Letters to the Editor
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Ignore the conventional wisdom--and your enemies
Gore ran away from Clinton--and toward the likes of Lieberman--in 2000 because he believed the talking-head rhetoric that Clinton was a liability and that the Democrats were too far-left. Much of this rhetoric came from the same old tired bunch of echo-chamber conventional-wisdom commentators, and some of it came from Republicans.
So Gore picked good ol' Joe, who had spanked Clinton on the floor of the Senate and never met a Republican he didn't like. Lieberman then went on to treat his "debate" with Cheney like an evening at the Harvard Club, and then eagerly conceded the 2000 election, tossing around Republican talking points like Florida oranges.
Gore also ignored congressmembers who literally BEGGED him to send Clinton to campaign in their districts. And he temporarily abandoned his environmentalism, which he rarely mentioned during the campaign, for fear of looking like a lefty granola-cruncher.
Now this same crowd of talking (and empty) heads are wringing their collective hands about the Democrats' supposedly suicidal choice of Ned Lamont, as evidence that the party has once again careened dangerously to the left. (Ignore the inconvenient fact that on the same evening, Democrats tossed Cynthia McKinney over for a more moderate choice.)
I PRAY the Democrats don't listen this time. They should rally around Lamont in Connecticut, and pick up his banner of true opposition in the rest of the country. People are eager for a change. They want their country back. And they want the Democrats to lead the way--accent on "lead."