Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Washington Times:

Voters have been telling pollsters that they want “change” in this election, but two consummate Washington insiders — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain — are the presidential front-runners of the moment.

On the other hand, Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has never held Washington office, and Democrat John Edwards, who ran an explicitly populist campaign, both failed to catch on despite an ample national profile and exited the race yesterday.

Analysts in both parties have posited several reasons why Mr. Giuliani — also known as “America’s mayor” because of his role as New York mayor during the September 11 attacks — flopped. They noted his opposition to the party base’s views on abortion, homosexuality and other social issues; the unprecedented electoral strategy of bypassing the early primaries; an indifferent execution for an energetic ex-federal prosecutor who had defeated the mob; and a surprising likability gap.

Former Rep. Butler Derrick, South Carolina Democrat, said the dominating reason is that Mr. Giuliani’s New York past caught up with him and that the snowbirds and military types in Florida didn’t give him the boost he had hoped for.

“The stories about the New York police commissioner, the fact that New Yorkers seemed to question his assertion that he almost rid the city of crime,” Mr. Derrick said. “On top of that, he came over as being arrogant and the title that he gave himself as ‘America’s mayor’ betrayed a little too much of that arrogance.”

As for Mr. Edwards, having already been around the track as a vice presidential candidate in 2004, he had to compete against two superstars in his own party. He struggled for the few air molecules that they hadn’t already sucked out of the arena. In addition, he was a hugely wealthy and handsome trial lawyer with hair that was the object of a thousand jokes, and that image cut against his “Two Americas” and anti-poverty themes.

“Regardless of where he came from, he didn’t fit the role he has assigned himself,” Mr. Derrick said. “He pounded on his heritage of poverty to the point of turning people off.

“If you asked the average voter what they remembered, it would be that his parents worked in a textile mill,” Mr. Derrick said. “Well, when I was a boy, that was considered a good job. He came over as more Wall Street than Main Street.”

Harrisburg, Pa.-based political consultant Charlie Gerow had a bit of sympathy for Mr. Edwards’ collapse.

“He failed because the ground shifted under him,” Mr. Gerow said. “In Iowa, he thought he was running against Hillary Clinton, but it was actually Barack Obama. Edwards beat Hillary, but it didn’t matter.”

A senior national Republican official at times thought that he had double vision when watching Mr. Giuliani on those rare occasion when he was actually on the hustings.

“Rudy’s campaign suffered from having a split personality,” Republican National Committee Treasurer Timothy J. Morgan. “There was Rudy’s world of close friends and confidants, and then there was Rudy’s campaign.”

Mr. Morgan’s observations reflect what those close to the Giuliani operation have been whispering, namely that “Rudy’s campaign honchos had a fascination with microtargeting that caused them to miss out on the big picture.”

“Every day Rudy failed to dominate in the headlines, the mayor faded to just ‘Mr. 9/11,’ while ceasing to be a viable option in the voters’ mind,” Mr. Morgan said.

As for Mr. Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina “must have gotten tired of playing third wheel to the Clinton attack machine,” Mr. Morgan said. “Without Edwards talking about issues, the Democrats will be hard-pressed to rise above the politics of identity.”