Ed Anderson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail continues. He was last seen at a McCain rally with a "Bomb Iran/Vote McCain" sign (and a Yearly Kos bag slung over his shoulder).
He sent me this txt message from New Hampshire at 1:30 in the morning:
Well Jane, just ran into Terry McAuliffe. I put him in the death grip, and asked him kindly not to let the past cloud the future.
He said "I’m with you, man."
I said "No, you’re not. The past as the Clintons, the future is Obama. What about all the young people Barack is bringing into the Party?"
"Uh, uh, uhmm…"
"Terry," I said, "I care about the future of the Party, do you?"
Priceless silence.
How the heck did McAwful rise to a position of prominence?
Ed’s a big dude and I’m pretty sure he had a couple of cocktails in him at that point. Anyway, I doubt McAuliffe will forget the encounter any time soon.
And no, he didn’t get Ed into a Le Sabre.
Related posts:
- Terry McAuliffe Will Do Fundraiser for First VA Dem to Take the Pledge
- Tweeting What Obama Said Off-the-Record About Kanye: Now THAT’s Terry
- VIDEO: Randall Terry Thrown Out of Jim Moran/Howard Dean Event
- Abdel-Rahman, Randall Terry, and Incitement to Violence
- Rahm Meets Reid, Will Discuss Merging Senate Bills
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Jane!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
hi Jane.
Gotta love an ornery DFH.
That’s our Edward.
Hey Jane. Meant to catch up with you from before when you scolded me. Earlier, i never said Hillary “couldn’t handle it.” What I said was “I think she’ll do fine.” Well, I’m droppin’ that now. I’ve really had enough of it and like you’ve also said, we CAN’T be beatin’ up on each other too much.
i can’t think about politics or school because my whole life is changing. i think i am depressed.
NH news is reporting that Bloomberg is polling and analyzing to see if a presidential run is feasable.
-G
Why does “takes one to know one” come to mind?
Why can’t you stay with your Aunt Betsy?
I know, sorry for the confusion, I was scolding the original author, not you.
Shithead. Rich shithead.
TMcC will do ANYTHING FOR $$$$$
While the SEC and FBI begin to probe the questionable accounting practices of telecommunications giant Global Crossing, Ltd., which went belly up on January 28, Judicial Watch has launched a full investigation into Terry McAuliffe’s ties to the company.
In what is an unprecedented case of political profiteering, McAuliffe turned a $100,000 initial investment in the company into $18 million in less than a year and a half—a nifty 18,000% profit. According to the New York Times, McAuliffe made millions more trading the stock and options after the company went public in 1998.
Cause if the army knows she can be my guardian then they will take away the permission for my brother to not go to Iraq or Afghanistan.
LMAO, Got me.
Take politics off of your mind.
School is important though.
-G
Shorter Terry McAuliffe: The future of the Democratic Party? That’s so 1992!
In the meantime, SnarKassandra, I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but here’s a hug. I know it all seems pretty confusing and scary. It scares the adults, too. We put one foot in front of the other and keep walking.
You can do this.
-S
Cassie -
I hope everything works out for you. You always have friends here at the Lake
Beating up, did someone say beat up some one up? Metaphorically to be sure.
Here’s a chance to join in beating up on MSNBC for letting Tweety beat up on women so regularly….in general, and not merely Hillary in particular.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..455/433806
Oh man, you’ll make it, but it sure does suck. Big hugs little one.
i feel the same way…thought the NIE would putIran off the table,but seems they are geering up again,yes depressing
Jane, is it possible, just a teeny, tiny bit that McAuliffe is *just* a campaign chair and nothing more than that? Maybe his primary function is to raise money. Because, other than her IWR vote, I have yet to see anything in Hillary’s record that would give me second thoughts about her progressive bona fides and I look at her Kyl-Lieberman vote in light of the overall general campaign.
Just because Terry McAuliffe is part of the past does not mean that Hillary needs to be. I see an incredibly gifted person in the debates who has a knowledge base that is unmatched by anyone on the stage with her. And her voting record is solidly progressive.
Look at it this way: if Clinton falls back to the past, the worst that will happen is good government. But if she is in power with a Democratic Congress, her ability to change things will be unparalleled. She may be given the opportunities that Bill never had.
I refuse to be cynical.
My colleagues in the pharma industry are very concerned about what she plans to do if she takes the presidency. No other candidate elicits the same kind of fear.
I think the campaign is about to take on a life of its own as more and more women realize they have a chance to elect a truly viable female candidate. The world is on the cusp of a new beginning, no matter if Obama or Hillary wins.
o.m.g.
And Aunt Betsy isn’t going to have anyone to help with dishes or the vacuum half the week when my cousin goes to his dad. :(
Just about the time I start to, you know, like Hillary again, I see McAuliffe. Don’t they get that the guy is a soulless tool?
Yes yes.. pass the triangulation torch to Obama. I swear I am going to register as an Independent someday just so the Dems will come a courting my vote.
I know, sorry for the confusion, I was scolding the original author, not you.
Not a problem. So many people with so many takes on Hillary’s campaign hiccup. You needed a scorecard to keep track around here. oh well. on to NV, SC.
He seriously reminds me of a sales manager at a used car lot I used to know.
If you were smart, you kept on eye on him and one hand on your wallet.
why did the msm sink Rudy? anybody got a clue?
The moonbats at Goldman-Sachs are predicting a recession.
Tell them to call Larry Kudlow for a goldlilocks peptalk.
-G
is this the BEST they could come up with?slime
And count your fingers after the sweaty handshake.
A serious case of Catch-22… 8-(
Merrill Lynch say’s we are already there.
Notice the article is from the BBC…….
Re: not beating up on each other. Via TalkLeft, a GOTV diary fascinating in its own right that gives us reason to think we can in fact be nice to each other and already have been in NH.
http://bdb.mydd.com/story/2008/1/9/10265/21203
Cassie, when does your brother get discharged?
I will not read the naysaying anti-business socialists at Merrill Lynch.
They only want to tear our leader down.
-G
a few months before i finish HS, so like, 2 yrs.
I was referrin’to comment by Jane in anearlier post:
I do worry, like Pach, that if things get too negative and ad hominim that at the end we’re going to have a real tough time bringing people together in any kind of unified way going into the general, and we simply can’t endure more Republican rule. The numbers say we don’t have to, and the worst thing that could happen is that we tear ourselves apart and let that happen.
we can’t be beatin’ up on each other too much.
as you may know, i’m not a woman but i was stunned by tweety’s little cheek pinching stunt with Hillary. the ladies here have been
bitchin’complaining about him for a long time and i wasn’t gettin’ it. Ok, so i’m alittle thick, maybe? But when i saw him do that the other night, that brought it all home for me. whatta schmuck.I am going to go cry in the bathtub. bye.
keep commin’round here and hope this is as less disruptive than you think it might be
Gotta agree with Tom Tomorrow: love to see Hilary win, purely out of spite, just to drive the rightwing nutjobs insane.
