Is Bush electable?
The more I see, the more beatable I think George Bush is in November. This article in The Nation points out something I noticed on the night of the New Hampshire primary: a whole bunch of Republicans voted for someone other than George Bush. John Kerry came in second in the Republican primary with 4.5%, and Howard Dean came in third with 2.8%. In all, slightly more than 20% of voting NH Republicans were sufficiently motivated to go to the polls on a freezing cold day to vote against a sitting President. 15 people even voted for Al Sharpton in the Republican primary! New Hampshire is a state that Bush barely won last time. Bush’s final tally was 79.55% of the Republican vote. With his base showing signs of fraying, I think he’s in serious trouble. He may never win a Presidential election at this rate.
I think the "electability" issue that has supposedly hurt Dean is a red herring. That is, even if the Democrats nominated a red herring to run against him (or maybe a bluefish), Bush would lose.
Posted at 11:24 AM