Inside Politics

Bush, FDR & JFK

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, one of the nation’s most prominent Democrats, compares President Bush to Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Daley said the 2004 election reflects a political change on the order of what occurred under those legendary Democrats.

“You talk about Roosevelt. You talk about Kennedy. And you have to talk about Bush. You have to give credit to his discipline, to the message he stayed on line. People made fun. They underestimated him all the time. He showed them all,” Mr. Daley told John Fund, who wrote about the interview at the Political Diary portion of www.OpinionJournal.com.

Mr. Daley complained that Washington’s Democratic insiders let Republicans “become the party of average Americans” and relegated the Democrats to being the party of large donors.

Mr. Daley blamed the defeat on “elitists” inside the party, Mr. Fund wrote, for having, “too long ridiculed people of faith.”

“They don’t like people who have different beliefs than they do,” Mr. Daley said. “They were shoved out, not to be respected.”

Momentous shift

“One of the biggest surprises in the presidential election may have been the ground shift — a momentous one for Democrats — in how Hispanics voted: namely, in enormous numbers and, very often, Republican,” New York Times editorialist Carolyn Curiel writes.

“Now, even though they claimed a majority of the Latino vote, Democrats suddenly find themselves in real danger of losing one of the biggest pieces of their base, one that had been counted on for loyalty approaching that of African-Americans. This happened, in part, because the Republicans went to church,” the writer said.

“In making their gains, the Republicans exploited a largely unheralded fact: Among minority groups, Hispanics rank with the most religious. About one-third told pollsters they consider themselves born-again Christians. The vast remainder are Roman Catholic, often devoutly so.

“As part of their larger strategy of appealing to pastors and other church leaders, the Republicans, in effect, franchised their product, President Bush, through the pulpits. In the process, they found an especially receptive audience in Hispanics. Their ties to the Democratic Party traditionally have been though labor unions, which have diminished in strength and influence.”

‘Jorge’ Bush

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