Personal attacks by candidates on each other tends to be very counterproductive. McClatchy reminds us of a sad loss in Iowa four years ago.
In the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Gephardt and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean were leading in polls in Iowa until a few weeks before the state's kickoff caucuses. They went negative on each other in bruising rounds of speeches and TV ads. The bad blood was so prevalent that a Gephardt campaign staffer scuffled with a Dean staffer at a Gephardt event in Des Moines.
The result: mutual assured destruction for Gephardt and Dean, as above-the-fray John Kerry and John Edwards took two-thirds of the vote between them.
Giuliani and Romney are out-Deaning and out-Gephardting each other. Can we count them out?
One reason for the nastiness, whoever is at fault, is the lack of an established — and establishment-favored — front-runner in the eight-man Republican field. Modern-era Republican primary campaigns have tended to have one heir apparent — Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, the first Bush, Dole — which kept negative jibes to a minimum.
Impatience, bitterness, and angry frustration just don't turn worried candidates into winners.
