2dogs
October 31, 2003, 08:33 PM
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/9530.htm
SHOOTIN' BLANKS
By DEBORAH ORIN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 31, 2003 -- DEMOCRATIC presidential wannabe John Kerry will come armed with a shotgun when he goes hunting for votes tomorrow in the little Iowa farm town of Colo.
Kerry plans a bird hunt, but the pheasants probably don't have to worry much - it's a made-for-media special and reporters are bound to give plenty of advance warning with the sound of tromping feet.
In fact Kerry's biggest worry could be making sure he doesn't repeat George W. Bush's long-ago gaffe - when he first ran for Texas governor, Bush went gunning for doves and instead shot a protected kildee songbird.
But it's a sure sign of changing times when Democratic wannabes like Kerry and Howard Dean feel the need to show they have hunting in their blood while courting the liberal activists who pick their party's White House nominee.
Will the image of John Kerry, Huntsman, shooting down a few pheasant really change votes?
"It makes it easier for a person like myself who likes to hunt. It feels a little safer if your presidential hopeful isn't going to go after your typical normal shotgun," said Iowa farmer Ryan McKinney, a Kerry backer whose corn and soybean farm was picked as the scene of the hunt.
Ryan's dad, Keith McKinney - speaking by cell phone from atop his combine with his 18-month-old grandson while getting in the end of the corn harvest - wasn't so sure. He said wryly: "Politicians do funny things sometimes."
And so we have Kerry boasting about how he shot woodchucks at age 8 and Dean touting himself as an avid outdoorsman and sometime hunter who won the National Rifle Association's backing when he was Vermont governor.
In fact, a few years ago Dean signed a Vermont law to create special deer and turkey seasons for kiddie hunters aged 15 and under, saying: "This is a great bill. Any time we can get kids interested in hunting, it's a good thing."
What's going on under the surface is that quietly, some of the key emotional hot-button issues that boosted Democrats in the 1990s - abortion rights and gun control - are fading as the country moves toward a consensus.
In each case, intriguingly, technology seems to be key to changing the debate - computer gun checks and pre-birth sonograms.
Sharp divisions over gun control have faded as computers make it easier to do instant checks on gun buyers - and harder to demonize all gun owners and hunters as dangerous thugs who are to blame for gun-toting urban gangs. In fact, ardent gun-control advocates Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-L.I.) united with two NRA allies, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), on a recent plan to plug holes in gun checks.
Democrats learned the hard way in the 2000 presidential race that hunters are a strong constituency in key swing states; many Democratic analysts believe Al Gore lost because he alienated them unnecessarily.
Hence John Kerry's hunting trip.
Meanwhile, public support for unrestricted abortion has faded as sonogram technology advances and produces a clear image of the fetus from the womb - maybe even with a smile, as some researchers claim.
Now the abortion battle centers on restricting late-term abortions like the "partial-birth" abortion ban that President Bush is about to sign. Polls leave no doubt that a strong majority of Americans back that ban.
Bush took care to note that he won't push for a total abortion ban because the country doesn't favor it.
As a Democratic strategist notes: "The problem for us on choice is that people don't feel a threat right now [to abortion rights]. If there were a Supreme Court nominee, that would be different."
Polls also show a majority back laws requiring young teens to tell their parents if they're going to have an abortion - after all, parents worry about making sure any medical procedure is done by the best doctor.
That leaves Democrats arguing the minority side on the abortion fight if they support "partial-birth" abortions (as most 2004 contenders do) or argue against requiring minors to notify their parents before having abortions.
Both abortion and gun control were issues that Democrats used very skillfully in the Clinton-era 1990s to appeal to suburban soccer moms and professional women, arguing that Republicans seek to invade bedrooms and arm creeps.
Now that those issues are fading, the intriguing question is how both Democrats and Republicans deal with the new hot-button issue that seems to be emerging in this election cycle - gay marriage.
So far, none of the leading Democratic contenders supports gay marriage - which puts them in line with Bush on the fundamental question, though the Dems are more supportive of civil unions.
The key question to watch could be whether Bush seeks to turn gay marriage into a big issue, especially if Howard Dean - who signed Vermont's civil-union law - becomes the Democratic nominee.
