That only leaves four, right?

zed

your right

Ooh, Zedders! Aloha, Jane!

only candidate who promised “no residual forces” in Iraq?

Hello, Dennis?

The fourth! Hill, Obama, Edwards, and, DK!

That is three candidates who have dropped out before 99% of us have had a chance to vote for them. This really sucks.

5 I think, lets not forget Gravel ; )

And, Gravel, in whatever states he’s filed in…

Looks like I have to choose from a shruken slate. I’m used to my choices being deleted and I have to select from a slate on the lower half of my list. Oh well. Onward.

Dang, owe ya a coke…! ;-)

I will miss him - for many reasons - but primarily as the only candidate willing to stand up and demand a real end to the occupation.

damn

Winning elections? How quaint. These days you buy elections.

You bring the Coke, I’ll bring a pack ‘o twinkies we can share ; )

That the campaign started a year ago is also pretty shamoriffic.

-G

Send Richardson over to the Middle East because our own shit-caked Revers King Midas has brought his instability and toxic karma.

OT Iran accuses US of faking boats video:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01.....an.html?hp

Rachel, just confirmed on AA, that she’ll be on the tail-end of KO…! *sigh* I *heart* Rachel… 8-)

This is obviously good news for the Republicans Gravinich.

Deal! *g*

woo woo Jane! I applaud your gracious acknowledgement of Richardson’s contribution to the primaray contests for being the only candidate who promised “no residual forces” and the promotion of his words by bloggers.

Schadenfrude…?

Who does he want his people to back now?
I didn’t see anything about that yet.

Reid ain’t never going to get those 100,000 Nevada dems out for the caucus. So far I am only getting 1/3 to commit to caucusing. I think Obama has a terrific chance. The culinary union is powerful in Nevada.

Dodd was/is magnificent, too… His stand on FISA is astonishing and admirable…! *g*

The culinary union is powerful in Nevada.

Food for thought.

this makes me sad - i felt he had the best qualifications to lead us out of bush’s mess. sigh.

i will probably align with whoever richardson backs

You are right, I updated. Thanks.

Ouch.

I’m afraid that as much as I like Richardson, he never seemed to me to have the charisma for the top spot.

I’ve always thought he should be the VP choice for whoever’s nominated, or Secretary of State might be even better.

I am very sorry American media allowed so little attention for Richardson’s detailed thoughts and experience. We all lose so much when such experience is completely shut out of the national discussion.

So thank you Gov. and thanks for standing up against MIC most of all.

Who does he want his people to back now?
I didn’t see anything about that yet.

Isn’t Hillary’s 60 days for withdrawal of combat troops the strongest at this point?

I’m not a Richardson fan but I agree with Jane -he made an important contribution to the 2008 race.

Saw that headline. Just goes to show low our credibility is worldwide. thanks bush!!!

Yep! Magnificent indeed!

Richardson is gone. Too bad. “Credentials” are out. The “rock star” and the “experienced one” are in.

I wanted to like Richardson but honestly, he made way too many stupid verbal mistakes during the debates that trashed his message.

Let’s hope their support isn’t half-baked…Alaska Quaker Girl.

Richardson has 19 superdelegates so I guess they go back to Hillary now?

I don’t know, but I took her comment last night about ending the war in Iraq “responsibly” as establishment code for STFU you DFHs.

Sorry to see this as well. The dems have a deep bench. Some quality people are not going to make it.

Rachel had reported earlier that the CU and the parent SEIU endorsed Obama, not, Hill… I didn’t catch her cite, tho…

I was thrilled by Hillary’s stick it to the media win last night, but I continue to be wary of her hawkishness…

Sorry completely OT ,
But WHEN can we drop the ‘Radical’ part of this mans’ name/title? Not really directed at anyone just thinking/ranting.
(from Gregs’ post of previous thread.