Poor little thing.
It’s tough, Iwent to twelve different schools growing up.
In the likely event of a Dem takeover of the White House and a hold on the Congress, I’m curious to see how the progressive blogosphere deals with success. Will we spend most of our time arguing with each other? Will the progressive blogosphere split into factions? It’s going to be interesting.
?? msm sunk Rudy? when? you kiddin’?
((((Cassie))))
((((Tex Betsy))))
Arguing, of course. Marching lock-step is for Republics and Nazis.
Matthews just made a point of naming all the candidates and noting that any one of them can be the next pres. Do you think maybe someone’s getting the message?
Ooh boy. That’s a rough one.
12??!!! Holy shit. Not military were you?
Terry McAuliffe never met a dollar he didn’t like.
OT — more Blackwater bad deeds in Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01…..er.html?hp
Nope.
Dad was in construction and I had THE dysfunctional family life.
Now that I think about it, no wonder I’m so damn ornery.
Yeah, maybe it will be the overcoming catharsis to no longer be afraid of the Mean Machine.
The first thing they should do is open an investigation to why they trashed the Whitehouse in 2000.
-G
BFL,
You’re all right.
I appreciate you saying that…he’s been making me angry for years.
Every time I see Terry on the teevee, he strikes me as mildly retarded, somehow developmentally not all there. The non-responses described sound exactly right.
Most productive will be for all of us to collectively hold their sweet little feet to the fire to help them remember to do what’s right for people and for our environment.
There’s a long list: restore habeas corpus, unconglomerate the media, take care of voting machines and fraud, clean up the DOJ, get a grip on the CIA. Oh, did I mention the economy and getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Alternative energy. Raising the mileage required for Hummers and other vehicles. And on and on.
Margot, that is so weird that you know BFL’s father.
-G
I certainly feel for the young un.
The uncertainty, gotta make new friends, it’s a big deal.
no…MSGOP seemed to love him,now its all McStain all the time?????
fighting, agreeing, persuading, snarking, explaining we were just snarking and didn’t really mean that. this place will remain a great combination of outspokenness & civility. i think mkore & more good people will come to the blogospehere and the product will get better and our influence will increase. i cannot even begin to appreciate the networks that exist, but they’ll grow. incrementally. but it will. will we be too used to being the outsiders? i don’t think so. bottom line will be the same – more & better dems. (and we’ll piss in the general direction of malkin and the rest of the rightie bloggers).
Arguing and debating, sure, but I’m wondering if it will go much farther than that, with progressive blogs calling out other progressive blogs as traitors to the cause, or as “enemies”, etc. We’ve all been so focused on Bush for so long, that it’s going to be weird when he’s finally gone.
I hope our vigorous internal debates remain constructive instead of destructive.
Matthews talking about the ‘Bradley Effect’. If I were Obama (or any Afro-American) I would find this upsetting. Same old, same old.
Sexism or racism. I’m so tired of it.
Your comment stands out among many pointless one-liners. Thanks for taking time to write something substantial and thoughtful.
I’m sick of Tweetyism.
We can all constructively go after the Blue Dogs. That’s a job worth doing.
Lotsa losses already.
Although, it was gratifying to see Brokaw AND Maddow climb up in his grill.
Any normal human would get a message from that……
I voted today at City Hall !
Also, I tried to sign up to be a voting place helper, but you have to commit to a 6am to 8pm shift. The lady asked her boss if they could hire me for a half-day. After checking over my assessment test, she even wanted me to be an inspector! (Whatever that means!)
But no split shifts. Only fourteen hour shifts. Which I cannot do. I guess I’ll not be a threat to the high school students who get civics class credit for working the polling stations.
But that means I can be online with you guys ALL DAY on Super Tuesday — no missed time even for voting!
who? tweety? It was weird. whe i saw him pinch hillary’s cvheek and her obvious and underrstandable discomfort, it was a lightbulb over the head moment. “Oh. That’s what they’re talkin’ about. Now i get it.”
Of course it also poisoned the historic moment. The first woman ever to win a US primary, just edging out the most competitive African-American in history.
Instead this miraculous story of racism rears its ugly head.
Terrible.
-G
There’s a long list: restore habeas corpus, unconglomerate the media, take care of voting machines and fraud, clean up the DOJ, get a grip on the CIA. Oh, did I mention the economy and getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Alternative energy. Raising the mileage required for Hummers and other vehicles. And on and on.
Well said! We have SO much damage to repair. It will take years. I do wonder, though, if some will start loudly abandoning ship four months into 2009 because all those problems haven’t been fixed yet. I hope not.
We can all constructively go after the Blue Dogs.
I’m salivating at the opportunity to go after those ********! :) I sincerely hope we finally kick Lieberman off any committees.
Teddy, The Inspector is supposed to be in charge, but I found the only extra chore involved escorting the ballots (on the 22 Filmore) to City Hall.
depends alot on how issues come up that we eally can’t foresee. i think we’ll make every effort not to call out other bloggers. you raise a god point. we won’t have the great unifier – Bush. Will they have one?- Hillary.
Off to bed. ‘Night all.
me, I like the pointless one liners but then i am female so i’m sure that no one forking cares what the hell i like as long as i say something that takes up more than one line – after all quantity over quality is what seems to be what matters to some.
to me, size has never been that important.
And it depends too on whether our President winds up sucking.
ZING!
Let me know to duck next time, eh?
707 You go, Suz !
The substance police have arrived.
Time for bed.
-G
hey suzanne. if ya can’t say it in one line … you’re a lawyer. but lotsa people forking care what you like.
–Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
That train, Hillary left the station years and years ago. And you gave it a good swift kick along the way.
Senator “Nobody Will Be Forgotten Clinton’s Voting Record” Anatomy of a Long Backward Fall
Re:
Link?
Suzanne:
‘member that priotest song video contest? wasn’t that great fun? i got an idea for a new contest.
It’s not. I polled my brain. ’snot.
Thanks. I can’t imagine anyone who’s been paying attention thinking it won’t take a while and hard work to do the repairs. There are some things that can be quick – like restoring habeas corpus. But the damage to our economy I suspect will take much longer and require much more work and thoughtfulness and creativity.
It was the ABC local affiliate 11:00 news.
-G
Prefer brevity
Without losing the meaning?
Compose a haiku.
yeah. the economy’s gonna need fixin’. but the state of the progressive blogosphere is sound.
Do tell… Bonne Soir, Ma Cheri!
good one!
There’s never been a better time to buy Buick! Won’t be around forever you know….
Well Pete, just as long as we are primed to hate Hillary more and more…
Your work is done here.
Don’t forget the Lindbergh baby while you’re at it.
no
LOL!
newton, why are we primed to hate hillary? because she’s female or because she’s married to clinton?
