Doom-and-gloomers, Kerry and Clark

Liberal Oasis has an intriguing take on the recent problems in the Kerry campaign: it may actually be good news for him. I especially liked this comment:

The media will interpret that as reflecting poorly on Kerry, but more likely, it reflects poorly on this strain of self-defeating Beltway Dem.

The kind that prefers to give blind quotes to the media about how screwed the Dems are, instead of giving private constructive criticism and as much sweat as possible to the party.

The kind that signs up for a campaign because it looks like a meal ticket to the White House, not because they believe in the candidate.

Clearly, too many of them reside in the Kerry campaign. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many stories leaked about staff troubles.

There seems to be an over-abundance of "self-defeating Beltway Dems" of late. You can recognize them by their reaction to the prospects of a Dean nomination with predictions of "DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!" I call them the sackcloth-and-ashes crowd.

These types have been the bane of Democrats for quite some time. As LO says, they are the primary source of anonymous quotes about how impossible it is going to be for the Dems to beat Bush. I just wish they would shut the f*ck up.

I agree with LO that Kerry is better off without these types in his campaign. But I'm not so sure that it will help him in the end. The fact that Kerry attracted so many of them to begin with is, I think, a reflection on Kerry. Would they have been working for him if he wasn't a kindred spirit?

This is one of the reasons why I haven't been sold on the Clark candidacy either. I've met quite a few Clark supporters and they also seem to have a large share of doom-and-gloomers. I happen to believe you can tell a lot about a person by the type of people who flock around them.