Democrats should be speakin out about the economy..

[butterfly77]

and how it is not good as the bush adm is portraying.Why do you think they aren't? Is the Iraq situation the only issue you are concerned with? What would be your top three. Can dems walk and chew gum at the same time? They should be hitting them hard while the hitting is good, what is the problem.

[jerry611]

1. That's been the problem for awhile

The Democrats keep running one-issue campaigns or campaigns that target 1 person.

Statistics consistantly show that the majority of voters will not vote for you simply because you claim you are better than the other guy. They also do not vote based on one issue alone.

Democrats need to learn to be more of a multi-threat...

[Warpy]

4. They keep running campaigns to reassure Repugs they won't

change too much of the Repug agenda. That is their major problem.

The theory behind that is the mythical Repug swing voter, the scared little rabbit who doesn't much like the Repugs but who is scared to death of the mean old liberals in the Democratic Party.

That strategy has lost us all three branches of government.

Had enough?

[jerry611]

6. Well the demographics are that we are a center-right nation

Look at how many people the GOP was able to get out to the polls on just the gay marriage debate?

That debate was ignored by Democrats. So the GOP was able to freely attack the "evil liberals that want to destroy marriage."

Concentrating on one thing, like the war, is like a football team that can't run the ball. The strategy becomes predictable and exploitable. You may score a touchdown or two, but you are going to lose the game.
The GOP are very good in the final weeks before an election. And the reason why is because they know how to attack Democrats on different issues. Many times the Democrats have no response at all.

[Warpy]

11. That is SO WRONG

because when asked questions on issues ranging from taxes through wages through social justice the vast majority of self identified conservatives take the liberal view.

You're right the Democrats never have a response. Playing to the right is not a response and never has been.

The party needs to reconnect with its base if it wants to get back into power. Of course, that might jeopardize the tax cuts the fat cats at the top got, so we may never see it.

You can't win elections when you destroy hope. Your base just stays home.

[butterfly77]

14. They always play into their hands....

when they talk about marriage and guns these so call dems should say what they are for and don't let that become the main issue because those are not the main issues when it comes to running this country. We all know damn well that they will not take away any guns, if they tried this would create a civil war in this country it ain't going to happen because they can't find them all and never will.

[butterfly77]

12. Prime example ....

hannity and the rest of the republicons are going on their tv and radio shows every week talking about what the dems plan to do if elected and the dems are as quiet as a mouse. They need to stand up and boldly say what they will do and speak plainly about all of the bushit, there are only a few who do and they will state it only to a point.

[butterfly77]

13. Thats because a lot of them aren't really dems...

[Bozita]

2. 150-160,000 new jobs are needed each month to keep unemp figures level

In August, the Bush economy created 125,000 new jobs.

How is this not a bad thing? Where are the Dem voices?

[Justyce]

3. You should also subtract out

the jobs lost. And for their unemployed statistics, do they just count the ones receiving unemployment benefits, or do they include the ones whose benefits have run out?

[Bozita]

7. Thanks. I worded it badly. Fixed now.

IIRC, unemployment figures include only those currently collecting or those actively seeking work through the states' unemployment benefits agencies.

That misses an awful lot of folks.

[Sinti]

8. That's the trick, they only report the number currently receiving

unemployment insurance benefits. Not the people for whom the time ran out, so they're getting nothing. That's why, if you watch, when the time ran out on the initial influx onto unemployment, the Bush administration came trotting out their new figures pretending everything was just peachy. Funny thing is, a lot of folks I talk to realized this, and knew they were full of it.

[butterfly77]

15. and the new people who have entered the country legal,,,

and illegal. They compare statistics from twenty to thirty years ago and they leave out what they want and put in what they want, they fix the numbers anyway and they are liars.

[Justyce]

5. I totally agree -- I also emailed

Howard Dean & others about this a couple of times... people are scared of losing their jobs, if they haven't already, and waiting for our economy to just crater out. It's so scary & should be one of the top issues, like the Clinton strategy "it's the economy, stupid".

[butterfly77]

17. They will wait until everything boils over and ....

people are in the streets and everything is out of control like they always do. They believe it will be like the history books but I believe that there will be things that they did not estimate because people are not naive like they were in the past.

[Sinti]

9. Economy, War, Loss of Liberty, those issues are even winners here

in "red Idaho," where perhaps 1 in 25 people admit they voted for *, and the vast majority I have contact with think he's an idiot, and is destroying the country. :shrug:

[mmonk]

10. We're in a constitutional crisis.

While economic news is important, economies tend to be cyclical and as an issue pales when compared to a constitutional crisis.

[butterfly77]

18. There is a large majority of people who aren't ...

being heard from so the comfortable think that there is nothing going on and this is a different situation with dumbass in the whitehouse. He is fixing the numbers and hiding what is really going on and I believe that we are in a depression,

[sweetheart]

16. connecting the wars to the poverty

The problem for uz all, is to spark the complex awareness of how much the war has stolen from
programmes that would otherwise provide for education and social spending hansomely without any
deficits, war or loss of liberties.

Yet to explain how the drugs war is a surefired strategic failure is hard for people to do in an
essay let alone a soundbyte.

... to explain why the crumbling state of road-bridges and schools is related to wasteful wars in
asia all to defend the petty ego of the asshole.