Since you mentioned the “P” word, let me ask a basic question about this election: are the electorate demanding a Progressive candidate when they say they want “change”? I ask because if they are, then it becomes, as Edwards has said, very hard for Hillary to be considered.
But, if “change” just means “no more Repubs” then we’re still on square one.
Whoa Nellie, not, Newt, Suz…!
c’mon. we can do the whole thing tonight. in an hour, tops. in fact we have to put a time limit on it. a totally different type of contest.
“I care about the future of the Party, do you?”
Rhetorical questions don’t need answers. Answer a fool his folly, etc.
let me guess – the winner is phil ochs?
I think it might be because she has a record that can be assailed. A substantial and mixed record. Only reason I can think of.
I’m certain it ain’t the “chickie” thing…
don’t get it. my father’s dead.
G’nite all. Beddy-bye for me.
Don’t forget though, it might not have ‘miraculously’ arose because it is real. It could have been injected into the debate because someone wanted it there, same with sexism, patriotism, etc.
Good evening dear friends.
BFL, I meant no offense.
-G
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
Its interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry
no, no, no. I’m past that. has nuthin’ to do with music.
Ma’am, Cassie gave us the dreadful news… 8-(
g’nite gw
newton, yanno, i never could understand why there was so much automatic hatred of hillary. i’ve just never been able to figure out if it is because she is a female with ambition or if it was because of her marriage to bill. my gop relatives have never been able to stop spewing their poisonous tirades long enough to answer that question when i’ve asked.
Hillary made herstory in New Hampshire.
First female to win a Presidential Primary.
i’m sure you didn’t. i’m sayin’ i didn’t get the joke. or is one of those “If I have to explain it …..” deals ?
We’ll get through it. She’ll be OK in the end. But it’s a big change for all of us.
Suzanne–
Speaking for myself, I don’t “hate” Clinton, I just want her out of the Presidential race and the Senate so that someone can take her place who will do something positive and meaningful.
I love females, and she’s a female. So there is no problem there. I’ve seen them function in the most critical environments possible, and they thrive in them. So I don’t want her out of the race and the Senate because she has XX chromosomes.
Bill Clinton did IMHO an infinitely better job than Bush as did his agencies. She is married to him, I understand for a very long time, and he has a number of very positive ideas, and has done some impressive things in connection with HIV and other situations with his influence and epliptical connections, so being married to Bill wouldn’t make me vote against her by any means.
Her voting record does however, and her disingenous campaign posturing/rhetoric does as well:
Senator Clinton’s Voting Record–Her “own voices”–many– and a “huge slide backward
Li-zard-brain.
uh huh – gonna try to sell me some swamp land to go with that there bridge?
Well, I didn’t mean literally ‘miraculously’. I meant that it was inserted into the debate very late in the game.
There was no indication that Obama’s polling numbers were being affected by racism whatsoever.
Did the racists only rear their heads after 36%?
-G
This all goes back to that Chris Matthews makes me mad comment.
Rep. Michaud seeks to impeach Cheney
Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud has called for impeachment hearings into the conduct of Vice President Dick Cheney.Michaud, who represents Maine’s 2nd District, expressed his position in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan last month. In it, Michaud charged that there was “no doubt” that the Bush administration had “dangerously expanded the scope of executive authority” and flouted “the constitutionally defined separation of powers.”
Thanks for the new link!
Remember to vote for your favorite Republican! That’ll show Hillary!
it just seems to me that is an automatic lizard brain kinda of response when Hillary’s name is mentioned. I’ve not ever been able to understand why she provokes such an automatic hostile reaction.
The biggest thing I hold against Hillary is that the media tried to crown her for this before she was even in the senate a year. She’d never be where she is without her Bill connection and it just seems too much like nepotism.
BFL, go back and read post # 55 and # 58.
Should clear it up.
-G
I’m going to try to ’splain the Bradley/Wilder effect, because it really doesn’t involve racism per se. It isn’t really about racists messing up the pre-vote polls by lying to pollsters. It’s more subtle, and more about social mores, than that.
If I think of myself as an enlightened and non-racist person — even if I am an enlightened non-racist person — I have a quandary when I am polled in a political race between a white and a non-white. If I am really in favor of the white person in the campaign, but am afraid that candidate is attracting whites who aren’t as enlightened and non-racist as myself, I do not want to be thought one of them. One way not to be thought one of these less enlightened racists by the pollster is simply to indicate that I’ll vote for the non-white candidate. “Surely only enlightened non-racists such as myself would indicate a preference to vote for the non-white candidate!”
People who seek the approval of pollsters — and people do — need to be accounted for. One way to do this is to have the pollsters be diverse and cross-matched to the polled. But if people are seeking the approval of the pollster by indicating a candidate preference that’s entirely plausible, it’s hard to adjust or account for the differential. In other words, if a guy with a Confederate flag on the back of his pickup tells me, a pollster, that he’s voting for a non-white candidate, I might indicate to my boss (the head pollster) that this result might be an outlier. There are ways the outliers are handled by pollsters, sometimes.
But if the polled person seems entirely reasonable in indicating their preference for a non-white candidate — in other words, if I have no reason to think them an outlier — but if the polled person simply doesn’t want to be thought a racist for choosing a white candidate when there’s a non-white choice, then their poll preferences probably won’t be thought an outlier.
But the vote preferences they indicate will be incorrect. Such a person plans to vote for the white candidate, but is unwilling to indicate such a preference, as s/he thinks that means the pollster might s/he is a racist. Knowing that s/he is NOT a racist, though, s/he has no problem actually voting for the white candidate in the privacy of the voting booth.
See how this might skew pre-vote polls?
In its desire to reduce the debate to outrage and (forgive me) black & white simplicity, TradMed pundits have made the Bradley/Wilder effect about “racist voters” and “racism.” But it’s not. It’s about a more subtle desire to appear enlightened and reasonable, and a way some respondents act on that desire in a way that can’t be captured easily. Some people, when polled, deliberately try to mess up the poll. These B/W effect people, though, are trying to be liked by the pollster. Or, at least, thought to be not racist.
It’s weird, but it’s not about racism per se. It’s certainly not about calling New Hampshirites racists when reasonable people wonder if the Bradley/Wilder effect was in play. But the nature of TradMed gabfests — to shorthand everything and induce outrage — makes the subtleties of the effect hard to understand. And the complexities of race in 21st century America make it difficult to discuss.
I have no way of knowing if the B/W effect was in play in New Hampshire, but when I discuss it, I’m not calling New Hampshirites racists. To the contrary, I’m suggesting they are enlightened about race and tried to find a way to communicate that to a polltaker in a way that may have affected the pre-vote polls.