“Since America began to be involved in the Middle East … the suffering of Muslim and non-Muslim nations has gone from bad to worse.” — Radical Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

US did invade his country. US did take over his country. US takes everything from them and give it to Cronies/Allies. US murders/dishonors Iraqi women, Iraqi children, Iraqi mothers, fathers, Disrespects their Culture/history. US destroys their homes, their schools, their hospitals, their water treatment plants, EVERYTHING. And all is done, in the name of the American People and for ‘Democracy and Freedom’

Agreed.. I just don’t like the way 80 percent of this is over at the very time most voters are beginning to decide.

Now… if we could just get rid of the Republican contenders and Obama and Hillary. We still think we are not satisfied with the gross mediocrity that Obama and Hillary bring to this contest. We have much better Democrats than these two. Beginning with Edwards.

We’ll soon find out if it was real or code in the next debate. Assuming of course she is asked for more details.

You have to fill out a form in triplicate, get it notarized, submit it to TPTB, stand on your head for four+ years, and retrieve it from TPTB to change any government/media boilerplate.

I can’t believe Grandpa Fred’s still in. He’s got 4 hrs to get out or I’m going to lose a bet.
C’mon Grandpa, wake up and announce that you don’t want to be pres after all.

Oh I agree, between all the fuss over her non-crying and the jerks who want her to stick to ironing, even I might have contemplated voting for her yesterday. I would love love love to see a woman as President, I just want her to implement progressive policies rather than continuing our little Pax Americana experiment.

I don’t think it will be over before SuperTerrificStupendous Tuesday. MrsCO very excited. It’s the first time primary caucus might actually help decide something. Flyover States Unite!

Yep, there’s a big “follow on” effect that just fries me. Maybe that is why the Iowa and NH primaries were different because they were so close together? Were they this close together in time before? sorry for the dumb question.

I wanted to like Richardson but honestly, he made way too many stupid verbal mistakes during the debates that trashed his message.

I agree..there was something that was not “quite right” with Richardson.

If HRC somehows manages to lose this contest, I’d like to see a new Democratic president appoint her as the ambassador to Iraq. Do you think she would accept such an appointment?

Darn! That leaves only one candidate with Mexican American credentials left in the race ;-)

Richardson for me was the kind of candidate both parties should have been looking for, someone with real experience not just claims of experience. He would not have been a flashy leader but a solid one. Right now solid looks awfully good to me. I also thought Dodd was another good candidate. Like I have said a million times, I think that both Hillary ad Obama talk about leadership more than exercising it. I like Edwards because his analysis of what is going on in this country, the destruction of the great American middle class, is in sync with my own. If the media concentrated on substance more than atmospherics, Hillary and Obama would be nipping at his heels and not the other way around. If nothing else perhaps he like Richardson will steer the debate in a more productive and progressive direction.

Heh heh - hope your bet doesn’t involve serious money solai. Poor ole Grandpa Fred moves at a snail’s pace and takes lots of naps.

Good one. I think there need to be many many more hard hitting questions that pull no punches when it comes to this FUBAR occupation.

“Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to do that?”

Much like the young man with camera who took on the Young Republicans on their Iraq stand. Willing to enlist? Uh, no.

His performance at the Equal Rights Campaign debate thingy didn’t impress us. I agree with whoever said upthread that he’d be a great Sec. of State.

Immigrant Mitt!

Look at the pic of Bush on Al Jazeera.

He does have his The Pet Goat face on.

Uh-oh.

-G

From MSNBC:

“A Richard campaign insider told NBC Political Director Chuck Todd on Tuesday before the New Hampshire results were in that the candidate might “suspend, not end” his campaign soon, meaning he would halt active campaigning but not officially drop out.”

Does he hold any delegates? Or is he waiting for a chance to be able to throw his support to the frontrunner, when there is a clear one? A high ranking appointment might be a consideration.

ive been on richardson’s mailing list for a long time - i haven’t received any information about this. rather, i recieved an email today asking for contributions to fund his campaign in the west. plus - his website has crashed.

