Losing interest in who the Repugs want to run against

[BigBigBear]

Their boy is melting down.

The O'Neill book, Kay's statements, his recent losses in the courts on the Patriot Act, the stagnant-again economy, the blunder on immigration policy, Cheney's obvious rehabilitation program, the 9/11 commission, growing calls for a WMD commission, Afghanistan sliding toward catastrophe, the indifference to the SoTU address, Katami yanking his chain in Baghdad.....

I'm starting to think anyone can beat this shlep now.

Kerry? If he picks a decent drawing card for the West and the South, and pitches heavily to disgruntled indies and moderate repubs, it'd be a runaway.

[incapsulated]

1. Yeah, well..

From your lips to God's ear.

I never underestimate this crew. You do so at your peril. They didn't get in clean and they aren't going out easy, don't fool yourself.

Watch for Osama to be suddenly "discovered".

[JuniorPlankton]

2. Never underestimate the propaganda machine

And the ignorance of your country people. I know quite a few people who are convinced that all that stuff you mentioned is just a democratic smear campaign.
Plus, we are better off without Hussein /sarcasm/

Another one of my favorites: how can you be sure that WMD do not exist just because you have not seen them? You have not seen the electrons or the evolution yet you think they are real.

[lancdem]

3. A Democratic smear campaign?

That's pretty funny when you consider the Repukes control practically everything in this country. But I don't doubt there are many who believe that.

[JuniorPlankton]

4. Again, the claim is that the press is vastly liberal. n/t

[emulatorloo]

5. Yes they are losing it - Mars? Steroids? etc

Not to say that they won't be nasty, but there is not too much that is defensible in the GWB portfolio of "achievements."



edit - spelling

[BigBigBear]

6. Yikes

I meant Sistani - got my AxisOfEvil clerics mixed up.

I absolutely, positively DO NOT underestimate Rove's election machine. There's plenty of spinning left - my belief, however, is this:

-No way Bush can reverse 3 million jobs lost in 9 nine months. Some, but not all, and not most. You can't spin that.

-Iraq will likely tumble toward a farcical election; corrupt, tainted, perhaps violence prone, as Bush loads the troops into transports, beings them home and declares victory. He cannot simultaneously maintain a politically palatable presence there AND evade more US deaths, and I think, frankly, he loses either way.

-He'll HAVE TO back away from the immigration thing - his own base is reaching for the pitchforks.

-He'll HAVE TO resist calls for an inquiry into the WMD debacle. This means that his two biggest intel blunders will be in active investigation during his re-election year. Drip drip drip. 9/11 WILL play a role in this election.

I'm inclined to believe that the electorate is divided roughly three ways. Hardcore Dems and Bush haters (us), hardcore Repug and Bush supporters (them), and the people in the middle. I'll swim upstream against conventional wisdom and suggest that middle is bigger than most pundits believe, and growing bigger by new Bush skeptics every day. They are losing their post-9/11 blank check toward Bush and COULD BE persuaded that better leadership may be at hand. Whoever take the nomination MUST keep their eye on these people - social moderates, fiscal moderates, pro-military, moderate pro-gun, etc. They could EASILY be turned off by raging Bush hating rhetoric. They CAN BE coaxed over, but it won't be Michael Moore doing it.

The question was, for months, who can beat Bush? I'd say it's a litttle more like, "Who can make the best case against Bush AND offer the best alternative."

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. any candidate we throw out will beat Bush

I am 100% confident in this.

[Jack_Dawson]

8. Cheney's "rehabilitation"?

I don't get it.

[BigBigBear]

9. Heard this on NPR this morning

Cheney has been keeping a much higher profile lately, with speeches, trips abroad, audience with the Pope - their internal poll numbers are suggesting that Cheney has quietly assumed the persona of a behind-the-scenes guy, somewhat elusive, etc. Ties to Haliburton, etc. There seems to be a belief that Cheney (who, remember, was effectively sold as a legitimizing component of their 2000 ticket) may now be something of a liability.

Well, I heard Dem and Rep analysts talking about it, and I was persuaded.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Really! I'm sick of Dems defining themselves

in reaction to the Republicans.

Let's run a credible candidate with a platform that meets the real needs of this country and when the Republicans bring up guns or abortion or gays, say,"You're just waving flags and Bibles in people's faces to cover up the fact that you're robbing them to line the pockets of your major contributors." Or something equally forthright and defiant.

Reframe, reframe, reframe, and when the Repiggies come out with their talking points, change the subject.

(I particularly like the line that Tandalayo Scheisskopf came up with a couple of weeks ago,"We're supposed to be better than that.")

[bushwakker]

11. They keep changing their minds

I wasn't one of those buying into the GOP spin that they wanted to run vs Dean. Dean could have beaten AWOL - prior to the Iowa speech that is. Now they say they want Kerry. They're gonna run the same camapign they always do. Liberal this, liberal that yadda, yadda, yadda. Kerry, Edwards and Clark can all beat AWOL.