But — now we know from Olbermann that the pre-vote polls weren’t too far off on Obama’s percentages, so perhaps the fault was in the pundits for not predicting a cleaner sweep for Clinton among undecided voters. Or perhaps the fault was in the pollsters not accurately determining how the late-breaking undecided voters would actually vote. Especially given the events of the last 23-36 hours before voting.
I’ve also seen discussions that Clinton had a terrific mail-in voting operation, so it’s possible her votes were in the vault before the Obama surge began.
How bout a pig farm?
It will be interesting now that Obama has resolved to do the rapid response to anything the Clinton campaign burps including all Hillary’s “own voices” that she says she listens to. Howard Wolfson has been doing this for Clinton for over a year. Obama should have done it from day one.
Might be because the impulse to beat the shit out of someone IN YOUR OWN PARTY is just irresistible.
That vast right-wing conspiracy has done some damage, evidently…
Yeah, the whole dynastic succession theme has really got me rankled.
-G
Wow. Gotta shut off Jimmy Kimmel. Writing is not his strong point.
Speaking for myself, I don’t “hate” Clinton, I just want her out of the Presidential race and the Senate so that someone can take her place who will do something positive and meaningful.
Will Brutus remove her from the Senate?
Thanks to all of you for the love you’ve shown us.
Commonly, referred to as a ‘Circular Firing Squad’… *g*
my gop relatives have never been able to stop spewing their poisonous tirades long enough to answer that question when i’ve asked.
In my experience, these people seem to think that Hillary is the Ultimate Liberal, like she’s the most liberal liberal that ever liberalled. It’s crazy and uninformed, but that is what they seem to think.
your sty or mine?
look, i’ll run it by you and i’m sure you will agree it will be great fun.
time limit is 10 minutes from when you say “go”.
Who can guess – or come closest to guessing – the number of times the words “mysogyny” “misogynist” “misogynistic” have appeared in posts and coments at FDL in the last 2 days?
Winner to be the proud owner of “Life is a Campaign.”
Don’t know where I read this, but an article said that many women get into office on coat-tails of men, either fathers or husbands.
That’s what makes it socially acceptable for them to be in office. World-wide.
However, as Rush told us all in the run-up to ‘06, Nancy was the anti-christ…
nope
Oh Lordie Suzanne. I never want you perturbed at me.
Seeings how I have my shit kickers right here…..
i had read them already and it didn’t help. Then I just did again and ya know what? that damned lightbulb went on over my head.
my gop relatives have never been able to stop spewing their poisonous tirades
Their minds, or what passes for a mind to them, are made already.
Those types wouldn’t vote anything but GOP anyways.
Strangely enough, Barack is reaching out to them… and diminishing the Democratic energy and message so doing.
That’s a whole new post?
Ed Anderson you are a treasure. As a small boy my father, a low level D functionary in Sacramento, regaled me with accounts of Dick Tuck’s many exploits. According to Pop, Dick Tuck was, in addition to everything else, just a nice guy. I bet you are too. You just can’t be very much of an asshole and have such a deft sense of humor. For D’s in the early 60s in California the immortal words: “That goddamned Dick Tuck” dripping out Nixon’s snarled lips were as about as good as it got. Just can’t think of a way to get you close to the current VEEP for a similar sort of validation. Might be possible to get close to one of Lynne’s appearances though and for our time her snarl is almost as good as old tricky Dick’s. Anyway God bless you Ed Anderson, God bless you.
Hillary won optical scan count, but she lost hand ballot count.
Who knew?
http://www.opednews.com
Quick guess: Let’s see, about 180 comments per post * 12 posts per day, at about a 1 in 30 rate….I guess 72 times.
She’s liberal in between practicing withcraft, lesbianism and infanticide.
-G
Sorry, I meant it to be a comment, and it got outta hand.
I believe, Thatcher and Merkel did break the tradition…
you’re no fun.
My advice to those who are discouraged by whatever Democratic candidate comes out as Presidential nominee is to devote your efforts to supporting those necessary progressive Senatorial and House candidates that will push our agenda. Then hold your nose and vote for the Democratic nominee. At least you may get some halfway qualified judicial nominees rather than Federalists.
This, to me, is the most effective way to pressure the Party to move towards a Progressive Agenda. Threatening to sabotage the Presidential election by withholding ones support is akin to acting like a temper-tantrum child. It actually is quite contemptuous of the Democratic process and the votes of those that we differ with. I personally don’t see why more people don’t support Kucinich, who is obviously head over heels the best candidate on policies and who (unlike Edwards) never supported the Iraq War, who doesn’t support leaving a residual force in Iraq (or several brigades over the border in Kuwait), knew better than to trust Bush, and actually supports impeachment. But I’m not gonna allow my non-vote to allow some Neo-Bircher to elect a Giuliani or Romney.
I’d rather have a Democrat in the WH that would be responsive to the pressures of the West-wing of the party than a Giuliani or Huckabee who would somehow craft a constipated blocking veto-proof minority with a few Blue Dogs and a pared down Republican party.
Republican nominee like McCain could keep us in Iraq forever (or a hundred years YMMV)…simply by demanding more funds and threatening to veto the Defense allocation bill. Nothing would change. There needs to be a President that will respond to Congressional actions. Ditto with health care, education, the on-coming sub-prime tsunami, etc.
Remember, we don’t need a veto-proof majority if we have a strong progressive bloc in Congress. We simply need enough to shape the Democratic party and the legislation. And even if the President elected needs to pulled hard in that direction I’d rather one that does so because it’s expedient, than have an idealogue in office that is merely counting the days down to the rapture.
Over the last several months, we have gotten a great look at the anatomy of how right wing conspiracys work, and we’re getting a bird’s eye view of them now. The CIA tape coverup with a complicit Judge Kennedy and Mike Mukasey and an inept Syl Reyes is one example that will unfold this year.
And I took Carl Bernstein’s point that the same thing he hears wherever he goes, is the same vitrol he sees on right winged blogs directed at Hillary. But in an election, it is necessary to differentiate the 3 candidates, or if Governor Richardson is still in, the four.
I don’t recall anyone from the right wing forcing Senator Clinton to vote the way she did, and the votes reflect a lot of right wing supportive voting.
I obviously don’t know what else was being said on blogs or in NH. I was quite happy to not hear sexist or racist comments throughout the campaign. But, what I saw after Iowa was Obama’s supporters injecting it into the conversation any time someone didn’t support Obama. In other words, it was either hyper-sensitivity on their part or it was a campaign tactic of some kind. And, I don’t know whether Obama endorsed this or even knew of it — he did remain silent though and away from the press.
That’s a cake there in aisle 132. Click. I promise it is not a blog whore!
I disagree, stick around for late late night.
Teddy, did the people getting polled only notice Obama was African-American AFTER the Iowa caucuses?
-G
TradMed = ?
Purty color.
I concur 100% with that, let her record speak for itself…
Thanks for the thorough discussion, TSF.