Unfortunately, the Dem field is so crowded with candidates with more presence. Richardson is a statesman for sure but standing next to the others, he didn’t present as powerfully. He has a pleasant conciliatory style.

Only speaking to presentation (sigh) not substance.

I was gonna say Tancredo, but he bowed out already… ;-)

I don’t know what happened to Edwards in Nevada. I worked on his and Kerry’s campaign in ‘04 and he had a lot of support. Many of us didn’t like Kerry but we liked Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth. She represented him well. His popularity and support wained over these four years. Who knows why. He is very much now the way he was in ‘o4, more seasoned. It is still a union state.

Since the caucus is open it would be hard to vote openly and go with Edwards. Everyone will know if you didn’t vote for Obama.

When was the last time Obama and Hillary had a “real” job?

KO says Richardson’s office is “vehemently” denying that Richardson is dropping out.

I’ll miss Richardson’s wit, but I have to say my heart is still with Kucinich. ;-)

This may have already been covered here, but Obama’s camp is now saying that Hillary didn’t cry after Katrina:

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/....._tears.php

I didn’t cry either. I was bullshit by the inaction of my government! Still am actually.

MSNBC:

But a Richardson spokeswoman told NBC News the report was wrong and Richardson was still in the contest for the Democratic nomination.

KO reporting Richardson denies he is dropping out of the race.

OT, although it may be relevant to the Huckleberry effort to turn America into a Fundy Christian Nation. But RawStory links to a survey about non-church going people, like myself.

Of these folks who do not go to church on Sunday, 44% agree with the statement “Christians get on my nerves.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/r.....rvey_N.htm

Who was the source of the original Richardson news?

Richardson is in again? LOL

I can’t keep up with these people!

Hillary and Obama. Such a dynamic pair!

Yup…something is up.

Oh I agree, between all the fuss over her non-crying and the jerks who want her to stick to ironing, even I might have contemplated voting for her yesterday. I would love love love to see a woman as President, I just want her to implement progressive policies rather than continuing our little Pax Americana experiment.

Some people have said that the “iron my Shirts” thing was a “joke”…but I see these “morning shows” as merely an extension of the right-wing Talk Radio phenomenon. These shows are generally populated by adolescent forms of Rush Limbaugh, a bit more physically active, but still pathetically mindless. They are the ones that send people out to demonstrate against immigrants and organize counter-protests against the Iraq War demos (at least at the beginning of the war). They are typically anti-Gay, anti-Women, but pro-marijuana libertarians. In think they are the source of a goodly number of the Paultard contingent.

If Limbaugh had sent his minions out to pull a stunt like this it would be viewed as the partisan attack it was…but because these guys are denizens of some “Morning Zoo” it’s viewed as just a jackass-form of humor.

AP was the original source of the erroneous Richardson folding story according to KO.

Who was the source of the original Richardson news?

AP, according to Richardson’s campaign manager.

I will say this. If the Democrats lose the WH next year to the GOP, I am through with the Democratic Party.

good

it wouldn’t have been right for him to drop out before super tuesday

Why in the world would W be in the Middle East. That is insane. Who sent him? You just know he didn’t want to go there. There is no rational reason for it. None.

Didn’t some blog claim that the “iron my shirt” thing was a prank of some sort, and not a genuine spontaneous sexist exclamation? Do we know anything definitive about this?

good lord - look at those people in the background for Hillary’s speech last night.

Middle schoolers?

link for Richardson NOT dropping out of race

Who sent him?

Hmm… Could it be…SATAN!?!11!?!!1!!11

Seriously, I agree completely. I would be scared totally shitless if I were him to go anywhere near the Middle East.

Maybe Darth sent him as bait (/snark)

You mean, other than Malkin? Not that I’ve seen…

Jane, this kinda refutes the post, eh? Pass the popcorn…! *g*

Looks like it’s going to be all Obama and Hillary on the tv tonight. I am thinkng we are looking at a movie and a game or two of scrabble tonight.