SHOOTIN' BLANKS
By DEBORAH ORIN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 31, 2003 -- DEMOCRATIC presidential wannabe John Kerry will come armed with a shotgun when he goes hunting for votes tomorrow in the little Iowa farm town of Colo.
Kerry plans a bird hunt, but the pheasants probably don't have to worry much - it's a made-for-media special and reporters are bound to give plenty of advance warning with the sound of tromping feet.
In fact Kerry's biggest worry could be making sure he doesn't repeat George W. Bush's long-ago gaffe - when he first ran for Texas governor, Bush went gunning for doves and instead shot a protected kildee songbird.
But it's a sure sign of changing times when Democratic wannabes like Kerry and Howard Dean feel the need to show they have hunting in their blood while courting the liberal activists who pick their party's White House nominee.
Will the image of John Kerry, Huntsman, shooting down a few pheasant really change votes?
"It makes it easier for a person like myself who likes to hunt. It feels a little safer if your presidential hopeful isn't going to go after your typical normal shotgun," said Iowa farmer Ryan McKinney, a Kerry backer whose corn and soybean farm was picked as the scene of the hunt.
Ryan's dad, Keith McKinney - speaking by cell phone from atop his combine with his 18-month-old grandson while getting in the end of the corn harvest - wasn't so sure. He said wryly: "Politicians do funny things sometimes."
And so we have Kerry boasting about how he shot woodchucks at age 8 and Dean touting himself as an avid outdoorsman and sometime hunter who won the National Rifle Association's backing when he was Vermont governor.
In fact, a few years ago Dean signed a Vermont law to create special deer and turkey seasons for kiddie hunters aged 15 and under, saying: "This is a great bill. Any time we can get kids interested in hunting, it's a good thing."
What's going on under the surface is that quietly, some of the key emotional hot-button issues that boosted Democrats in the 1990s - abortion rights and gun control - are fading as the country moves toward a consensus.
In each case, intriguingly, technology seems to be key to changing the debate - computer gun checks and pre-birth sonograms.
Sharp divisions over gun control have faded as computers make it easier to do instant checks on gun buyers - and harder to demonize all gun owners and hunters as dangerous thugs who are to blame for gun-toting urban gangs. In fact, ardent gun-control advocates Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-L.I.) united with two NRA allies, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), on a recent plan to plug holes in gun checks.
Democrats learned the hard way in the 2000 presidential race that hunters are a strong constituency in key swing states; many Democratic analysts believe Al Gore lost because he alienated them unnecessarily.
Hence John Kerry's hunting trip.
Meanwhile, public support for unrestricted abortion has faded as sonogram technology advances and produces a clear image of the fetus from the womb - maybe even with a smile, as some researchers claim.
Now the abortion battle centers on restricting late-term abortions like the "partial-birth" abortion ban that President Bush is about to sign. Polls leave no doubt that a strong majority of Americans back that ban.
Bush took care to note that he won't push for a total abortion ban because the country doesn't favor it.
As a Democratic strategist notes: "The problem for us on choice is that people don't feel a threat right now [to abortion rights]. If there were a Supreme Court nominee, that would be different."
Polls also show a majority back laws requiring young teens to tell their parents if they're going to have an abortion - after all, parents worry about making sure any medical procedure is done by the best doctor.
That leaves Democrats arguing the minority side on the abortion fight if they support "partial-birth" abortions (as most 2004 contenders do) or argue against requiring minors to notify their parents before having abortions.
Both abortion and gun control were issues that Democrats used very skillfully in the Clinton-era 1990s to appeal to suburban soccer moms and professional women, arguing that Republicans seek to invade bedrooms and arm creeps.
Now that those issues are fading, the intriguing question is how both Democrats and Republicans deal with the new hot-button issue that seems to be emerging in this election cycle - gay marriage.
So far, none of the leading Democratic contenders supports gay marriage - which puts them in line with Bush on the fundamental question, though the Dems are more supportive of civil unions.
The key question to watch could be whether Bush seeks to turn gay marriage into a big issue, especially if Howard Dean - who signed Vermont's civil-union law - becomes the Democratic nominee.