich Bid

Dennis J. Kucinich was 33 when, having been drummed out of the Cleveland mayor’s office, he set out on what he calls his ”quest for meaning.” His city was in financial default — the embarrassment of the nation. His political career was in tatters, his bank account dangerously low. Not even the radio talk shows would hire him.

So he left the Rust Belt in the winter of 1979, headed west to California and, eventually, New Mexico, to write and think. There, in the austere beauty of the desert outside Santa Fe, he sought out a spiritual healer who, he says, led him on a path toward inner peace. “That,” Mr. Kucinich said, “is where I discovered that war is not inevitable.”

Now, after a stunning political comeback that culminated with his election to the House of Representatives in 1996, Mr. Kucinich — the boy mayor who was so bombastic he fired his police chief live on the 6 o’clock news — is seeking the White House, on a platform of “nonviolence as an organizing principle of society.” He wants to pull out of Iraq, sharply reduce the Pentagon budget and establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace.

Op-Ed Columnist: Who’s Nader Now?

If we’ve learned anything in this past decade, it’s that the right-wing scandal machine will find a way to smear anyone, and that a lot of the media will play along.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 07/20/2003: Some Democrats fear Dean may be next McGovern

”The Republicans will have enough money to paint Santa Claus as a lifelong criminal.” — Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh

CNN Election Calendar

Dump Bush — 2004 Election Countdown

Bush’s brother opens first ‘faith-based’ prison

Christmas in Florida ushered in America’s first ”faith-based prison” a sprawling jail in rural northern Florida, in which 800 inmates from 26 faiths are blending hallowed time with hard time.

Governor Jeb Bush, President George W Bush’s younger brother, dedicated the prison on Christmas Eve, saying it would encourage spirituality and – he hoped – cut reoffending. …

In addition to regular prayer sessions, the jail, which holds “mid-level felons” – men convicted of burglary, hold-ups, car theft and assault – will offer religious studies, choir practice and religious counselling seven days a week. There will also be job training and classes in subjects such as “parenting” and “character building”. …

Like his brother in the White House, Gov Bush believes that the best way to rehabilitate criminals is to “lead them to God”.

Don’t laugh: there are many on the Right who hope Jeb will be the third President Bush. No, this is not a Saturday Night Live skit. God help us. mjh

Edwards Sets Work Safety Plan By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD, NYTimes

Accusing the Bush administration of failing to protect workers, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina will announce a plan to decrease workplace deaths and injuries by strengthening laws and hiring more federal safety personnel, his campaign said Tuesday. …

”George Bush did not enact new laws or increase funding to protect our workers,” Mr. Edwards said in remarks released by his campaign on Tuesday for delivery in Iowa on Wednesday. ”He did not push employers to better protect their employees. He did the exact opposite. He rolled back worker safety standards, and made them voluntary. He proposed cutting OSHA’s work force by 77 people. And he continues to ensure that breaking existing laws amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.”

Bush’s Campaign Finds Platform on Local Radio By JIM RUTENBERG, NYTimes

While the Bush campaign maintains a low profile on the national campaign stage — content for now to watch the Democrats beat on one another — it is aggressively working the expansive hustings of Republican-friendly talk radio, priming the grass roots faithful for battle next year. …

It is a network that the Democrats do not have — though they are trying to cultivate one — and one that Mr. Bush’s campaign strategists believe will give him an edge in an election that could go to whichever side best mobilizes its core voters.

Presidents have used radio to reach voters virtually since its invention. But strategists and radio experts say the Bush campaign has taken it to a new level of sophistication, using it far earlier in the campaign cycle and appearing regularly on shows with even the tiniest of audiences. …

The Republican courtship of talk radio began in earnest in 1994, when Newt Gingrich used the medium to push the “Contract With America” and, ultimately, bring about a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Bush’s political staff further perfected the strategy in the 2002 midterm election, when they invited radio hosts to the White House to interview top officials less than a week before the vote.