August 15, 2007

WH '08: You Don't Have To Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here

The crowded presidential campaign fields can be headache-inducing, and that has some political pundits wishing more candidates would make like Tommy Thompson and just leave.

Today, the National Review's Rich Lowry calls on Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback to pack his bags and go.

Calling Brownback's abortion platform "the very embodiment of a tendency toward impractical perfectionism among pro-lifers," Lowry points to fellow pro-lifer Mike Huckabee's surprise second-place finish at the Iowa Republican Straw Poll. "Huckabee has shined in the debates, is a natural orator, and has considerable crossover appeal to the media. None of this can be said of Brownback," Lowry scoffs.

Those are all fair points, but then again, what's wrong with a candidate who speaks the long-held concerns of an important party constituency? The anti-abortion movement wants the procedure illegal yesterday, and they want a president who will guarantee that happens. For Brownback and a good number of activists, assurances from Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson that they've changed their minds on the issue for good simply won't do.

Then again, again, we don't see much room for Brownback in this race, either.

There's some dead weight on the Democratic side as well, according to the New York Observer's Steve Kornacki. Noting that Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd is polling in the single digits, Kornacki also doesn't see Dodd "using his candidacy to promote some particular issue or cause that would otherwise be ignored."

Chalk it up to journalistic laziness, but the media has done a lot of pairing off of the candidates. On the GOP side, Brownback and Huckabee are the religious right twosome, while Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo are the border enforcement duo. Among the Democrats, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich are the no-shot, get-out-of-Iraq-now team, while Dodd is often lumped with Joseph Biden as the aging statesmen of the race.

Of the latter two, Kornacki thinks Biden's the one to keep around. "Mr. Biden, who is just as doomed as Mr. Dodd but who speaks with authority on foreign affairs and the war in Iraq, [is] a valuable voice for the party," he wrote in a column three weeks ago.

The Democratic middle tier may see fewer reasons to wear out their welcome if the current trend of solidifying support around Hillary Rodham Clinton continues. There's quite a bit more movement on the GOP side, though, so most of the guys there have reason to see their odds through.

Some candidates are bent on playing no matter how dismal their chances. Kucinich and Gravel will probably outlast the middle tier, while on the GOP side, John Cox is still in it to win it, despite getting shut out of all the debates.

Cox knows more than anyone that not having the nation's eyes on you is a liberating experience. As a certain longshot-turned-contender Texas gubernatorial candidate often said, why the hell not?

-JANE ROH

Photo Illustration: Reuben Dalke and Ryan Merrill

Posted at 4:13 PM
Posted to: Campaigns, Christopher Dodd, Democrats, Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Cox, Joseph Biden, Mike Gravel, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, WH 2008
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