Horne hits Yarmuth on Medicare ideas (I'm with Yarmuth on this one)

[Roland99]

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4892774

In a debate this week, Yarmuth talked about doubling the Medicare payroll tax to shore up the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled and expand it to cover every American. The Medicare tax rate is 2.9 percent, of which 1.45 percent is withheld from employees' wages and matched by employers.

...

"Clearly we are going to have to do more to cover everybody in this country, and we can do that by increasing the payroll tax," Yarmuth said during the debate with his three Democratic rivals on Kentucky Educational Television.

...

"If those numbers work, it not only covers every American but it saves every American a lot of money," Yarmuth said in an interview. "And it also saves companies money and could create a much better competitive position."

...

Horne called it a regressive tax that would hit hardest on those struggling with rising cost-of-living expenses. He also questioned the math: "So we're going to simply double it and cover seven times as many people?"

I can see how he might see it as regressive but look at it this way:

Remove the healthcare costs from corporations and shift a small percentage of that former cost to those who would actually be using the coverage. Setup a strict auditing process with teeth. This has the benefit of providing a national health plan to everyone as well as offloading an increasingly burdening cost from corporations to clear up money for capital investment, shareholder wealth, and, most importantly, better wages for workers.

[Pryderi]

1. Too bad Yarmouth can't beat Northrup. Support Horne.

[LouKYDem]

2. So much negativitiy against Yarmuth...

I admit, I support Yarmuth, but have nothing against Horne... but I am getting concerned that if Yarmuth wins the primary (which I don't know which way the election is going), will the Horne supporters deal with it? I'm not seeing (maybe I'm missing something, I don't know) any anti-Horne stuff coming from the Yarmuth supporters.

My concern with Horne is that he isn't really saying where he stands on anything except that he is against the war (and a few other things). Am I saying I disagree with his stance on the issues where he has said where he stands? Absolutely not, but I can't possibly go into the primary voting for a mystery candidate. I'll gladly support Horne if he wins the primary on Tuesday, and I'd gladly vote for him in the November election, but Tuesday, I'm voting for Yarmuth, who (in my opinion) is the better of the two candidates. And if anybody disagrees with me, Horne sounds like a pretty good candidate too.

But mainly what I was wanting to know is why exactly Horne can beat Northup and Yarmuth can not beat Northup... everybody keeps saying that over and over again, and I don't believe either one really has a better chance than the other in beating her. Northup is an incumbent, and (since there are no people that have no clue what they are doing, like Tony Miller, running this time) this election will be about whether people want to keep her or don't want to keep her.

All I'm saying is Horne or Yarmuth... it doesn't really matter who you vote for, but everybody ought to keep in mind that the other candidate is just as good as the other.

[RedStateShame]

3. Word.

And I'm not the biggest Horne fan, mind you, but if he gets the nomination, I will stand by him through the election, and the same for Yarmuth, although I'm supporting James Moore, and I hope my fellow 3rd District Democrats make it a point to do the same. This has been a fine campaign from an excellent gorup of Democratic candidates, and I hope we continue to see such candidates in Kentucky politics. (Will a good Kentucky Democrat PLEASE run against Fletcher?!) And I sure as hell know that whoever wins the Democratic nomination will do a better job as our Representative than Ann Northup has done. So, let's get this nomination through, let's unseat Northup, and let's determine who will replace Ron Lewis, Jim Bunning, Mitch McConnell, and Ernie Fletcher in the future.

[Pryderi]

5. Didn't Yarmuth originally refuse to run, but jumped into the race late?

[Roland99]

10. Yarmuth is well-spoken and a solid liberal. Horne is a Johnny-come-lately

and he comes off stiff as a board in his commercials. Northup would thrash Horne and his one-trick pony.

[Pryderi]

11. The Northrup campaign will keep Yarmuth! campaigning against Yarmuth!

and Anne will trot back to Washington on November 8th. While it is true that Horne seems stiff, he has been getting better in public speaking and doesn't have the baggage that Yarmuth carries.

[Pryderi]

4. As I said in the other thread. Yarmuth's long history of columns will be

used against him by the Northrup machine. John will have to spend alot of time defending himself against himself. You saw what the Bush campaign was able to do with Kerry's, "I voted for it before I voted against it".

Horne supporters will back the Democratic nominee, but they won't be as passionate....kinda like Dean supporters backed Kerry.

If you look at Horne and Yarmuth on the issues, there's alot of agreement.

http://www.yarmuthforcongress.com/wordpress/?page_id=41/

http://www.horneforcongress.com/issues/

I just believe one of the, "Band of Brothers" will have a wider appeal in the general election.

[LouKYDem]

6. I can see where his columns could cause problems..

but at the same time, his columns are also why I know he is the better choice. Yarmuth has strong opinions, and I believe that he will stand by what he said (not like how Kerry tried to back away from his opinions).

As far as the electability issue, I see strengths and weaknesses in both, to such an extent that it seems they are more or less equal on that. For example, Horne is an Iraq war veteran that will appeal to more voters just for that, but he has virtually no name recognition, and although it has mixed effects (some people may see it as a good form of leadership, others may see it as a way of trying to look too powerful; personally I see it as the first but I can understand how people would see it the other way), Horne seems to come across as somebody that is very forceful about what he says.

