About Gephardt

[renie408]

I hate to keep asking this, but can somebody point me in the right direction to learn some pertinent stuff about him? I can't really like him much, I am trying, but I see him as too much of a politician. I don't know why he strikes me that way more than Kerry, but he does. I also just can't see him beating Bush or invigorating the vote. But I am wide open to learning WHY he is leading in the polls in some places.

[cherryperry]

1. I understand what you are saying.

Not only does he strike me as 'too much of a politician', but I really doubt he could beat Bush - sorry to the Gephardt fans!

He does have some good ideas, however. Check this out and see what you think:

http://www.dickgephardt2004.com/plugin/template/gephardt/Welcome/*

[renie408]

2. Totally random comment

He is all one color. His hair is the same color as his face and so are his eyebrows and eyes. The man needs to dye his hair or his eyebrows.

Ok, now that I have that off my chest, I will go read what he actually thinks.

[cherryperry]

4. LOL

I know! Unfortunately, things like that do matter.

He also has no charisma.

Honestly, renie, we are so deep!

:D

[renie408]

3. Ok, the first thing I checked

was Gephardt's health care plan and he has made it incredibly hard to figure out how he intends to pay for it. Does anybody know? And it doesn't look all the feasible. A 60% tax cut to businesses so they can purchase insurance? Does that sound right? And he claims that it is going to stimulate the economy by hundreds of millions of dollars. But it seems like it is just taking money from one place and sticking it somewhere else. How does that stimulate the economy?

And even if it all works, would it pass?

[JeniB]

5. That is his strength.

He does know what will pass. After being in congress for 27 years, he definately knows how to work it. He has made a health plan that is not far reaching and doesn't require overhauling the whole thing. This is subtle changes that will make a difference. He wants to pay for it with the tax cut, which might not be too popular, but the tax cut shouldn't have happened anyway. It also provides coverage at the end of your job if you lose it. He helped Clinton turn over the economy, I believe he can do it again. Experience is everything. Sometime having totally new blood doesn't get the job done because the learning curve is too high. Things are so bad now that i think having an experienced person in there is the only chance to get it turned around fast.

Also he can't help it if he had red hair and everything is turning gray. It happens to most of us. But hair color won't fix this country, so I'd rather have him working on the economy.

[renie408]

10. I was kidding about the hair color

My guy gets ragged on for having hair that's TOO good, so they can't win one way or the other.

With all due respect and freely acknowledging that he is leading in the polls, I don't think that Gephardt can ignite the voters the way another candidate might. And he has been around awhile, that's true, but some people don't neccessarily see that as a plus. Also, if the deanfacts.com thing is from his people, he is already running a pretty dirty campaign. I don't think he can out-dirty Bush/Rove. I think the only way to beat them is to put somebody up against them that they have a hard time attacking. Then they *horrors* will be stuck trying to run on Bush's merits. But since he doesn't have any, that should be hard. I haven't really looked into Gephardt, but the fact that he has already jumped to mudslinging does not bode well for his candidacy to me.

And truly, all these men have something to offer the next administration. It is not as if they disappear once the election is over. Gephardt will still be around and so will Kerry, even if they are not around as the President. Gephardt's experience will be very important to any Democrat in the WH.

[JeniB]

11. Yea, I know you were kidding about the hair color.

I don't think this is dirty politics. Who gets more press, Dean or Gep? If you want to win, you have to do something! The only way anyone else will get a chance is to discredit Dean. It's got to be done and there's no nice way to do it. He's not looking to change anyone's mind with this. If anything, it will only play to those who haven't yet decided or won't decide until late. If you wonder what all the hubub about Dean is, you'll go looking for the good and the bad. Dean's website will provide the good, someone had to do the bad. It's just politics and that's usually not a walk in the park.

[renie408]

13. So you are

blowing it off as 'politics as usual'. I guess we all do what we have to do to stay supportive of our candidates. I am thankful that I haven't had to compromise anything yet to support mine. I know that may change and I guess we'll see what I think when it happens.

[JeniB]

15. This is Edwards first try.

It's Gep's last. I like Edwards and I think he'd make a great president, butI'm not sure it's his time yet. But he doesn't have to go all out and piss people off because he knows he can run again. I know no one likes to hear this said about their candidate but, he'd make a great choice for VP and that would lead him into a run for Pres when he has more experience and a great liklihood of winning. I know everything that's wrong with what I said from your perspective, but that's the difference between the two candidates approaches.

[dfong63]

6. he skipped out on 85% of recent house votes

so he could campaign.

[JeniB]

7. Oh yea, that's an easy one.

We've heard that ad nauseum. I'm not even going to explain it to you because you have no doubt heard the reasoning on it, it's just that you have nothing constructive to say, so you'll bash.

[diamondsoul]

14. Why is a criticism about his voting record "a bash"?

Sorry, but I don't buy that. Yes, he has the excuse that his vote wouldn't make a difference on those resolutions, but guess what? That doesn't alter the fact that he was elected to CAST THOSE VOTES.

The bottom line is still that he neglected his elected official duties to campaign for a higher position. That's a lousy way to treat the people who elected you. That's not a bash, it's a statement of fact, he ignored the expectations of his constituents, period.

