Modest Suggestion: Suppress our negativity should Gephart get the Veep.

[Gold Metal Flake]

We must see this through, and since we know it may happen, I hope we can make the best of it. Once the ticket is set, push forward toward victory.

Win the Executive and the Legislative Branches to save the Judicial and the Republic.

[ElectroPrincess]

1. Gephart will NOT ... that would be a RW wet dream ... oh ah

I ain't buying it. It will be either Edwards or Clark. Remember, Kerry is intelligent ... he didn't get 20 years in the Senate by reading his constituents desires wrong.

You no worry ... it's like the fundy's begging and even "predicting" early on that ole' Liberman was a shoe-in. This is all disinformation.

Kick back and laugh at the attempt of moles to freak us out.
No way ... no how :-).

[niceypoo]

53. Gephardt represents the bushlite brigade

there is a reason he dropped early

[Name removed]

66. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Redleg]

2. I hear ya but good luck with that around here.

Many DUers haven't yet accepted that Kerry is the Dem candidate.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

51. Oh that is too true

too painfully true. And I am sorry that it is so.

Kerry Gephardt sounds a hell of a lot better than Bush Cheney.

[Walt Starr]

52. It may sound better to you

but I'm not so sure it does to me.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

65. I'm 100% sure. eom

[Walt Starr]

68. Good for you

I am not so optimistic.

[Walt Starr]

3. Eh, I'll lose interest in the election

no worries about me being negative with a Gep Veep choice.

I'll go back to being undecided and probably will simply stop paying attention to the thing.

[Bucky]

28. Good old Walt Starr... predictably helping out THEIR side

Your no-fight, wilful self-defeatism would make you the perfect dupe for Mr. Rove's scheme to disrupt the liberal opposition. Why do you play into their hands, Walt? What on earth do you seek to gain by being such a perfect stooge for the Right?

[Walt Starr]

31. Sorry, there are some lines where I won't cross

I'm not sure Gephardt is sitting on one of those lines, but if not, he's damn close.

[Rowdyboy]

34. Cheney-Gephart.....Gephart-Cheney....tough choice

I know where I come down

[Walt Starr]

35. There's always Camejo

:shrug:

If I go down the "I no longer give a shit" road, it won't matter any way.

:shrug:

[kiahzero]

43. Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten

Who cares about anyone else, right? The rest of the country doesn't matter to some people, I suppose.

:eyes:

[Walt Starr]

48. Nah, I'm just saying

if Gep is Veep, I could well just no longer give a shit who the fuck wins the presidential election.

[sangh0]

58. The "I no longer give a shit road"

Well, at least you're still holding onto your principles.

[Walt Starr]

60. Who gives a shit?

Seriously, if my choice is that sick, why even give a shit any longer?

Tell me.

What the fuck will really change?

[sangh0]

63. I guess you didn't get the memo

What the fuck will really change?

Walt, "there's no difference", right? That's a principle, right?

[Walt Starr]

64. There's no difference in the issue I care about

fuck everything else.

[sangh0]

70. "fuck everything else" - another principled stand

.

[ibegurpard]

4. No worries

I'll just tune out and hope that I can ride it through the next four years and that enough people will finally be sick to death of radical republicans...assuming they will still have a choice.

[Walt Starr]

6. I'm with you

I'll simply give up on presidential politics being anything meaningful any more.

[ElectroPrincess]

9. If you bail, then you are doing just what Karl Rove has planned

The right winger's strategy is to go so negative and put out so much confusing (Newsweek's Gephart, oh please that's too stupid to believe) that most Americans will get disgusted or disillusioned and stay home on election day.

If you turn your back, you're playing right into the right wing's playbook. Us progressives are too independent to walk "lock step" but hey! Let's not lose hope because four more years of Bush may very well destroy all vestiges of the Country we love.

[Walt Starr]

10. Nope, if I do bail it will be a direct reaction to a choice made

by the candidate.

Rove has nothing to do with Kerry's Veep choice.

[Atman]

49. Walt, your argument simply makes no sense.

Given that Gephardt as VP would probably help revert the office to Official Funeral Attender and House Tie Breaker, as it should be, what can possibly make you feel that having a boring blob of nothingness as VP is somehow a worse outcome to the 2004 election than another four years of Bush/Cheney? That is absurd and just plain stupid.

