Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Reformers can't get results

A six-foot six former NBA Hall of Famer was supposed to give Vice President Al Gore a run for his money in the Democratic primaries.

But unlike the juicy and uncertain Republican Presidential primary that the press is milking for every soundbyte, Gore will probably win the Democratic primary easily.

The reason? American voters have a tendency to like the underdogs but elect the established. If the Gore-Bradley race has proven anything, it is that establishment usually wins and underdogs usually lose. The reason McCain and Bush are experiencing such a tight rumble is because they both represent establishment, even though McCain frames himself as the opposite.

So whatever happened to Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Bradley?

Bradley was supposed to be the anti-establishment Democrat, a former Senator who had experienced the inner workings of Washington and also understood the rest of the country. He attempted what Arizona Senator John McCain is succeeding in-framing himself as the anti-establishment, reforming underdog.

This is why McCain is getting the best of both worlds. He has an image in the press as a reformer, but he has the experience of and ties inside Washington. Both McCain and Bradley are the underdogs in their campaigns. As a result, both chose to present themselves as reformers who can get the Washington out of Washington.

McCain's soaring popularity has buried Bradley's. According to Bradley supporter and attorney John Etter, "[Bradley] has been hurt by circumstance. McCain's emergence has been unhelpful to Bradley. It's taken him off the front pages." Ironically, considering that Bradley is much more of a reformer than McCain.

Unlike McCain, Bradley has actually spent time outside of Washington. He retired from the Senate in 1996, claiming that "politics is broken." He spent the past four years trying to find the pulse of the nation, going on a lecture tour and figuring out a feasible platform for himself. Bradley is more of a reformer, but he didn't have the spin doctors to exaggerate this image.

McCain, on the other hand, is exactly what he claims not to be. He is a powerful Senator with clout and connections inside the beltway. He represents the establishment, though not quite as much as Bush, but he has successfully exaggerated the difference between them. If he does beat Bush in the primaries, Republicans will be forced to throw their support to him.

After all, it's not as though they are going to support Gore.

Gore will beat Bradley in the Democratic primary because of two realities: the the solid position he has within his party, and the familiarity factor.

Democrats like him. Americans know him. This is the definition of "establishment," and that is mainly what a candidate needs to win.

Familiarity is why incumbent Congressmen win repeatedly, why the most publicized names get the most votes and why the new names on ballots can make good soundbytes, but little else.

Bradley's campaign has virtually disappeared. As the Republican primary has become more and more exciting because of McCain's success, pundits have been speculating only on the threat McCain could pose to Gore. Bradley is not even considered,z because Gore's victory is assumed.

Bradley, a Rhodes Scholar and former NBA hall-of-famer even garnered the support of the amazing Michael Jordan, but to no avail. Even in New York, where he played professional basketball with the new York Knicks, most voters admit to not even knowing who he is. Reporters are basically ignoring him, the polls in California give him 11 percent of the vote compared to Gore's 56 percent. If he loses in the Washington primary tomorrow, his campaign is as good as over.

American voters only like the idea of electing new guys, scrappy reformers who are not tied in partisan knots or pressured by special interest groups. Their presence gives them faith in the system, that an underdog can still rumble with the big dogs.

But in the end, they elect experience. The "reformer" serves only to make a campaign interesting.

Bradley is learning this the hard way.