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WASHINGTON - Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin calls Sen. Bob Graham "a reasonable, rational politician" and predicts he will be our next president.
But Slate columnist Chris Suellentrop says the Florida senator will lose the race - and his credibility. He says Graham is playing the role of "the senator who enters the race with respect, then blows it all by running for president."
The two columns illustrate the wide range of national reactions to Graham's presidential campaign. Some columnists and political writers see him as a serious contender. Others see him as an oddity.
In many cases, they don't see him at all.
Lots of stories and columns on the presidential race discuss the "top-tier" candidates - Sens. John Kerry, John Edwards and Joe Lieberman and Rep. Richard Gephardt - but fail to mention Graham.
When writers focus on him, they often talk about his criticism of the Bush administration for the war against terrorism.
Village Voice columnist James Ridgeway called Graham "the hard man of the Democratic Party in Congress, the only potential candidate who actually seems to know anything about Bush's handling of 9/11 and the war on terror, and who is willing to stand up and be counted."
A Washington Post Magazine cover story titled "The Scariest Man In Washington" gave a generally positive portrayal of Graham (although some Graham loyalists groused that it was too harsh). Post reporter Michael Grunwald poked fun at Graham for his uncharacteristically strong statements on terrorism ("He plans to run for president as a kind of freakout candidate, a red-alert politician for a freakout nation"), but Grunwald also quoted several members of Congress who said they shared Graham's worries.
Breslin, Newsday's chief curmudgeon, saw Graham two weeks ago at a New York appearance and said he liked the senator's stance on terrorism. Breslin wrote that "the first thing I noticed is that he happened to be sane. If you see this Bush in a crazed pose on an aircraft carrier, or Rumsfeld imitating a savage, Graham gets a vote by standing there as a reasonable, rational politician."
Breslin said he believes four more years of Bush will mean more "oppression" in the United States and violence overseas. He said he usually "despises centrists" and doesn't trust "anybody south of Newark," but "Graham is my choice."
The Concord (N.H.) Monitor said in an editorial last month that "there are many reasons he should turn heads in New Hampshire" - his moderate record as governor, his environmental policies and his support of abortion rights. But the editorial noted that many Floridians were "tepid" about the three-term senator. "They respected him, but their assessment of his presidential aspirations resulted in thoughtful nods, not exclamations."
Other columnists have criticized Graham's refrain that he's from "the electable wing of the Democratic Party" because he is a southern moderate.
Terry Neal, a columnist with WashingtonPost.com, wrote that Graham's I'm-electable message won't sell.
"Graham is, by all accounts, a bright man with a terrific resume that includes representing the nation's fourth largest state both as governor and senator. But he appears to be toiling under the misguided impression that people are going to vote for him because he has some ethereal quality called "electability."'
Then there is the charisma factor, a topic that makes Graham campaign aides cringe. Floridians have long been accustomed to the senator's low-key speaking style. But, with audiences around the country saying his speeches lack pizazz, the charisma gap has become Graham's biggest challenge.
Suellentrop, the Slate columnist, noted that Graham's campaign kickoff speech "read like a cut-and-paste job from previous Democratic presidential speeches."
Josh Benson of the New York Observer saw the New York speech, but was less impressed than Breslin.
Benson said "Graham's words seem to generate more excitement on paper than they do coming from his mouth. He spoke as if someone were sleeping under the podium who he was afraid of waking up. He answered questions thoroughly, deliberately and in bullet-point format. When he told a joke, the audience laughed only after he explained: "That's supposed to be a joke."'
- Staff writer Bill Adair covers the Graham campaign for the Times. He can be reached at adair@sptimes.com