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Remember Charles Manatt?
Probably not, unless you are over 50, but younger folks—especially those on the left—ought to read up on him.
Manatt founded a fine law firm, Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips LLP, which continues to thrive more than a dozen years after Manett’s death in 2011.
Manatt also was Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Before that post, however, Manatt was the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”) from 1981 to 1985.
Manatt was the guy Democrats turned to after President Jimmy Carter turned over the keys to the White House to Ronald Reagan in January 1981. Like Ken Martin, current chair of the Democratic Farm Labor Party of Minnesota who is questing to lead the DNC beginning on February 1, 2025, Manatt raised his hand after the political disaster for Democrats of November 1980 brought about by President Jimmy Carter, and volunteered to “lead” a smashed-up party.
Manatt was “a party man” who threw his all into rebuilding a Democratic Party shattered by Carter’s presidency which had featured high inflation and high interest rates at home and reversal after reversal in America’s fortunes abroad, especially in Iran where the Shah fell to Ayatollah Khomneini, Afghanistan where the Russians had invaded and all across Africa where Fidel Castro’s Cuban troops marauded.
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Jaime Harrison, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), helps open Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois, 2024. (Mike Segar via USA Today) (Mike Segar via USA Today))
Manatt was a talented fellow as was his successor Paul Kirk, who took over the DNC in 1985 after Walter Mondale was crushed by then President Reagan in 1984, as was Ron Brown, who took the reins at the DNC after Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis got blown out by then Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Party chairs cannot lead their respective party anywhere if the ideological activists from the far end of their political spectrum are eating up the messaging. That’s what’s plaguing Democrats now. No matter who leads the DNC, the left is in the saddle among Democrats with air time.
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In fact, it took Manatt and his successors a full dozen years plus a “moderate” governor from a southern state in the person of Bill Clinton, and a big assist Ross Perot in 1992, for Democrats to reclaim 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from President George H.W. Bush and the GOP, so bad and enduring was the memory of Carter-era stagflation with voters.
Voters don’t quickly forgive and forget inflation or the party that unleashed it. Americans also don’t like being eclipsed on the world stage for the extended periods that Carter and now Biden have overseen. Both men proved to be “brand killers” for Democrats, just like an open border, gender ideology and Green extremism continue to be. Kamala Harris didn’t lose the November election. Trump won it, on the promise of the border wall, lower taxes, and common sense across a host of issues.
Former US President Barack Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. The Democratic National Convention this week marks the ceremonial crowning of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as the party’s presidential nominees, capping off a whirlwind month for Democrats who quickly coalesced behind the new ticket after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Now Democrats have to be wondering if they aren’t in for the same long-term vacation from the White House as followed the Carter presidency. They are right to be worried.
The new Democratic Party chair isn’t going to be able to erase the memory of the past four years quickly. President Biden’s exit numbers are very low compared to previous presidents and his seemingly long, slow fade to the exit isn’t helping him or any Democrats. The sharp contrast between the absentee president and the totally-in-command President-elect Trump at his first presser post-November 5 was stark. Trump was in command, relaxed, ready and able to tackle any question, old-school style. Trump was not working from a list of pre-approved questions from designated media folks. He was taking all incoming questions and the return to an available, accessible, alert president-elect was very welcome.
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If Trump can get the border wall built and the tax cuts revised and made permanent, there’s no reason for him not to be kicking off another dozen years for the GOP in the White House. If Democrats don’t moderate, that’s exactly what will happen. And no matter who Democrats name as their chair, if the “Obama bros” over at Pod Save America keep their grip on the Democrats’ conversations and thinking, there’s no chance Democrats climb out of their deep, deep hole. The American center didn’t buy what the left has been selling for years. And they won’t buy it in 2028 or 2032 either.
Hugh Hewitt is host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
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