If nothing else, you should switch your efforts to supporting whatever Kerry's VP choice is, not abandon the process altogether. Take it from one who knows...Kerry's candidacy doesn't spark any fires in me. Instead, I draw my inspiration from the notion of handing the Bush family utter and total humiliation at the voting booths on November 2. I want to see historic landslide losses, a real mandate from the American people that we are fed up with the right-wing's attempts to turn our nation into a Christian Theocracy.

All I can think about when I see this admin run roughshod over virtually every aspect of our personal and public lifes and long-standing constitutional provisions, are the words that the U.S. Government attributed to Osama Bin Laden shortly after the attack on the WTC...essentially "just wait...this will begin the process that brings down your system of government." We all pshawed at this silly notion, that we, the strongest nation on earth, would be forced into submission by the raving loony cave dweller from Afghanistan.

But look at what is happening. Now we're not the world's liberators, we're torturers. We're not the beacon of democracy, we're the poster child for cancer of crony-capitalism. We've got a president who writes his own laws simply because he thinks he can. We're becoming a theocracy, at the whim of a few powerful nut-cases. Sounds a lot like what Osammy predicted.

And YOU want to sit this one out because the Democrat veep candidate is boring? What the fuck are you smoking, man?

[Walt Starr]

50. You just dfon't see my stance

I MAY sit this one out because Gephardt may push me over the line of being able to support the alternative to Bush.

Does that make it any clearer?

[kiahzero]

44. Ah, the old

"Things will get so bad they'll HAVE to come around" canard.

It's not going to happen. How much further right does the pendulum have to swing before you become concerned with the direction the country is going?

[sangh0]

59. "I'll just tune out "

Another principled stand.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

67. "I'll vote for whoever they put in front of me."

Now that's principle!

[sangh0]

71. I didn't vote for Dean

I voted for the one the media said was going to lose.

[JI7]

5. the anti gephardt sentiment on du indicates gep will be picked

it reminds me of the anti kerry stuff on du during the primaries. and kerry ended up winning. some of the anti kerry stuff still goes on although it has calmned down a bit.

[AntiCoup2K4]

7. FUCK GEPHARDT

And fuck Kerry and the DNC if they pick that backstabbing shitball.

[Walt Starr]

8. Naaaaah

Fuck both parties in general forever more.

Seriously, fuck anything resembling two party politics if this happens. It's all meaningless because whores will have completely taken over everything and Nader was right.

:shrug:

[JI7]

11. nader suggested a while ago that Kerry pick gephardt or edwards for vp

seems kerry is following that advice if the news reports are true.

[Radical Activist]

29. Must have been smoking something that day

Didn't he suggest Edwards as well?

[Gold Metal Flake]

13. I appreciate the velocity of both of these responses, but...

I figure we gotta get some breathing room before pushing forth with significant reforms. No matter who the veep, we know two things:

1) Kerry will be in charge, not the veep. The administration of veep as the center of power will be over.

2) If Kerry wins we will have the FREEDOM to communicate and plan for reforms, where if Kerry loses all bets are off as to the retention of civil freedoms.

I gotta come down on the side of hope here.

[ElectroPrincess]

14. Again, you are doing exactly what the wingers love ... they love you-yuck!

Hey, if you can't hang a little in the face of adversity then the Fundies and Right Wing Radicals deserve to win.

Me? Hell, Kerry ain't my first choice but I sure as hell will NOT give these criminals in the Bush Administration another four years. PLEASE? Reconsider, for if you take your ball and go home, you are not part of the solution.

Unorganized groups are helpless. Look at the class-action Wal-Mart lawsuit. All those women (thousands) who were treated like sh*t and passed over could do nothing on their own. However, when they combined their efforts, they just may redeem compensation ;).

We must work together greens, progressives, blue dog Dem's, liberals etc. ... maybe even a few moderate republicans.

For the sake of our freedoms, please reconsider?

Edit: Typos <blush>

[Walt Starr]

16. Nooooooo, I'm reacting to a decision by the candidate

and saying fuck it.

Every once in a while, you just have to say, "fuck it."

[ElectroPrincess]

23. oh OK, sorry ...

Yeah, I'd say "fuck it" on the far off chance Kerry may actually pick ole' Gephart. Yet, I'll work with my local Dems to promote him as zealous as I would Edwards or Clark. These Right Wing Radicals have the money, coordinated plans, moles and all kinds of dirty tricks that most DU'ers can't fathom.

Yeah, I would do the same as you ... pick myself up and march on :-)

[Walt Starr]

26. I;m not saying "fuck it" right now

but I reserve the right to decide that the candidate is no longer a viable option for me because of a choice he makes.

