Bill Bradley's Long Shot - presidential candidate needs clearer platform

Progressive, The, April, 1999 by John Nichols

If Bradley wants to dislodge Gore, it would seem that the logical hunting ground is among the social, economic, and foreign policy liberals, labor union members, small farmers, gays and lesbians, and people of color who traditionally maintain the highest levels of participation in Democratic primaries. But Bradley has yet to make a concerted appeal to those constituencies.

There is no question that Bradley is right when he says that "politics is broken" in America. He is right when he says that the system is "paralyzed and polarized" by poll-driven compromises and the influence of special-interest money. But as of yet, he has not found a coherent way to offer an alternative to the politics of Clinton and Gore.

As Wayne King, a former New Hampshire Democratic gubernatorial candidate who has emerged as Bradley's top backer in that state, puts it: "We're going to have to have a break from this [Clinton-Gore] Administration."

The evidence from the first weeks of the former basketball star's campaign, however, is that for Bradley it will not be a fast break.

John Nichols is editorial page editor of The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. He writes regularly about electoral politics for The Progressive.