The two things that surprised me about Lizard Brains is that it is a real thing and that it is not confined to the wingnuts. The Clinton Derangement Syndrome is a prime example; it exists across the political spectrum. It would be interesting to see if “lefties” with CDS have slow brain waves in the area of the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus of the brain.
back to work tomorrow, nite left coasters an’ everybody else. hope you guys are gettin’ along ok after that weather.
ansd my guess is almost twice that .. say, 125.
Bingo!
-G
Well, obviously, no. But after Iowa, there may have been a sense that he was more viable as a candidate. Again, I’m not sure the polls actually got it wrong on Obama’s numbers; Keith made an excellent case tonight that the polls were right on his numbers, but wrong — way wrong — on hers.
Which brings us to late-breaking undecideds. And women who abandoned Edwards.
can’t, man gotta get some sleep. i’d like to. nite.
Traditional Media, MSM.
I think the Repugs saw the Clintons coming from a zillion miles away and decided to destroy both, just in case.
They may dislike Edwards, but I don’t think they saw him coming into view from as far back as Bill was.
Lee Atwater is supposed to have attended a social event in Arkansas and met Bill. He goes back to Washington and tell his Repug friends, “I have met the Devil and he’s coming to get us.” Maybe he was having a premonition of his own demise, but I’m certain they felt the Clintons had to be destroyed. Now, we’re stuck with that legacy. I certainly don’t see it as a reason for us to change our own opinions of who should become president.
night BFL
Golda Meier is another one.
Interestingly, Edwards had a 17% take from the first reporting till the end tabulation, I truly wonder…
wher is the exit polls to verify?
g’nite bfl
Dearie, I see length complaints —but I really mean thank you, because Bradley effect’s been bandied about so much, yet I doubt that many of the people using it have in mind the subtleties you brought out.
Ooh, true!
hey mary mcc – was out walking token, cutest dog in the world (9lb category) when you came in
but but but Clinton is not a liberal so why were they so fired up? Was it because he could walk and chew gum at the same time and could take the presidency away from them?
I don’t see any other choice. The contrast between the two parties, and what we’ve all watched for six years, is well beyond considerable.
Does George Bush rock out or what dancing to the wedding song HAVENU SHALOM ALECHIM? Because only Steven Colbert dancing to disco does it for me more. Hopefully it will show up on You Tube soon. Bush dancing would make any wedding a festive occasion.
Personally, I don’t see a problem with reaching out. I do see a problem with changing your message or ignoring your own values to meet up with ‘em. I suggest regularly that Libertarians who are disaffected with the Repugs should vote with Dems in the general election. I think it broadens our base a little and gives us more chances to win in Western states. It’s time the Repugs had a lot more of a challenge out there. But, I don’t suggest changing the candidate’s position or rhetoric to do it — just try to point out any common ground which might exist!
What I didn’t know about Obama until a day or two ago was that he’d actually been acting like Olieberman and it wasn’t just rhetoric.
I’ve had a looong day, I shall bow out early, and, bid a fond adieu! Aloha Oe!!!
Hey Suzanne and Token. Is Token taken? Can I have him?
Night CT. Rest well.
that’s going one token over the line!
aloha CT
don’t go CT. suzanne’s just about ready to take out the cuffs!
Re:
Could have used a bit of Strunk & White input, but I appreciated that you woud consider the Bradley Effect in such a subtle way. Now me, I just think that lots of us are subconsciously impacted by skin color without any adverse overt effect.
judas forking priest – i can’t believe that we are an hour and a half into this thread and not a single one of you pups dugg this post by jane.
Which is why I get frustrated that the Bradley Effect is being postulated by numbskulls like Matthews and Fineman.
I mean they are just blathering the typical non-informed chatter that sets memes up that are then used to beat up the Democrats and the left.
As I said, any racists in NH told the pollsters that they were going to vote for Tancredo, most likely.
-G
Oh, you kid!
Definitely. Obama screamed all about how Hillary voted for Leiberman-Kyl but somehow “forgot” the wording of his S.1430 Iran Sanctions Enabling Act which also designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization and heightened the dangers of Iran’s nuclear activities to the unjustifiable level of being a nuclear weapons program. And there is all that BS about Ahmijinedad calling for the extermination of Israel, too. You’d figure that Obama would be more careful to obtain accurate translations given that he’s currently being falsely accused of being a “radical Muslim trained in a Wahhabist madrassa”.
And Edwards has basically stated just the same about the threat of Iranian “terrorism” at the Herzliya Conference just a few months before the Lieberman-Kyl vote. According to Edwards Iran is the most dangerous terrorist sponsor in the World!
So all of these candidates need to start balancing their information sources.
Really? What actions has Obama taken that resemble Leiberman remootely?
It’s funny with all the people who waste time typing Leiberman’s name in juxtaposition to Obama, that campaigns of two people who want to beat him in the worst way possible–one who is worth several millions of dollars and one who has spent $75 million dollars collected far and away from large corporate doners, have never and will never mention Leiberman’s name once as responses get more rapid, and the contests toward the general heat up.
Keep in mind that as senators all 3 of our top candidates are flawed. Obama votes ‘present’ a lot and Edwards record was more conservative than his present positions.
This is perhaps one of the toughest problems we have: which is a phony or could ever be trusted to do well as president? I’ve told some people that it’s likely they’re all phonies — to some extent. This makes it very difficult to pull back the curtain and see whether the person behind is the same as the one we see in public.
Just who would we really get as president if we were to elect Obama, Clinton or Edwards?
It also looks like there will be a surge in troops into Afghanistan because the Soviets, I mean Bush is losing ground there.
Night CT.
-G
New Docs: Exec at NH’s Diebold Vote Counting Firm Convicted of Narcotics Trafficking
from Brad blog by Brad Friedman
Does the Secretary of State of New Hampshire have any idea that a key executive in the private firm that programs and “counts” 80% of the state’s ballots on hackable, error-prone Diebold voting machines is a convicted narcotics trafficker?
No bump at all from Iowa? Odd.
I don’t think we can trust the Iowa or NH results very much. You had optical scanners with computerized tabulators in Iowa and they were possibly having results tabulated by an Israeli company. In NH we had the same old crap Diebold computer systems which “elected” Bush twice.
I’d rather put Iowa and NH into the past and start fresh, but with a bit more knowledge on the candidates, who their big groups are, how the public is reacting and things like that.
Went back to work today after the holidays. Talked to a lot of young people. Never seen this much interest in a primary like this – or knowledge of issues involved – by young people.
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM thinks NH was hacked. So do I. I spent a lot of time arguing that even though it was hacked, I can’t believe the hackers let the Clinton campaign know about it. I wasn’t as convincing as I tried to be. A big Obama movemnet building on campuses here.
Bingo!
Of course, that wouldn’t prevent them from labeling her or any other Dem nominee as a raving lunatic tax & spend Massachussetts Liberal pinko commie you name it.