[billbuckhead]

19. Gephardt is very prolabor and is from a battleground state surrounded by

battleground states. Dick Gephardt has been a top Democratic power in the midwest for a long time. His labor union base will be needed in Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa, Michigan , Pennsylvania and his home state of Missouri.
An uninspired choice, but a safe one that brings geography and grassroots into play.

I like Wes Clark

[mzmolly]

54. I agree. The RW was very worried about Gep for some reason?

Perhaps for the reasons you state.

I have a hard time with Gep and the war. *sigh* Kerry criticized him for bi-passing Biden/Lugar (which would have made all the difference on Iraq) but he has a very solid record on labor etc.

http://www.issues2000.org/Dick_Gephardt.htm

[DWolper]

12. THANK YOU!

Is anything ever RIGHT in some eyes here at DU? So many, in this thread, seem to be a perpetual critics of everything without offering a lot of solutions. Just my opinion and it is an honest observation.

As for Gephardt, he's not my first or second choice or even third choice, but Gep is simply NOT as bad as some are trying to portray him. Remember, Gephardt is an ardent economic populist who resonates in his home state of Missouri, Ohio, and much of the industrial midwest. There have been some observers who think Gep would be an excellent pick if all Kerry did was turn him loose in the Midwest and the Northeast and let him go with his eloquent call for economic justice for workers in America. There are MANY worse choices.

I'm just disappointed to, again, see the negativity and ALREADY the doom and gloom threads about Gep have begun. If it's him, he will be a safe choice who CAN add to the electoral equation. Tearing down is easy, some of us will ride a Kerry-Gep ticket to the White House and will remember the "always something wrong" writings and the quick pot-shots at Dick Gephardt who will attempt to be painted as some kind of rightwinger. Fortunately, again while not my favorite, most of us know Gep is NOT what some are already trying to portray him as.

Gloom and doom, bitching and griping is easy. Moving forward with ideas for the future and accepting Senator Kerry's choice for HIS running mate is the work of some of us who will be smiling, no matter who the veep is, when Senator Kerry takes the oath of office in January of 2005 and Bush flies home to Crawford for the last time.

[Trajan]

18. Applauds ...

Damn .. there are a couple of cooler heads still awake ...

Whew ...

[FlemingsGhost]

20. Alas, this post found a home.

(and Will Pitt is none the wiser, I think)

;-)

[Trajan]

15. FUCK GEPHARDT

FUCK ME !

FUCK THE DEMOCRATS !

FUCK MY MILKMAN !

FUCK MY FUCKING FUCK !

FUCK BILL CLINTON !

FUCK FDR ! ...

FUCK AL GORE !

FUCK JOHN KERRY !

FUCK JOHN EDWARDS !

FUCK WES CLARK !

FUCK MARK VILSACK !

FUCK RICHARD GEPHARDT !

.............. there: did I get everyone ? ...

DAMN .. I missed a few Democrats whom arent perfect yet in my eyes ...

FUCK THOMAS DASCHLE !

FUCK TOM HARKIN !

FUCK TEDDY KENNEDY !

FUCK GEORGE JEFFERSON !

er .... wait ....

DONT FUCK GEORGE JEFFERSON: HE ISNT A DEMOCRAT WHOM I HATE YET !

Hmmmmm ... Im running out of Democrats to gratuitously and egotistically hate ...

Damn: SOMEBODY help me ....

Well: somebody who isnt a damned Democrat ...

</extreme sarcasm>
<disgust with self centered party members who apparently feel their petty needs come before the nations greater needs>

FUCK !

[WilliamPitt]

17. ...and brush up on his record

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1846026&mesg_id=1846026

[Gold Metal Flake]

25. Hell, your post inspired mine!

I ain't very bright on my own...

[WilliamPitt]

30. Nah, ya done great

:toast:

[ecoalex]

21. Gephardt, for another roll over

He appeared spineless against bush. His style of cooperation has taken us to what we have now. If you like the selling out of America support Gephardt for VP.

[goclark]

22. I wish I could be positive

but that would take all of my strength to support Dick G.

He is a nice man but we deserve more than "nice."
We have worked too hard and suffured to long under this administration to take a "C" when we have "A's" like CLARK and EDWARDS for VP.

[DrWeird]

24. Mmmmm... no.

If Gephardt's the veep, stick a fork in America. She's done.

