White House Week
Once He Was Down, but You Should Never Count Him Out
Al Gore, once seemingly disappeared from politics, is being widely reconsidered within the Democratic Party as a potential presidential candidate. "Gore has been laundered by history," says an influential Democratic strategist. "He is now far more popular in the party" than he was a couple of years ago. His strong criticisms of Bush on the Iraq war and on climate change have given him a boost, and he is believed to have made a fortune in the private sector-which means he could start a presidential run very late and still be a viable candidate. Meanwhile, party insiders say former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has taken to the road, presumably testing presidential waters. His pitch: economic equity coupled with tough talk on President Bush. He is considered particularly strong in Iowa, which caucuses in January 2008.
Fall Story Could Have a Nasty Ending
Strategists in both parties foresee an increasingly harsh and negative endgame to this fall's congressional campaigns. With less than three months to go, both sides are gearing up for the final shootout-in media interviews, speeches, debates, and especially in television advertising. "Things will look a lot different by November after the 'contrast' ads have run," says a GOP insider who is helping plan the fall push. He predicts that ad buys will be massive and often negative in content. Adds a prominent Democrat and former adviser to Bill Clinton: "It will be a very rough campaign." There probably are fewer than 40 House seats up for grabs, and both sides appear to believe that attacks on their opponents in the final weeks will be the most effective tactic. Republicans will argue that the Democrats can't be trusted to protect America from terrorists and will label them "Defeatocrats" who want to "cut and run" from Iraq. Democrats will blast what they call Bush's failed policy in Iraq and, on the economy, wage stagnation in the middle class. But if the negativism causes independents to stay home, the consensus is that Democrats will suffer most.
And If the Democrats Don't Win, Ouch
Concern is rising among Democrats that party leaders could tear each other apart if the party fails to take control of the House or Senate in November. Expectations are especially high about winning the House, and one adviser to Bill Clinton says if the Democrats fail, it could result in party leaders forming a "circular firing squad." Specifically, Democratic defeat could quickly undermine the leadership positions of Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.
So What About the Terrorists, Eh?
Canada's annual report on organized crime is just now out, identifying nearly 800 increasingly multicultural crime groups north of the border involved in everything from drugs and counterfeit goods to extortion, fraud, and human trafficking. Missing in the analysis, say U.S. experts: any discussion of organized crime's nexus with Canadian terrorist networks, including Algerian jihadists and South Asian Tamil gangs, which have long relied on fraud, theft, and other criminal rackets. Why no discussion? Terrorism, says one analyst, is handled by "another office."
PHOTO OP: 6:30 p.m., August 23, White House South Lawn
Oversize targets for a little skeet shooting on the South Lawn? Or, better yet, shields to protect the president from Washington's political snipers? The answer is neither: White House staffers roll out landing markers to guide in the helicopters returning President Bush and his staff from a fundraiser for Sen. George Allen in Northern Virginia.
With Kenneth T. Walsh and David E. Kaplan
This story appears in the September 5, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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