The Ghosts of Elections Past: What would happen if each candidate spent one month acting as if the incumbent did not exist, telling us who he is rather than who he isn't?(Column)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 26-JAN-04

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Byline: Anna Quindlen

On New Year's Eve we have long played a parlor game called Desert Island: Which book would you take if you could take only one? Which movie, which CD? In a self-serving move--because you never know what al dente idea will stick to the wall of columnizing--I asked our guests this year which Democratic presidential candidate they would take with them. I won't be specific about the outcome, but I can say the response to the current field was so unenthusiastic that two people plumped for a Clinton draft--one Hillary, one Bill.

These were not apathetic voters; we were on the West Side of Manhattan, where people look at politics the way a python looks at mice. And many were members of a hard-core group I think of as the ABBAs;...

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