So they must be brighter than Chuck Norris.

Ya mean he’s a suicide bomber???

I played two games of scrabble last night. Got my butt kicked too.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. I had some vague notion of something I read somewhere today. It’s equally possible that what I poorly remember reading was a debunking of the prank claim.

Yahtzee in our house.

Prank or not, it’s still unacceptable. Whenever something crops up that might be sexist, I rephrase it to pertain to race rather than gender. If it sounds racist, then the original remark was sexist. So for example, if some adolescent jackass pipes up and shouts to Obama, “pick my cotton”, I’m guessing the media reaction would have been swift and damning.

let me ask something I wonder if anyone has considered;

do we believe edwards will take a vice president spot on the ticket?

I don’t think so but I can’t be certain, what do most of you guys think?

do we think a ticket that includes both oboma and clinton is good or bad?

this is a tough call for me, that ticket will gather all the anti women, anti clinton, anti black votes possible, would it be good or bad?

these are tough calls…does anyone think oboma would take the vice president spot on a clinton ticket?

how about the reverse, would the hill be vice president to oboma?

and for everyone’s information, I am scared of a mccain candidacy, I think he’s their best shot, I think we have shot ourselves in the foot disparaging rudy and mitt too soon.. I think it’s because of the progressive movement rudy is not going to be able to run…too bad, he is the most beatable

So…we are at war with 2 countries in the M.E., and threatening war with a third…and we send the Prezdinent, Secretary of State, and Hadley over there. D’oh….

So they must be brighter than Chuck Norris.

I used to have a hamster that was brighter than… oh, never mind.

The youngsters behind Hillary last night were reported to be from families who worked on the get out the vote in NH and local Hillary volunteers.

Ya got me - not what I intended, but much much funnier : )

Since KO and Shuster are talking about it, at the risk of being redundant I’ll repeat my take on Clinton finding her voice “…I want to especially thank New Hampshire, over the last week I listened to you and in the process I found John Edwards’ voice I found my own voice.”

as in the master of bait?

(too easy, sorry)

I do think John would be VP. He’d be foolish not to.

The Redd Hedd has a new post upstairs.

Ouch! I am way out of my league here… : )

Prank or not, it’s still unacceptable.

No doubt. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that prank status would mitigate the vile nature of the sentiment. I am quite aware of the intrinsically sexist nature of the “It was just a joke. Can’t you take a joke?” defense.

I would hope he would with either candidate. It would be good for a future run too.

Where is Count Dickula? Plotting his Al Haig moment?

-G

do we think a ticket that includes both oboma and clinton is good or bad?

I can see some advantages to a Clinton/Obama ticket, apart from its obvious electoral strength.

I still think the next prez is going to be a one-termer, because there are just *so* many unpleasant, possibly unpopular, definitely divisive things that need to be done to clean up GWB’s mess.

My question then becomes whether 4 years in the Veep slot would benefit Obama, or maybe even serve to turn him into more of the candidate that I *want* to vote for in 2012.

20 thousand leagues?

Agreed.. I just don’t like the way 80 percent of this is over at the very time most voters are beginning to decide.

I find the time crunch of Super Tuesday to be the biggest obstacle to refining our candidates and getting them to promise campaign pledges, or at least bouncing the people’s input off one another and getting it on record. I would much prefer a more stretched out primary, maybe drawn from the hat a couple of states a week. An elongated regional airing would help distill particular differences, finding more common ground, forcing candidates to listen while honing the message to a solid platform.

DVD of old West Wing episodes.

Sorry, didn’t mean to suggest that I thought you were excusing it as a prank. I intended it as a more general comment, prompted by yours.

My gripe about Edwards has been his failure to organize his campaign at the grassroots over the last four years. He should have been out giving talks, working on some programs at the national level (like his N. Carolina scholarship program), and gaining points by supporting the anti-War and other progressive movements. Where was he? I don’t recall him making a single speech at a national demonstration about what an error he made by voting for the Iraq Authorization Resolution.

