The Democrats' New Red Meat: A potent GOP weapon since the New Deal--that Democrats can't be trusted with money--may have to be sheathed this time around.

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 26-JAN-04

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2004 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com

Byline: Jonathan Alter

Even before Howard Dean began his stump speech, before he thrashed President Bush for giving tax cuts to "Ken Lay and the boys at Enron" (a jab he repeated three times), Dave Pitz, a retired teacher sitting in the audience in Newton, Iowa, had the message down cold. "Bush has become the CEO of corporate America," Pitz told me matter-of-factly. A central question of the 2004 campaign is whether enough voters agree with Pitz that Bush is a fiscally reckless president devoted not to them but to wealthy special interests. If the issue is framed that way and the frame sticks, a responsible populist message could work, though it would be the first time in modern political history that it did so. The Democratic candidates differ little...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.