I have my doubts!

[Perky]

As I survey the Democratic field, I am coming to the sad conclusion that no one has the right stuff:

Dems win when the following stars align:

The candidate excites the base and has the intellect and chasisma to excite the indepedent voters.
The opposition it seen as either inept, uncaring, out of touch or corrupt.
Independent voters see a compelling reason to change course and are ready to be led by a new leader.

You have to attract the indies to win in Novemeber and without charisma, empathy and intellect they will favor the comfortableness of staying with the devil they know. People want a COMPELLING reason to change course.

I think it clear that Mr. Dean excites the base more than any of the others. but the rest of the field hardly generates much of a buzz outside the Northeast. And it is doubtful that Edwards or Graham will
be able to get out the African American vote in the South i the Primaries.

I am not sure any has what it takes to motivate the independents and win where it counts. Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. Those are the big battlegounds and folks... that is all that really matter.

So where does that leave us? Ad I look around the party for stars that are not in the game. I see a couple of people who are not in the game but have that winnable combination of gifts:

Joe Biden and Bob Kerrey. Both flawed but have what it takes IMO to come across as Leaders who can put us on the right track.

Practically any of the current candidates would make a strong ticket balancing VP choice. I continue to say the Bill Richardson is the ideal Running mate for practically everyone.

Let the flames begin.

[whoYaCallinAlib]

1. If you are right, I fear for our party.

I'm not ready to sign on to your thesis yet. I think Kerry and Dean have the POTENTIAL to get the faithful excited. We'll just have to give it more time. Plus, Bush may self-destruct before election day.

[Perky]

2. Unfortunately

Its the goobers who vote in droves.... I fear the only way to beat this idiot. Is for some to say repeatedly that the emporer has not clothes and more important the emporer has no brain. We have to convince the Goobers that they want someone smarter then themselves in the White House. And * is an idiot.

The only candidate with the balls to do that is DEAN...but he may may be too liberal to take the goober vote.

[onecitizen]

5. Just what is a...........

goober? I have no idea.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. A Goober

is a hick, a hayseed, a phillistine, a yahoo

[JNelson6563]

9. OK everybody...

let's have a look at this statement, shall we?

The only candidate with the balls to do that is DEAN...but he may may be too liberal to take the goober vote.

OK, who sees anything interesting, even erroneous, about this? Dean~~too liberal??? LOL <snort>

I can see that you are relatively new here Perky but worry not friend!! You are here in time. In spite of the sense of dread you aim to inspire there is great hope.

See, Dean is not too liberal, in fact, he is a centrist/moderate more than anything. There are some that hate him for that and attack him every chance they get. There are others who are liberal, recognize Dean's moderate tendancies and accept the reality that it is a moderate that is likely to beat Bush in '04.

Now those who have access to the media, Republican operatives and such, they will insist that Dean is a left-wing extremist that will run this country to ruin, blah, blah, blah, sure you know the routine, in fact you just parroted it, hence my post.

Disregard the media whores my friend, you'll find only lies, distortions and scare tactics there.

Julie

[radiclib]

3. The issue is not so much the candidate

..but the packaging. After all, we're worried sick about taking on a total cipher, a moronic figurehead. Most people know in their hearts Bush is a dunce and a fraud. Any of the Dem candidates can be dressed up and spun effectively with a campaign strategy that is responsive and aggressive. People need to have their suspicions about Shrub confirmed and voiced in no uncertain terms, but so far the Dem opposition is way too timid. That has to change.
But please forget Kerrey. He won't run because of the unending questions about his Vietnam fiasco that would cripple his campaign before it got started. And Biden, Jesus help me, if I'm forced to vote for this braying jackass, I'll need a weeklong shower.

[Blue-Jay]

4. Everybody do what I did.

Go out and find someone who didn't bother voting in the last election, and encourage them to vote in the next one. It's easier than you think. My guy has even convinced his wife to help vote Bush out in the next election.

[newsguyatl]

6. umm

>>>>>The candidate excites the base and has the intellect and chasisma to excite the indepedent voters.
The opposition it seen as either inept, uncaring, out of touch or corrupt.
Independent voters see a compelling reason to change course and are ready to be led by a new leader.

