The cliché of this primary season—and, like most clichés, it’s probably true—is that the Democrats are fired up with hatred for and resentment against President Bush this election year. Or, in the jargon of the political professionals that is more and more to be found in ordinary news reports, the “base” is unusually “motivated” to work for the President’s defeat. In fact, saying that the Democratic base is motivated has become a way of getting the base motivated. Exit polls from almost every primary election in February and March tell us that the prime consideration among the Democratic voters who chose John Kerry to be their standard bearer was that he was the candidate most likely to beat Bush in November. What Marjorie Williams of The Washington Post, a Kerry supporter, calls the “alarmingly tautological nature of John Kerry’s victory” turns out to be an example o ...

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