Meanwhile, Yarmuth seems to be able to explain his opinions thoroughly (and has a vast amount of knowledge about many political issues, not just about Iraq) and he has the name recognition, but he has the problem of the columns which the Northup campaign will undoubtedly use against him and he has practically no recognition outside of Louisville, which means he (unlike Horne) wouldn't get financial support from people all over the US (like the people on DU...) as Horne would.

And there are more strengths and weaknesses for both candidates... basically they'd both do just as good in the general election, I just see Yarmuth as being better.

[Pryderi]

7. How will you vote for Judges and other offices?

Russ Salsman, Circuit Court Clerk
Melvin Ratchford, PVA
Kevin Triplett, Metro Council District 15

Mitch Perry, Jefferson Circuit Court Division 3
William H. Mooney or Franklin P. Jewell, Jefferson Circuit Court Division 5
Paula Sherlock or Rebecca Swope Atkins, Jefferson Family Court Division 8
Ann O'Malley Shake, Kentucky Supreme Court Justice

[LouKYDem]

8. those are pretty much my choices..

well except that Metro Council seat, I don't know who I'd vote for there, but I'm not able to voteg in that race anyway. The judges are pretty much the ones I'm planning to vote for.

PVA is quite different, I don't see anything wrong with Melvin Ratchford, but I have known Aaron Tasman and his family (personally) for a long time and I just couldn't vote against him (I would if I saw serious problems with him as a candidate, but I don't).

[LouKYDem]

9. I'll also add about Tasman...

I should add that I'm not voting for him purely out of obligation; I KNOW he is a good candidate and up to doing the job.

There have been campaign commercials about him (coming from Lindauer) calling Tasman a "politically ambitious 25 year old," which is correct, but that is definitely not a negative thing about him... I honestly think he wants to be involved in politics and property values (yes, it is conflict of interest to some extent, but it is also a good background to have) is something that he knows about. PVA could be a good first step for him, and if he succeeds there, he could potentially move on to something bigger and better later on.

And I wouldn't be too concerned about his political beliefs, he is definitely a Democrat.

[tarkus]

12. I went with Moore for congress, McAnulty for Justice

McAnulty had the most experience, and I would like to see him become the first African- American KY Supreme Court Justice. As for PVA, I went with Ratchford because he didn't seem to have ties with the real estate business like the other candidates.

[stevietheman]

13. Exactly. A vote for Yarmuth is a vote for Northup.

Why? Because Yarmuth will fight Northup with kid gloves. It will be like Kerry '04 in a local race.

[LouKYDem]

14. Still to early to say, but...

I think Yarmuth has won this primary... 38% of the precincts are reporting, Yarmuth has 52.5%, Horne has 33.8%. But anything is still possible before the night is over.

I figured Horne would do better than this (but then again, who knows, he could still improve before the night is over), but I hope most of all that (assuming Yarmuth remains ahead) that the Horne supporters will become Yarmuth supporters for the general election. I've just been amazed by the amount of negativity I'm seeing from Horne supporters... and worried about whether or not they'll be behind Yarmuth (who in my opinion was the better candidate anyway).

[LouKYDem]

15. And now (with 89.4% of the vote in)...

John Yarmuth D 26,311 54.0%
Andrew Horne D 15,747 32.3%
James Walter Moore D 3,840 7.9%
Burrel Charles Farnsley D 2,799 5.7%

So Horne didn't win, but I hope this isn't the end of politics for him. He seems like a good guy that could very well be the ideal candidate (if he'd be more open about his stance on issues), I just didn't like the negativity of his campaign (and some of his supporters) and his unwillingness to say where he stands on issues.

I don't know what else he could run for, but I'd be willing to support him in a future race for some other office (maybe Senate? he'd be better suited for a federal office than a state or local office, although Senate might be too big of a first step into politics). I just hope he doesn't stray away from politics; in fact, I'd like to see him prove himself as a person that we can really trust to do the right thing (he didn't really do that this time, which is why I personally voted for Yarmuth instead of Horne).

[Roland99]

16. Horne should start planning on an '08 Senate run.

[LouKYDem]

17. And he can start...

He can start by establishing himself as somebody that we can all trust to do the right things politically... and not just continuing to establish himself as the Iraq war veteran that is against the war.

He can have a lot of power; he CLEARLY had a LOT more grassroots support than Yarmuth. The only problem is that some of his grassroots supporters didn't seem to be too interested in knowing many of the details about him other than the Iraq war dimension of him. If he wants to get past the primaries for any future elections, he has to let Democrats know that he is with the party on MANY issues (not even all of them; although I'd like the perfectly ideal 100% Democratic candidate, there is always room for compromise), and not just the war. Yes, the war is an important issue, but as a Senator or member of Congress, there are many other important issues to contend with too, and Horne did not convince me that he is prepared to tackle those issues.

[Roland99]

18. Exactly. The Iraq blinders must come off of everyone if we're to overcome.