As recently as March, conventional wisdom had mapped out the early stages of the Dems’ primary campaign. Gephardt would win Iowa, Kerry would win in New Hampshire, and most of the other candidates would begin dropping out. The nomination would be decided by a dozen or so hard-fought primaries throughout February and March.
As is now obvious, conventional wisdom has been turned on its head.
At least for the time being, Howard Dean is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire. While he’s a long way from wrapping up victories in both, if Dean does come in first in the first two statewide races, the Dem nomination will practically be in his pocket.
Needless to say, Gephardt and Kerry — despite their differences — liked it better the old way. In fact, they’re trying to work together to make that happen.
An interesting New York Times article published yesterday detailed how the Missouri House member and the Massachusetts Senator are literally working together to undermine Dean’s success.
“Perhaps it was not so surprising to see Representative Richard A. Gephardt and Senator John Kerry arm in arm, all smiles, whispering in each another’s ears on stage at the Democratic debate Thursday night in Phoenix,” the Times reported. “These two presidential contenders, who for months have been eclipsed by the surging campaign of Howard Dean, have been fairly chummy of late — at Dr. Dean’s expense.”
The article notes that the relationship is more than just friendly rivals going after the same candidate in a debate. The Gephardt and Kerry campaigns have taken to sharing anti-Dean information as part of loosely-coordinated attacks.
For example, the Times article reported that both campaigns issued similar press releases within 18 minutes of each other on Sept. 30, alerting readers to a Boston Globe column critical of Dean.
Gephardt’s chief of staff, Steve Elmendorf, acknowledged that the campaigns had worked together on this.
The same week, Dean traveled to Iowa to unveil a campaign proposal on long-term care. Kerry campaign aides contacted Gephardt staffers about the Dean event so they could begin reminding reporters about Dean’s record of hostility for Medicare.
The Times article quoted Joe Trippi, Dean’s campaign manager, as saying the Gephardt/Kerry attacks are inappropriate.
“It’s the Beltway boys hanging out together,” Trippi said. “This is the kind of inside Washington politics that people are sick of.”
What an interesting response from the Dean campaign. People are “sick of” this kind of thing? Perhaps, then, Trippi can explain why the good doctor wants to organize the same kind of attacks on General Clark.
As Steve Murphy, Gephardt’s campaign manager, said, “Two weeks ago [Trippi] ran into me and some of my staffers at Dulles airport and suggested that instead of attacking Howard Dean on Medicare, we should help him and Howard Dean attack Wesley Clark. This was a lengthy conversation.”