Now, that said, I watched him on Hardball last night (replay, possibly?) and he lost me after listening to him defend attacking Iraq. He STILL thinks we had to go after Hussein! I'll have to hold my nose mighty hard to vote for him if he gets the nod.*sigh*

Suffice it to say, as a supporter of workers rights, I'm extremely disappointed in Gep's performance to date.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

17. It is not a good tactic

to skip the explanation on the premise that 'you have no doubt heard the reasoning on it'

remember, this is a public website, anyone can come here and read the postings. Some people reading have heard it all before; others may be brand new to politics.

If a valid criticism of your candidate is made, (and missing 85% of votes as a legislator is certainly a valid topic of discussion), and you don't answer, it just makes it seem that you don't have an answer.

Just saying "you have nothing constructive to say, so you'll bash" is such a total turnoff, a completely no-content sentence. Instead of responding to the point made, you are "attacking the messenger".

Gephardt may be perfectly defensible on this issue - so defend him!

[NewJerseyDem]

8. Some websites

Slate.com has been running a good series on all the candidates.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2085967/

Politics1.com has some good info as well.

http://www.politics1.com/gephardt.htm

Gephardt voted with the republicans on the partial-birth abortion ban (he was once pro-life) and on the war in Iraq in 2002.

http://www.acuratings.com/acu.cgi?ACT=1&USER_ID=453&YEAR=2002


He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1976. He became Democratic Caucus Chair from 1985 to 1989 when he became the House Majority Leader. He then became House Minority Leader in 1995 until 2003. He ran for President in 1988 and won the Iowa Caucuses.

[DrFunkenstein]

9. My Beef With Gephardt

Is not unlike that of many people's beef with Kerry. The IWR. It seemed likely, given the very bad press they had been getting, the the Bushies were willing to negotiate. And then a handful of Congress, notably Gephardt and Lieberman, pulled the rug on Biden-Lugar. This says it all for me:

Gephardt Caves

HOUSE MINORITY Leader Richard A. Gephardt acceded to the drums of war on Wednesday, agreeing to an overly broad resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to attack Iraq. In the process, Mr. Gephardt undermined efforts in the Senate to limit the war authority to disarmament, rather than regime change.

Before Mr. Gephardt decided to cave in on the war resolution, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. had hoped to make the Biden-Lugar resolution the basis of a vote in the Senate. That now appears unlikely. Mr. Biden said Wednesday that he was a realist and knew that the new compromise, ballyhooed Wednesday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, pretty much meant the end of his approach.

Mr. Gephardt has long favored regime change in Iraq and called Saddam a serious threat. But as recently as two weeks ago he said that Mr. Bush was not justified in waging war to overthrow Saddam, only in disarming him -- a position exactly in line with the Biden-Lugar resolution he has torpedoed.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1003-01.htm

If Biden-Lugar passed, I really feel that Kerry would have sewn the race up long ago, because Dean would never have gotten traction in the first place.

Plus Gephardt looks like Skeletor.

I certainly wouldn't be crushed if Gep got the nod, but he's not very high on my list.

[blm]

12. Yeah...I forgave Gephardt because he is a good Dem

who carried water for alot of us when it was a very heavy burden. He's had to fight the scum of scum in the GOP over the years.

Signing on while the others who were negotiating were holding out, made it an incredibly tough break for Kerry.

[ludwigb]

19. Don't mean to flame...

But if Kerry disagreed with the war resolution as it stood, why did he vote for it? In fact, if you look back at his speech, he lauds how much the Democrats had forced Bush to compromise.

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2002/10/11/senate_iraq/index2.html

Though I have great respect for Senator Kerry as well, I'm more willing to forgive Gephardt and Liebermann for their IWR vote because I believe they voted sincerely, while Kerry knew better. They didn't limit the language to WMD because they realized (as did Kerry) that the administration had other goals in mind that they supported. As a canidate, I like Gephardt's plain spoken style, substantive ideas and obvious sincerity, but

1) he lacks the fire in the belly and
2) he is widely percieved by the public as a loser.

I think Dean and Edwards are far stronger.

[Lady President]

16. Good question

Personally, I like Gephardt. He's not my first choice, but I would have no problem voting for him if he won the nomination. I just wanted to comment that you are not alone in having trouble finding material on him. I attended the Democratic Party Meetup earlier in the week and talked to one of his supporters about this issue. She emailed the Gephardt campaign requesting handouts or where to find downloads on his site to make a packet. She had no luck and just had to copy a few articles off the site to hand out. This is a huge problem. Several of us had material/stickers/postcards from different campaigns to give to potential voters and Gephardt missed out.

At this stage I think Gephardt and Lieberman are still looking good in the polls because their names are more familar. Most voters still can't name the candidates, much less what their platforms are.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

18. I'm sorry - I respect Gephardt but

I think he is almost the least exciting candidate we have, and among the 4 who I think would lose to Bush.

It may not be fair, but in my mind, he is too closely associated with too many failed battles with the Republicans in Congress - when I hear his name, or see him, I unconsciously think: 'loser'.