January 15, 2004
Moseley-Braun Steps Down
Carol Moseley-Braun’s dropping out of the race isn’t a surprise. Dropping out right before Iowa is a bit of a surprise to me. (I thought she’d wait until after New Hampshire.)
Her endorsement of Howard Dean, however, is a welcome surprise to me. Not that it’s so unexpected. It’s just that I didn’t think there’d be another Dean story for the press to go after until Monday.
Her endorsement provides an opportunity for the media to move the news cycle out of the "how many minorities did Dean have in his inner circle" to "what exactly are the Democrats going to do to defeat George Bush" in November. I applaud Moseley-Braun for seeming to be the only candidate in the field that consistently spent more time criticizing Bush than attacking fellow Democrats. She should be commended for that. And I'm sorry the only woman in the field had to bow out so early. It makes me wonder what it will take for a woman to move from a symbolic candidacy to a truly viable one.
Posted by 9thwave at January 15, 2004 10:54 AMIt would seem to me that the only way for a woman to have a viable campaign is to already be well-known. I for one had never heard of Carol Moseley-Braun until she announced her candidacy. I realize that this is very unfair, since almost no one had heard of Howard Dean before he announced, but I think that a woman who wishes to put together a viable candidacy has to already have a known name, and a great network. I believe that the same is true for a minority who wishes to have a viable candidacy.
Posted by: Robert Grebel at January 15, 2004 11:18 AM“It makes me wonder what it will take for a woman to move from a symbolic candidacy to a truly viable one.”
Condaleeza Rice?
I suspect that the first woman president will be conservative in the ‘only Nixon could have gone to China’ vein.
Posted by: Sebastian Holsclaw at January 15, 2004 01:54 PMI’m sorry to see Carol go. In the couple debates I saw, she seemed the most presidential. Calm and respectable, but determined to get her point across. She also managed to bring alternate views issues that seemed to stem more from a concern for getting the right thing to happen and less from exciting a particular interest group.
I don’t know about the possibilities for a woman president, but it seems like a female vice president ought to be reasonably high.
I wonder how many votes Oprah could get.
Posted by: Trevor Stone at January 15, 2004 02:19 PMSebastian, you may be right. I personally would welcome a moderate woman president from any party. A woman President would open flood gates for young women to pour through into politics, in similar fashion to decades earlier when women became governors and senators.
Posted by: David R. Remer at January 15, 2004 03:19 PMWho knows, if Clark isn’t interested in running on Dean’s ticket, perhaps he could run her there as well. That would shut Sharpton up real fast.
Posted by: Stephen Daugherty at January 15, 2004 03:47 PM
