Slap The Donkey

by Howard Altman

No matter what happens on the road to Boston, I hope that Rev. Al is one of the last ones standing when the Democrats arrive at their national convention in the home of a silversmith named Revere and a baseball team that once sold Ruth.

He has a way, Rev. Al has, of energizing the very serious business of replacing this president who lied us into war, wrecked our economy and allowed criminals like Ken Lay to milk the system dry while workers lost their jobs and their pensions.

Winding up another humorous night on the Bush Whack '04 road show, Sharpton makes his case to those gathered at the Sheet Metal Workers' Union-sponsored candidates forum and to those watching it live on C-SPAN.

Throughout the packed second floor of the National Constitution Center, everyone -- union members, Pennsylvania's governor, the media and yes, the other six candidates, too -- is laughing as Rev. Al explains why he should be elected.

"The only way to move the donkey is to slap it," Sharpton says, repeating his riff on the symbol of the Democratic Party. "I am going to slap the donkey until the donkey kicks George Bush from the White House. I am going to slap the donkey from Iowa to the last primary."

Some might say the Democrats have suffered from too much slapping of the donkey, but at this juncture, Rev. Al is right.

The seven donkeys gathered on this stage to take on the president could each use a good slap.

After Al is Howard Dean, who shakes his head and cannot help but laugh.

"It's everyone's worst nightmare to follow Al Sharpton," former Vermont Governor Dean says before talking about how he's the dude with experience doing the things that should be done in Dee Cee.

For Dean, it's another huge day.

A few hours earlier, some 3,500 Dean supporters packed the Independence Visitor Center's grassy knoll. As Dean joined his fellow candidates on stage, those supporters stood outside and shouted vociferous huzzahs that could be heard loudly inside.

And now he is talking, as his party's early front-runner, about how he is the only one capable of beating Bush.

Big talk, considering that he's still running against that war hero John Kerry and Dick Gephardt, who played the unionistas well with talk of his labor upbringing.

Dennis Kucinich, another guy who would serve the party well by sticking around to the end, probably won't, which is a damn shame. He's a good guy to be yapping at Bush, which he does well on this night.

Carol Moseley Braun does OK for herself too, showing her charm, a couple of times injecting her thoughts about a subject after moderator Bill Press passed her by. But the former U.S. senator and ambassador to New Zealand has to remember that being a woman is not a good enough reason for anyone to win.

And Joe Lieberman -- who, true to his beliefs, says that the war in Iraq was a just one -- has once again captured the meaningless middle.

The energy on the grassy knoll is amazing.

From all over the region, largely via the awesome power of the Internet, thousand have gathered to wave blue "The Doctor Is In" Howard Dean placards.

Sitting in the damp grass, which is sodden after repeated deluges, Downingtown residents Taryn Jones, 19, Jeff Gangwisch, 18, and Lower Merion's Dash Glazer, 18, are jazzed about Howard Dean.

None has ever voted.

Bucking a trend that has, until now, seen those coming of voting age eschew the polls, all three teens say they will vote and vote Dean.

There are many others out here like them.

It is a brilliant stratagem, holding a rally that builds up during rush hour in one of the city's busiest intersections, and it pays off.

Even Mayor John Street is impressed.

"He has a lot of very exciting ideas," says the mayor, as I press him about whether his glowing remarks on behalf of Howard Dean at the rally constitute an endorsement. "We Democrats are looking for someone to create a new sense of enthusiasm and optimism in our party. I got to tell you, to be able to put 3,500 people out here means that the Howard Dean organization is generating enthusiasm and a certain presence in this city and that will factor in to my decision."

For the Democrats, the Dean machine's success Monday afternoon is highly instructive.

The Internet is a great tool. And to beat Bush, you have to expand your base.

The thousands who show up for Dean speak loudly.

So too does the fact that nearly all are white.

John Street speaks volumes as well about the future of his party. His passionate speech to the Dean crowd -- about how Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy are killing Philadelphia and other burgs big and small by heaping unfunded mandates onto states and municipalities -- hammers home the point that the Democrats need the cities, whose residents are way more than just white.

This George Bush, like his daddy, is vulnerable thanks to failed economic policies. The question is whether the notoriously soft and divisive Democrats can stiffen their resolve.

They have until November 2004 to get it together.

Another 450 or so days to slap the donkey.