They definitely don’t play nice. I wonder, which of our candidates would be most vulnerable to garbage attacks. They’re all vulnerable in some way.
May I recommend a trip over to KOS to read the NH voting post.
NH towns are in charge of tabulating their own votes. A conspiracy to steal votes would require complicity by a large number of people, a very large number of people.
Every vote in NH has a paper trail, an official ballot that can be hand counted in the event of any issues.
Election fraud didn’t happen.
-G
They would be less vulnerable if Dems in general didn’t act like such clown cars. :) :P ;0
NH did NOT elect Bush twice. It was the only state to switch from Red to Blue between 2000 and 2004.
-G
He’s accused of that by shit slingers who couldn’t translate their ass, just as his middle name which came from his Kenyan grandmother is used.
You know that Ahmijinedad is an Ayatollah puppet.
That’s a nice ideal, having voters conversant with bills by number in Congress, and I’m with you, but they won’t. You might try setting your sights a little lower there–say Britney’s bra size. The electorate bell shaped curve doesn’t have a clue what those things are, and will never give a shit. You might try some videos of the exit polls that college kids with little expierience conducted, to see what moves them.
You could try to get your questions asked in the debate among 3 of them in Nevada though. With only 3 there will be more time for longer answers. I hope they don’t revert to the idiotic pre-school debate format.
Watch what any of the three left does in respect to Telcom/Comco immunity in ole S. 2248–the remainder of the toxi bill allowing DNI and DOJ entirely to determine what constitutes illegal wiretapping in the most nebulous “enigma enshrouded in a mystery” language possible.
Re:
As one who has proposed such a course of action, I would like to remind you and others here that our two-party system itself hold democracy in utter contempt. Just take a look at any of the vibrant democracies of Europe to get an idea of how a real democracy works. Most nations there have multiple parties, including actual left parties in the socialist tradition. Nothing remotely close to a party representing the real interests of working people and our proletariat exists in this country.
What we have here is a charade. A Potemkin Village with two right wings of the Corporate Party vying to distract the public with either fear-mongering or promises of buyoffs via entitlements.
Which Party stands for protecting the Constitution from the depredations of the runaway unitary executive theorists? Neither, Chris Dobb and Russ Feingold notwithstanding.
Which Party stands for Peace? Neither, with the exception of a completely kabuki-like “Out of Iraq” coalition in the Dems and the lone ranger, Ron Paul on the Right.
Which Party stands for the protection of citizens from the depredations of the corporations? Neither. Both are in bed with Wall Street and the malodorous and malevolent influence of Wall Street’s filthy and ill-gotten lucre.
Which Party represents the way forward to saving the Republic and curbing the cur of Empire? Neither. And here’s where it get outrageously sinister. The Democratic Party has just created and passed throught the House H.R. 1955. This is a bill that should be shouted about by everyone, because if you actually take the time to read it, you’ll learn that the Democratic Party, via Jane Harmon, intends to make the use of logical argument in the course of trying to effect political change a crime. That’s right. What I just wrote could be interpreted as a crime according to H.R. 1995.
And we should support Democrats after blinding ourselves to this reality? I think not.
As a “sponsor” they might well be. Of course, that wouldn’t necessarily lead to attacking them.
Geez, won’t it be nice to someday not have American Jewish money and Israelis dominating the US middle east policy. If the Dem party wasn’t so in need of campaign money this wouldn’t have ever become such a big problem. And, now today the NeoCons are a huge force in the Repug party, so that we’re still having problems. We had a natural coalition during the Civil Rights era and we favor multi-culturalism and all that, but being held hostage for campaign money really sucks.
I don’t think Edwards is dangerous. He’s just been a hawk for so long it’s probably hard for him to find other language. It isn’t easy being a candidate and knowing you’re going to be attacked for being soft on crap.
Every vote in NH has a paper trail, an official ballot that can be hand counted in the event of any issues.
How many of these have been recounted so far, to compare the paper to the screen, Greg?
The gullibility of the national press never ceases to amaze me. Apparently, Hillary had no victory speech prepared last nite!
I wonder if Peter Baker and Anne Kornblut, who appear to have unfettered “access” to the Clinton campaign, or its spinners at least, have spoken with Brian Williams and Tim Russert about their “access” to folks who told them that Clinton was going to crash & burn, flameout, and get run over. Oh, wait, that wasn’t spin, according to Williams and Russert. Never mind.
my head is spinning from all this non-spin spin
i think they are all forking spinning
Aside from his legislation which resembled Kyl-Lieberman read this for a flavor.
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2007/street0207.html
According to The Bilerico Report, Richardson is definitely out tomorrow with no endorsement.
TSF,
If there were evidence of chicanery, why wouldn’t the Obama campaign ask for a recount?
A lost election is not evidence of a stolen election.
Surely the Obama people would be bringing evidence forward to protest.
-G
Suzanne like the one liner cuse she likes to banter and keep it lite at nite. But she has no excuse for no power. With all that retirement pay you can get a nifty little generator like the ones in luxury RVs and blog whether power from the grid is available. Took me a while to get it.
The public can’t look at ‘em. The only time they get looked at is if a candidate demands a recount. That isn’t going to happen.
For more on election fraud read BradBlog.com
where that’s the specialty.
thanks teddy.
Sorry,
That was for ET.
-G
Now I am more confused than evah.
Heh, well we are Dems. And, some of us are DFH Progressives. What can I say?
I would like to remind you and others here that our two-party system itself hold democracy in utter contempt. Just take a look at any of the vibrant democracies of Europe to get an idea of how a real democracy works.
This is nonsense and offensive. In this country, two parties have survived because they have shifted positions as they get pushed in one direction or another. That is what has happened over the last 200+ years (with some parties actually dying).
The presence of minority “pure” parties does not make a democracy.
suzanne readily admits to her power issues
I bet old Duncan Hunter had a magnificent winning speech prepared.
Really? I did not know that. Wow! Now I’m really confused.
Re:
I would strongly encourage you to review the history of the Democratic Party in the aftermath of Watergate. In the 1976 elections, huge Congressional majorities were elected. Democrats had veto proof majorities in both chambers. This was the era of the Rep. Otis Pike and Sen. Frank Church hearings into the illegal and frankly grotesque covert operations of the C.I.A., etc. This was an era when progressive legislation should have been a breeze to pass.
And what came of this veto-proof majority? In essence, nothing. The Federal Reserve and the Republicans tied up the economy with volitional efforts to exacerbate inflation as a means of stifling liberal entitlement expansions. The investigations by Pike and Church ended with the agencies fighting back and preventing the most important of reforms and controls from taking hold.
It’s as if the Democrats were destined to mediocrity rather than greatness. There was no will in Carter’s White House to shape sweeping reform. There was micro-managing and endless gridlock in the Executive Branch, again due to Democratic Party incompetence and Republican Party meddling.