I think that he has allowed Obama to co-opt a lot of the support he once had. Obama has networks of supporters that started earlier than the Spring of last year and worked campuses and community groups. They were ready while Edwards’ campaign sat on their hands. Thus they lost essential organizers and links into organizations.

Take South Carolina. Edwards should be a “native son” candidate there. He certainly had every opportunity to organize and visit that State, and gain the support of lots of individuals and groups there. Did he? He’s polling at under 15%…while both Obama and Clinton have well over 30%. Obama was down there building a network that was even challenging Hillary’s “establishment” support. I think that Obama is really showing what he learned as a community organizer involved with voter registration, organizing grassroots programs, and motivating communities who have been outside the system.

Maybe Edwards simply assumed that those who supported him in 2003-4 would automatically build up his support. That’s an attitude of entitlement. He needed to use the freedom away from the Senate to create an even more powerful network. Instead he faded away…and then popped back up about a year ago.

I was thinking more along the lines of LBJ (/snark)

More like — A League of Your Own, perris ; )

Heh heh - hope your bet doesn’t involve serious money solai. Poor ole Grandpa Fred moves at a snail’s pace and takes lots of naps.

Fred’s into it for the long haul…he will only quit when someone wakes him up from his nap. “California? I thought we were still in New Hampshire?”

If HRC somehows manages to lose this contest, I’d like to see a new Democratic president appoint her as the ambassador to Iraq. Do you think she would accept such an appointment?

Yes. Maybe she and her co-consul Edwards could decide how many brigades to leave in country and how many should be placed “over the horizon” to make those Rapid Response attacks on the Iraqis.

“Anchor Baby Mitt”

This is obviously good news for the Republicans Gravinich.

Or maybe “Kuchavel”…”I’ll have some Kuchavel with my java, please!”

I see you are an Edwards-Clinton fan.

I find the time crunch of Super Tuesday to be the biggest obstacle to refining our candidates and getting them to promise campaign pledges, or at least bouncing the people’s input off one another and getting it on record. I would much prefer a more stretched out primary, maybe drawn from the hat a couple of states a week. An elongated regional airing would help distill particular differences, finding more common ground, forcing candidates to listen while honing the message to a solid platform.

It would be nice to see the two Senators actually authoring some legislation or backing up their words with some action in Congress. But I suspect they will be “absent” a lot.

Well, that’s going to help *s*
The US has issued sanctions on a general in Iran’s military wing, a Syria-based TV station and three individuals its accuses of promoting violence in Iraq.
http://english.aljazeera.net/N.....60D0BB.htm

Isn’t Hillary’s 60 days for withdrawal of combat troops the strongest at this point?

She promises to have a plan ready and to begin withdrawal at that point. She doesn’t say how long it would take to ‘responsibly’ get out.

Darn! That leaves only one candidate with Mexican American credentials left in the race ;-)

Mittopia — ride the wave dude!

look at those people in the background for Hillary’s speech last night.

Middle schoolers?

Nah, she was just introducing her proposed cabinet. *g*

Whenever something crops up that might be sexist, I rephrase it to pertain to race rather than gender. If it sounds racist, then the original remark was sexist.

So, what is the race version of what Edwards said? Let’s see if it might’ve been sexist using your method.

re: Julia at 29

I agree that his gruff persona didn’t have the magic star-power to captivate the mass-media or the blogosphere. I also think that he would have been a slam-dunk, landslide victor over any shrublican candidate. Governor to Governor he would have clobbered Romney or Huckleberrybee. He doesn’t have the automatic high-negatives, albeit in small percentages, that Clinton has. And I think he has a much better grasp of geo-politics, i.e. foreign policy, than Obama.

I agree also, that he should be included in the next administration as VP or Sec State.

Edwards/Richardson???