Even with the New Hampshire primary behind us and the Nevada caucuses this weekend, we are still just in the early days of one of the most fascinating, unpredictable presidential elections in generations. But it’s not too soon for Democratic voters to take seriously the fact that this process ultimately serves up a party nominee. A key part of that decision has to be which nominee can best compete with the Republicans to hold the White House?
It’s understandable that so many young people find Bernie Sanders’ message of economic and political fairness appealing. But many of them may not be familiar enough with recent political history to sense the huge risk that Democrats would be taking by nominating Sanders.
We could not only lose the presidency, but also hand over the entire government to an increasingly extreme Republican party. And having Congress, the president, and ultimately the Supreme Court under Republican control would make this a vastly different country.
The stakes are profound: an effective approach to engaging with allies on combatting terrorism; protecting individual rights and liberties; addressing climate change, income inequality, poverty.
With so much we value in the balance, Democratic primary voters need to use their heads — as well as their hearts — to pick a nominee who can win. We need to be ready for the kind of campaign that Republicans are sure to wage. Having been in the firing line twice — for Governor Mike Dukakis in 1988 and for then-Senator John Kerry in 2004 — I feel obliged to share some lessons.
The day the Democratic nominee becomes obvious, the Republican attack machine will spring into action. Those who have not experienced this at the national level can barely imagine its ferocity. And, too often, these attacks have worked.
The 2004 Kerry campaign’s narrow loss remains a painful reminder of how that GOP attack machine can target a decorated war hero at his greatest point of strength — using totally false insinuations. In 1988, Governor Mike Dukakis, as law-abiding a man as you could find, was effectively smeared as coddling rapists and murderers. This year will likely see worse.
The GOP’s opponent will not be treated just as a rival candidate — but as a target to be eviscerated. The assault will be multilevel — from right-wing talk shows, news outlets, and super PACs spending hundreds of millions.
We have no way to know whether Sanders can handle such a full-throated and coordinated assault. H e has never remotely been tested at the national level. To date, he has campaigned effectively in two small states. Addressing the entire country with an actively engaged and hostile opposition is a very different — and daunting — task.
And make no mistake: A Sanders nomination would offer the GOP a target-rich environment. His self-proclaimed socialism, his support for higher income taxes, his policy toward Iran, and his trillions in proposed new spending are ripe targets for attack — and distortion. Nor will the GOP attack machine limit itself to ruthless and unfair criticisms of Sanders’ policy prescriptions. It will go after the man himself — aiming to make him look weak, un-American, old, and incapable of dealing with a dangerous world.
This is why Democratic primary voters need to focus on which Democrat is best equipped to face that coming firestorm, power through it — and win. General elections are won by appealing to and holding the middle ground. Ten percent of the electorate, mostly concentrated in the center, determines success in presidential elections. How could Sanders credibly attempt to appeal to that middle ground?
Democrats can’t take that chance. We don’t need to. We have a proven, rock-solid alternative.
After years of enduring extreme scrutiny, Hillary Clinton has convinced a majority of Americans that she has the intellect, stature, and temperament to do the job. She has faced up to — and successfully faced down — decades of right-wing assaults, many of them false. She is battle-tested. She doesn’t fold under pressure. Republicans won’t get away with running a “swift-boat” into her candidacy.
Voters clearly want to send a strong message in 2016. The single best way to do that would be to elect our first woman president, a lifelong champion of progressive causes, a fighter who will give as good as she gets. The choice is clear.
John Sasso was John Kerry’s general election manager at the Democratic National Committee in 2004 and manager of Michael Dukakis’s presidential campaign in 1988.