Philocrites

Bad news? Good news!

by Philocrites

On the last day of 2003, American Prospect co-editor Robert Kuttner wrote a quiz for the Boston Globe. Which of the following scenarios will play out in the presidential election?

(a) Howard Dean sweeps the Democratic primaries, wins his party's nomination, picks Wesley Clark as his running mate, fires up the Democratic base — and loses a close race to President Bush.

(b) Dick Gephardt and Wesley Clark do better than expected. Kerry hangs in. Dean narrowly places first in several primaries, but captures only 40 percent of the delegates as the vote splinters. Clark, with 30 percent of delegate votes and Gephardt with 25 percent form a Clark-Gephardt ticket. Clark's patriotic appeal in the South combined with Gephardt's pocketbook pull in the Midwest manage to win a squeaker over Bush.

(c) The Democratic convention deadlocks. On the fifth ballot, the delegates turn to Hillary Clinton. Dean's enraged supporters bolt. Clinton picks John Edwards as her running mate, and the Democratic ticket is trounced by Bush.

In yesterday's paper (and on the American Prospect Web site), the bad news is that Kuttner picked (a).

But wait! It's a new year, and today's Boston Globe printed a correction:

Due to an editing error, Robert Kuttner's pick on the first quiz question in his column yesterday was misstated. Kuttner's choice was actually 1. (b), indicating that a Clark-Gephardt Democratic ticket would beat President Bush.

Well, well! I'm feeling better already.

Copyright © 2004 by Philocrites | Posted 1 January 2004 at 12:34 PM

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