So, if you think a handful more of Senators and Representatives on the Dems side of the aisle is going to make a difference, I say that you really need to spend more time understanding history.
Hell, so do I.
i am gonna turn in. been a hard day. long day. back hurts. brain hurts.
night my friends.
Every town is independently in charge of their own elections.
Stealing elections would require a vast undertaking.
-G
Nite TB.
Are you counting Suzanne’s money for her?
Night Betsey.
-G
Interestingly, a close review of the Bradley election for Mayor of LA suggests that it may not have been impacte by the “Bradley Effect.”
Rather, the pollsters miscalculated minority turnout and underestimated the impact of recently liberalized absentee voting rules.
pain free sleep wishes tex
Good night Miss Betsy.
maybe its because i am but a lowly female and don’t have a big strong man to count it for me – if a man counts my retirement pennies, those pennies will magically increase in size?
If you are referring to me – it was not intended as a zinger.
Honey, I have to tell you that when a man counts anything it tends to diminish in size.
fern, that zinger was mine
Nope, yer cool, see Suzanne @ 76
It’s the Battle of the Sexes!!! Cum One! Cum All!
yeah, that’s why i’m so bad at the math yanno. that whole measuring thing – i did learn the answer is “at least 6 inches”
That has been an unfounded presumption during the computer era. If a chip or software is corrupt or if an optical scan tabulator or results reporting system is vulnerable, then a handful of people can change the entire national result, as happened in 2004.
You can’t see what’s in a chip or software and can’t tell whether it’s recording and tabulating your vote properly, even if it prints it properly on a paper tape.
In Iowa, if what I read at BlackboxVoting was correct, they had a crazy tabulating system where results from precincts were cell-phoned to some site in Florida (yep, good old trusty Florida) where an Israeli company (wtf?) was handling the tabulating. Crazy stuff.
Where do I sign?
Feel the noize……..
-G
You don’t have to sign anathin. Just play.
Warning: Left handed southern scorpios on board.
Pete,
Richardson left the field of battle today.
Re:
I don’t have anything to add. I just want Hillary supporters to start getting thie through their thick skulls :)
ok – I am occasionally prone to instant guilt – had not read the whole context.
i’m in touch with my inner bitch tonight -i am sure i’ll be guilt ridden in a few hours
Mark,
The evidence in NH suggests a fair, safe system designed to prevent theft.
I watch it very closely and I’m confident it is not subject to theft.
If there were evidence, I imagine Sen. Obama would have held a press conference by now.
-G
I would strongly encourage you to review the history of the Democratic Party in the aftermath of Watergate. In the 1976 elections, huge Congressional majorities were elected. Democrats had veto proof majorities in both chambers.
It’s a 40 year effort. Not a 4 year effort. Republicans have held the White House almost exclusively for decades. We can’t change the country from the top down. We have to work slowly, bit by bit, person to person, convincing them that government itself can do good things. We’re fighting against an enormously strong anti-government and cynical attitude bestowed on us by Reagan.
This is what I fear. People loudly abandoning the Democratic party four months into 2009 because every problem hasn’t been solved.
LOL!
Right handed Left cost Aquarian.
Do you want my number?
What was that? You are gonna have to type louder, dude.
Late Late!!!
You coming out this way?
Why the hell not, I never let fear get in my way.
why don’t you speak for markh and let edwards speak for himsolf…you missed the Iowa statementthat he would get the troops out in 10 months… check out his website for fear/war mongering…the man is coming after the military/industrial complex not to stop it… to excude its influence from political tainting of the democratic process…he has not taken their money how about your candidate whoever that is? This was a restrained comment for the benefit of the oyther bloggers.
Out this way? Where?
Hugo Chavez tells Naomi Campbell:
Touch my muscles.
I love the interwebs.
-G
Chuckle.
Left coast, I sure as hell ain’t going anywhere.
I’m house sitting for my folks and watching out for my 94 year old Granny.
You might be completely correct. With the huge turnouts there is ample possibility Hillary got a lot of votes which didn’t really change the standing of other candidates. It’s truly a huge year for voter turnout. Add the tearing-up incident and maybe a lot of women voters decided to push her over the top. Who knows.
Anyway, as I said before, I’m happy to just put these two into the past and move on. We really haven’t begun to settle the big questions. All we really have is a lot of information, some very valuable. Making decisions based on that information could still be nigh to impossible.
But Exit Polling also showed that Edwards had between 16-17%…and the exit polls also predicted the results of the counts of Obama and Clinton accurately as well. One thing I noted about Edwards results from the exit polls was that Edwards support didn’t vary more than about 1-2% accross different Demographics. This was a bit different from Clinton and Obama who had some differences between urban and rural constituencies and different areas of the State.That would suggest that Edwards results wouldn’t fluctuate very much regardless of which areas reported.
I also looked at the differentials of the counts by hand-counted vs. optical scanned votes. Clinton and Obama showed some variation between city size in that regard. Clinton showing a net increase in optical scan tallied support in small (+3.7% of her total) and medium (+5.5%) towns while Obama had a net loss of support on opti-scan votes in those towns (-3% and -4.2% respectively). That might suggest some sort programming bias in the results EXCEPT that Obama had a net increase of +4.5% opti-scans in the URBAN areas (while Clinton lost 4%). If you want to contrive a conspiracy theory you have to suggest that there were different conspirators who were working to bias the results in opposite directions in favor of different candidates.
And Edwards? His results fluctuated between +1% optiscan count vs. hand count in those smallest towns, to a +0.5% count in medium towns, to a -1.8% loss of optiscans vs. handcount in Urban areas. Here especially there is very little evidence of rigging. And if it occurred it would have had to have been in favor of Obama in the Urban districts. And someone must have rigged it in his favor in the rural districts (rather than push those votes to Clinton?). That seems very unlikely.
I think that the most logical explanations for these differences is that
a) Optical Scanning occurred in different precincts than the handcounts even though they were in cities and towns of the same size. Thus, perhaps…you had handcounts in VERY remote rural towns while you had optiscans in suburban towns of the same size. So even though the “towns” were of same size, they voted differentially. Maybe Hillary attracted more support in the small ‘burbs and thus got more optiscans there than in the rura handcount zones.
b) I recall that mail-in ballots are handcounted rather than opti-scanned. So if “strong” Hillary supporters were preferentially rural they may have voted by mail. If “strong” Urban Obama voters voted by mail early you might find disparities between these results and the later voters who came in and decided on site. It could mean that Hillary lost support amongst some rural voters or, simply that the undecideds were a bit more diverse than the early mail-in voters in those areas. In Urban areas later voters may have not supported Obama as much as the mail-in votes in those precincts.
c) Another problem was that many precincts reported that they ran out of Opti-Scan cards. Those voters were thus compelled to file hand-counted ballots. Thus if late voters were different than those that voted in the morning or through the day then one might expect a differential in the sampling between the “early” optiscan votes and the hand-counted ballots in a precinct. Often 9-5 workers (especially commuters) vote later in the day, and this might have been especially true if there were lines at the polls.