You have to attract the indies to win in Novemeber and without charisma, empathy and intellect they will favor the comfortableness of staying with the devil they know. People want a COMPELLING reason to change course.<<<<


i don't think you could have more accurately described dr. dean and our current situation (with shrub) any better...

thanks for the reminder that we ARE gonna win in '04

[Donny247]

7. Edwards is the chosen one!!

Edwards is the only viable candidate to beat Bush. He has the charisma, speaking skills and raw political talent that is necessary to sway independents and soccer moms. He makes people say things like, "I like that John Edwards. He's not like a typical Democrat." He looks really good on television, as demonstrated by the fact that he shot up ten points in the polls last January when he actually got some face time, but unfortunately people have forgotten about him since. He's one of those politicians who goes up in the polls every time people get a glimpse of him.

On top of all that, he's the only one who can unify the Left and the DLC centre of the Democratic party. DLC'ers love him, but he also gets praise from Ralph Nader!! No other candidate has that kind of broad appeal.

Once his campaign heats up this fall, he's going to the top. I'd pledge everything on that.

[Blue-Jay]

8. I'd vote for Edwards

and feel pretty good about it. He's not my first choice, but I believe he's "electable".

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. I Agree On One Thing

I think Bob Kerrey would have been a great candidate.

Medal of Honor Winner. He was the only Medal of Honor winner to serve in the Senate since the Civil War.

Executive and legislative experience as senator and governor.

Midwesterner.

[Zan_of_Texas]

12. Well, it's irrelevant

Florida you can mark Republican. Even if the candidate is Saddam Hussein, with Osama bin Laden as VP.

Voting machines, gang.

About twenty percent of the votes are now on electronic voting machines. More are phasing in by the month.

Before you lift one yard sign or debate one presidential candidate with your friends, HOUND Congress to institute a check system on those voting machines. Voter verified paper trail. Sounds boring. But, it could help us get our democracy back.

If our votes count honestly, I double-dog guarantee you we will start electing some great candidates.

Here's the legislation.

http://holt.house.gov/display2.cfm?id=1071&type=Home

Every time you are anywhere near ANY elected official, HOUND them about this. Ask them to take a stand.

Make sure they are aware of it, and that unless we have a check system with paper ballots accompanying the electronic ones, the whole thing is NOT transparent, NOT trustworthy, and NOT worthy of resting our democracy on. (Rice University specialist in security Dan Wallach calls the software he inspected, apparently used by Diebold, "amazingly and astonishly wrong." His colleages at Johns Hopkins said a smart teen with $100 worth of equipment could make unlimited numbers of fake voting cards -- called "smart cards, equalling votes, as they wanted to.

"We found some stunning, stunning flaws," said Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University, who led a team that examined the software from Diebold Election Systems, which has about 33,000 voting machines operating in the United States. -- NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/technology/24VOTE.html?pagewanted=print&position= )

If what's going on with these voting systems is what I BELIEVE is going on, it's the biggest scandal of my lifetime.

[Eloriel]

13. I think you haven't been paying attention to the Dean campaign

BRAND New Democrats for Dean
http://brandnewdemocrats.blogspot.com

Independents for Dean
http://deanindependents.org/

Republicans for Dean
http://republicansfordean.blogspot.com/

A terrific, must read, brand new article on Dean:
USNews & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/11dean.htm

And here's an article from political commentator Jack Germond:
http://www.sunspot.net/bal-te.campaign01aug01,0,5889923.story
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - The Portsmouth Herald published a front-page picture the other day of Howard Dean, his shirt sleeves rolled to the elbows as usual, delivering one of his red-faced campaign speeches with the harbor in the background. The accompanying article said he had attracted an audience his staff estimated at 650 people.

To veterans of the New Hampshire presidential primary wars, that was obviously a stretch - 650 at a rally in July?

But an inside page of the paper carried a photograph taken from above that showed the crowd was indeed 650 people, give or take a few dozen.

What this suggests to those involved in the contest for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination is, first, that the process may be more advanced than usual and, second, that Dean, the obscure former governor of Vermont, is lighting a fire in the electorate.

And that is news. A hot candidate can draw that sort of turnout here in the last week or two before the primary but not, as in this case, six months ahead.

snip

At this point in 1991, he notes, then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas hadn't even made a final commitment to compete.


Eloriel