[napi21]

27. I gotta say Gep was my last choice in the primary and is for VP too!

I guess you can go with the philosophy, "if GH Bush can win with Quayle, it simply doesn't matter who the VP is". T^hat could be true, but maybe Cheney changed that. Lots of people seem to care who might be President if the elected Pres was "not able to serve".

I just don't like Geps tactics, manner, or methods.

I will still vote for Kerry because I really hate GWB, but I hate the idea that, once again, I'm being forced to pick the better of two bad choices.

[thebigmansentme]

32. hell no

[Hornito]

33. Why not. We've been "suppressing our negativity" about most

Dems in Congress since 2000. Why stop now? Gep is one of the many whores who need to be driven from the Party, not chosen as one of its leaders. Will they ever learn?

[AntiCoup2K4]

36. Exactly... while we have been "suppressing our negativity"...

Gephardt, Kerry, and the DLC traitors have been appeasing and enabling the Bush Criminal Empire & PNAC agendas.

Exactly how much more "suppressing" are we supposed to do? That kind of shit isn't healthy, ya know.

[sangh0]

62. Yes, anticoup is well-known for suppressing his/her negativity

You never hear ac2k express a negative. Not even when s/he's talking about "DLC traitors"

It's a very positive, and flattering characterization

[Pepperbelly]

46. no one here has "suppressed their negativity" about ANYTHING. nt

[librechik]

37. ABB everybody. Take the Pledge

and fuck them all--I want my 21st century Adlai Stevenson/Eugene McCarthy, damn it.

[stickdog]

38. Gep as VP = cutting off your eyebrows to spite your face

[Warren DeMontague]

39. Look, I'm gonna support the ticket

Even if he nominates a bag of moldy tangerines for veep.

But that doesn't keep me from being very strongly of the opinion that Dick Gephardt is only slightly more appealing and exciting than said moldy bag of tangerines. Look, the guy had a decent career.. But if you want to have a ticket that is guaranteed to put even hard-core speed freaks to sleep, go ahead, stick Gephardt on there.

[DinahMoeHum]

55. "Moldy bag of tangerines for Veep" - LMAO !!!

Beats WillPitt's "Baloney Sandwich For President" anytime !!

Anybody But Bush !!


:kick:

[FredScuttle]

40. I'm on board.....ABB to the death

But Gephardt as VP is really pushing it for me.

[Kanary]

41. Going full circle? Interesting...........

I understand DU started as a *vocal* response to the miscarriage of justice that was the 2000 "election".... you remember, that one that was rigged? We, as Dems, were supposed to "take the high road" and "gracefully accept the election results", rigged though they were.

DU was the haven, then, for those who didn't want to "take the high road" and suppress their reaction to the miscarriage of justice. There was *much* speaking out, and much has been said over the years about the Dems who rolled over without a word of protest.

Yet, another election comes around, and here we are........ being asked over and over and over and over to "suppress" our thoughts and feelings about some of the same Dems who rolled over before.

Back to the starting point.

Interesting.

Kanary

[AgadorSparticus]

42. hmmmm....you ask much of me. but it is ABB for me to the end.

however, i will not contribute anymore to the kerry campaign nor will i display his signs and bumperstickers. gep as vp just sucks all the air out of my sails. sorry. i just cannot muster ANY enthusiasm for this guy. kerry will deserve to lose if he picks gep.

[OneBlueSky]

45. I'll refrain if Gep gets it, but . . .

I will be extremely disappointed with Kerry for having missed a golden opportunity to do something dramatic and forceful . . . picking Gephart will be like serving cold mashed potatoes to your guests . . .

[Domitan]

47. Anybody remember the infamous picture of Gephardt?

The one that shows his silhouette on the American flag where it looks like his large dong is hanging out? People were buzzing about how "prophetic" and "foreshadowing" this picture was. Well, if he's chosen as VP, perhaps this bizarre picture will have more prominence.

[Warren DeMontague]

69. Hmmmm.

Perhaps that explains his bizarre, inexplicable, Rasputin-esque appeal in certain circles.

[porphyrian]

56. No.

Sorry, Gep's too whitebread and right-leaning. The DLC tactic of trying to be right-wing Democrats hasn't worked in the last two major elections, why would it work now?

[noonwitch]

57. No, it will cost Kerry the election

Clark or Edwards are his best bets.

[Walt Starr]

61. Maybe, maybe not

Lotta things could cost Kerry the election, his veep choice being only one of them.

It's pretty sick that the only reason to vote for Kerry is because he's not Bush. Picking Gep is even less of an incentive.

:shrug: