Posted 10:14 AM by Robert

Why Not Change "Democrats" to "Predictables"!?

From the Man Without Qualities - November 13, 2004:

How long will it be before the Democrats decide that the real problem was in the primary schedule, convention date and rules, and other minor procedural matters - as they have after every disaster since 1968 - and again start spending way too much time and energy running down those dead ends?

From Boston.com - November 24, 2004:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe is on the verge of appointing members to a national Democratic commission that will consider whether the primary calendar should be changed for the 2008 presidential election. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, whose pressure helped create the commission, hopes it will challenge Iowa and New Hampshire's status as the leadoff states. Iowa holds its presidential caucus first, usually in mid-January, followed eight days later by the New Hampshire primary, a schedule that's followed by the Republican Party as well. .... "Most states think there ought to be fairer system where no state or two states have a privileged position every four years," Levin said Wednesday. "We're not a party of privilege. We don't like people having privileged positions. And that applies to our own primary and caucus system, I would think." Dingell, who's married to U.S. Rep. John Dingell, was more critical of the part Iowa and New Hampshire played in this year's election. Both states helped Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry win the Democratic nomination, but President Bush narrowly won Iowa in the Nov. 2 national election and nearly won New Hampshire on his way to defeating Kerry.

From Opinion-Journal - The Grassroots Can Save Democrats by Joe Trippi:

[T]he problem for Democrats is not Mr. Rove; it's that they're doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. That's the definition of insanity.

On the other hand, Mr. Trippi's support for Howard Dean (Mr. Trippi managed Howard Dean's presidential campaign) again demonstrates that the definition of "insanity" has many application in the particulars. The path Governor Dean and his supporters took itself seems a lot like the path taken by George McGovern and his supporters - the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

MORE: On the Trippi disconnect.