SIKESTON, Mo. — Tracy Wilkerson, an electrical lineman, sums up the Democratic Party’s problem in a nutshell. “After eight years of having it taken away from you, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about anything in politics,” he said.
Democrats are still seething about 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost to George W. Bush after a Supreme Court ruling. They’re also still irked about 2004, when many think that their nominee, Sen. John Kerry, should have won.
On paper, everything points to a big Democratic rebound this year. An April ap Research Corp. poll found that 56 percent of those surveyed had favorable opinions of the party. President Bush’s approval numbers, as well as the percentage of Americans who think the country is on the right track, have hit historic lows.
In addition, the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who’ll turn 72 in August, is the oldest major-party candidate ever to seek a first White House term.
Still, Democrats enter the general election less than confident that their party can heal the wounds of the long and divisive primary battle between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in time to defeat McCain.
Part of the concern stems from what’s been evident in primaries throughout the winter and spring. Obama routinely won big majorities among black, younger and higher-income voters.
Clinton won over white conservatives and women over 50, however, and exit polls in state after state found large numbers of her backers are inclined to support McCain in November.
Obama, they said, is too liberal and too inexperienced.
Three factors will be crucial to whether swing voters can be sold on Obama:
• The Democrats’ convention in August and the coverage leading up to it. If readers and viewers are bombarded with a summer full of reporting about feuds and conflict, the image of a party in disarray could be jarring.
• Clinton. If she embraces Obama and stumps vigorously for him and the party this summer and fall, her supporters probably will rally.
Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Kennelly, D-Conn., believes Clinton will be an enthusiastic soldier. “She’ll be there. All her supporters will be there,” she said. “They’re pros.”
• The vice presidential choice. Traditionally, popular choices mean a spirited final convention day and momentum heading into the fall.
Wilkerson will be watching closely. “Experience is an issue, and one thing that’s going to influence me is the running mates,” he said. “But I am a Democratic Party man.”