All of these may lead to a difference between opti-scan tallies and hand-counts.
I didn’t miss his ’statement’. I’ve been supporting him from the beginning of his campaign. But, I’m no babe in the woods. I want everyone to realize these are human beings and they have flaws and they’re professionals who have made compromises at some time in their careers. We still have to pick one and pray we get it right.
Don’t tase me bro’. You have no idea how much time I’ve spent trying to convince people to elect him!
Mark,
Take care. I am all for being vigilant.
Cheers.
-G
Re:
Obama is a showman who will do nothing to attempt to educate the people about the disinformation flowing in the MSM and the Bush’s Mighty Wurlitzer. He’s part of the same sound machine. Don’t expect miracles from the man, he wants to get elected, not tell the truth.
BIG DITTO
ET if hacked then why would they hack it so that Obama won more optiscans in the Urban areas, while Clinton and Edwards got a surplus in the rural areas? Doesn’t make sense.
We can pass the hat and get one if your a little short. Santa Cruz is not the cheap seats anymore. By the way how did the septic system and the leach field hold up inder all that rain and flood? Hopefully OK. I just imagined the creek swelling up when I saw the doppler/ The first storm missed us but you got all three. For us it was the wind.
Re:
BINGO! We have a winner.
Re:
The ruling elites have ruled this country with a death grip favoring the elites since the 19th Century. A canddate who truly reperesents the interest of the People simply cannot run for higher office in this nation. Dennis Kucinich or Russ Feingold may represent the absolute glass ceiling for what can be achieved. Certainly no progressive has ever or will ever be allowed to run for President. And you call this democracy?
For an excellent insight into the intermeshed cooperation and corruption of the two parties, I find the writing of Walter Karp to be exceptionally informative. Try it, you might find something you’ll enjoy learning here.
i did not realize that you, by virtue of commenting here, had been designated overseer of my finances.
Re:
Huh? Rob this exactly how the elites have been running this country since colonial days with only brief interludes of progressivism. We’ve only had two relatively reformist eras in our history, the brief effort by Teddie Roosevelt to constrain “malefactors of great wealth” and the New Deal reforms designed to protect capitalists from themselves as these cruel men set out to destroy the underclass and inadvertently bring about revolution.
Ray- What you are saying is…exactly what? Are you suggesting that a group of people who can’t even get 20% of the public to support a pro-Zionist guy who voted for the Iraq War Authorizing Amendment (Edwards) should go out and form a third party while sealing the Republican fundy-facists into permanent control. That Turkey was tried in 2000. Nader didn’t fly! Instead of Gore we ended up with Bush and the Neo-Cons.
I personally don’t think the Congress that was elected in 1976 (actually it was pretty much a carry-over Congress…the same one that supported the Vietnam War for the prior decade) was particularly “progressive”. I’m not advocating supporting the Blue Dogs or “Bush Dogs”. In fact, just the opposite. There are several races against Bush Dog incumbents and progressives in races for seats held by Republicans that are contested. Each of these victories represent a net increase of folks that can swing the Party to the left. that’s where to put your resources.
Or you can throw up your hands and immigrate, I suppose. I’ll hold out a bit longer. Maybe I’ll end up in the camps you are worrying about. But I also know that in the multi-party elections in Austria in the early 1930’s the Communists and Social Democrats split and failed to unite, despite having a 55% majority, allowing the Austrian Nazis and Christian Democrats (Right Wing) to take control. Most of the leadership of the Communists and SD ended up in Concentration camps or sent off to fight the Russians after the Anschluss.
I do like the idea of recruiting progressive candidates. That should be encouraged.
However, I’m not naive enough to not have been aware that Rahm Emanuel went out of his way in 2006 as the head of the DCCC to destroy progressive candidacies, such as that of likely winner Cindy Cegalis in the IL-6.
I saw what the Ohio Dems did to Paul Hackett who had a wonderful stance on the Iraq War and could have prevailed but for the intervention of the good old boys on behalf of Sherrod Brown. (Who is a decent man.)
But the Establishment of the Democratic Party is corrupt at heart and I simply cannot stomach the notion of being obeisant to a regime I despise. Surely our civic classes did not teach us that we just need to bend over so that the bosses could have their way with us.
***
One final point. There is a pernicious and pervasive misconception among captured zombies in the Democratic Party that Ralph Nader was the cause of Al Gore failing to take the White House in 2000. That’s rubbish. Al Gore lost that race on his own with inept and mediocre campaigning and a terrible strategy in Florida. Nader had nothing to do with the fact that Gore was acting like a dime-store Indian for most of the campaign. Gore should have fired every damn consultant that attach his/her lamprey mouth on Gore’s wallet. He’d have won in a landslide if he’d only had the sense act like the Al Gore we know and love today.
Let’s not forget, Ed is a proud, card-carrying member of the CFL Party.
Sue, CFL Secretary
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..739/346052
(Ed, we should be having a meeting sometime this year)
I don’t care about the future of the party. I don’t give a damn about the future of ANY party. I DO care about the future of the country and the world, however. The Dem party has proven itself, repeatedly to be incapable of handing power.
Here’s what the Democrats have done:
Put Roberts on the SCROTUS.
Put Alito on the SCROTUS.
Voted for the Patriot Act.
RENEWED the Patriot Act.
Voted for the Iraq war.
CONTINUE to support and vote for the Iraq war.
Voted for the MCA.
Have expressly failed to rescind the MCA.
Have failed to conduct any investigations of any crimes by BushCo. Sure, they have initiated a few but they never ever take them anywhere and go out of their way to support the weak obstructionism put out by BushCo.
Have failed to conduct investigations of Sibel Edmonds’ case.
Took impeachment off the table early and remain steadfastly intent to keep it off the table, effectively and honestly neutering themselves.
Whined about “not having the votes” because their majority isn’t big enough, while, oddly, while they were in the minority, they were just as weak and ineffectual as they are in the majority. The GOP has ALL the power regardless of whether they are in the majority OR in the minority. Where was the supermagical minority power being wielded by the GOP when the Dems were the minority?
Refuse to shut down Gitmo.
Put Mukasey in as AG in spite of his refusal to say what is obvious and has ALWAYS been the case: waterboarding IS torture. Period.
Gave us the bankruptcy bill.
Have not gone back and fixed the bankruptcy bill.
Declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a “terrorist organization”.
Bought into the idea that US troops will, and should, remain in Iraq (in some empire-building capacity) for a looong time.
There’s more but there you have it. McAuliffe and company (Emmanuel, BOTH Clintons, Schumer, Reid, Feinstein, etc, etc, etc) are defined by this list. It IS what they are.
Fuck the party, I want to save my country.