Winning the election for gays

[wyldwolf]

Interesting article here on "winning the gay vote."

Thoughts on voting conscience vs. who can win, Ralph Nader, Howard Dean, and Wesley Clark...

"If you vote your conscience, you can feel good about your ballot but then feel horrible when your vote helps the other side. That's what happened to some of the Ralph Nader voters in the 2000 presidential election. The shift of just a few hundred Nader voters in Florida would have given the electoral college victory to Gore.

Nader convinced many liberals that Gore and Bush were virtually identical candidates, but 2-1/2 years of Bush's reckless tax cuts, unilateral foreign policy and divisive social policy has clearly demonstrated otherwise."

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For most of the year, Dean appeared to be a good compromise candidate who could ignite the liberal Democratic base with his anti-war, anti-tax cut, pro-gay agenda and still appeal to the mainstream voters needed to win the general election in November 2004.

That all made sense until General Clark entered the race. Clark also appears to be anti-war, anti-tax cut and pro-gay, but he has one enormous advantage over Dean and all the other candidates: electability. As a four-star general, Clark can criticize Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all the other right-wing, pro-military thugs who never served a day in the armed forces.

Clark could offer the opportunity to vote your conscience at the same time you vote for someone who can win...

http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/feature.html?sernum=696

[mitchtv]

1. good post

you suppoert your candidate, without trashing others. I believe it is effective, more so than the flame bit threads.

[Padraig18]

4. I echo those sentiments

Great *positive* post! :toast:

[clar]

2. As far as I'm concerned

Clark is still untested. Present polls withstanding, I need to see how he does in the next couple of months before I'm convinced of his electabiliy. As of now, I remain unconvinced that he's more electable than Kerry or Dean. Kerry's won hard fought elections in the past, as has Dean. And Dean has run what is nothing short of an amazing campaign. As far as the gay vote goes, Aren't we fortunate that no GLBT person has to abbrogate voting their conscience. Kerry, Clark and Dean are all good on this score.

[chaumont58]

3. People still harping on electability

"That all made sense until General Clark entered the race. Clark also appears to be anti-war, anti-tax cut and pro-gay, but he has one enormous advantage over Dean and all the other candidates: electability"

I have been reading this about electability for months now. It just wont go away. And, its dumber than a bag of hammers. I have nothing against Clark, but first the Senate Democratic candidates called Dean unelectable, now the Clark people do it. Its just bullshit.
As I said, I have nothing against Clark, but some of his supporters piss me off.

[wyldwolf]

5. Did a Clark supporter call Dean unelectable in this thread?

..and the reason the electability factor "just won't go away" is because it is a very important issue to a lot of people - though none can really agree on what it means.

[Democrats unite]

6. Excatley right anyone remember Dukakus?

eom