New blog post about

[whometense]

the 2004 election here: http://toughenough.org/2005/12/housekeeping.html

I know it's way overdue, but please let me know what you think. The more I think about this stuff, the more PO'd I get.

[TayTay]

1. I liked it.

This is an issue that we cannot drop. We shold still be feeling anger at the fact that a lot of Democrats did not play stronger defense around Kerry last year. Their support was tepid and they acted like the Rethugs had given them a permanent case of 'abused spouse' syndrome. (They agree with their attackers in hopes they won't get beaten again. Sigh! You can't appease an abuser, you can only hope to get away from the abuse and break the pattern.)

We do need a stronger and more unified Democratic Party. You'd think, with all these smart people in the Party that we could have the brains to get a unified response system in place. Sigh, Democrats.

[whometense]

2. Thanks,

this stuff is making me crazy. And in large part because I don't know what can be done about it. Or what these smart - but selfish - people are willing to do to change the status quo.

[TayTay]

5. That's where we come back to some of the stuff JK has been saying

lately. He has repeatedly stated how the Dems need to get organized NOW and get a structure in place NOW so that we can do everything possible to support our agenda in the face of a hostile media. (And they are both hostile and lazy.) The Rethugs, however much I hate them, are efficient at getting the talking points out there and getting them repeated over and over and over in a consistent way. This is a critical failure of the Dem Party. We have to have a permanent rapid response team in place to counter the Rethug points.

Remind me to tell you sometime about the 'war stories' from a former TV news producer I work with and how the news actually gets over the airwaves. It's both funny and very sad. (And this guy has friends who have worked at Fox. OMG, that is just a soul-sucking experience. some of those stories are just plain awful.)

[ProSense]

3. Excellent point!

I don't understand activism that calls for spending a significant amount of time infighting.

[globalvillage]

4. I think this is the perfect time

to get folks thinking about this problem. I agree. It pisses me off almost daily.

[sandnsea]

6. Excellent post

Hard to say what the solution is. The centrist wing is just as frustrating as the lefty wing. Why does it seem like it's only a handful of Kerry people who can sit back and see what's happening? Or are we out of touch with America too? Unity and progress and optimism. What's so hard to figure out???

[whometense]

7. The only obstacle I can think of (and it's a huge one)

is personal ambition. I hate to think dems are sitting back and letting good candidates fail because they don't want to see someone other than themselves sitting in the White House for eight years. But I honestly wonder. It doesn't seem like the policy differences are so large that they would prevent these people from supporting each other. It's the only explanation that makes any sense to me.

And that makes me sick. I wish I had an idea of what could be done about it.

Maybe the reason it's Kerry people who see this is that we are inspired by his vision, and no matter what anyone says, he clearly has a vision of what a best version of this country could look like. I don't get that from any other pol. And it's a lot bigger than "I wanna be president." Edited to add that John Edwards does have a vision as well - I just still don't see that his is as comprehensive as Kerry's. But maybe that's just me.

[sandnsea]

8. I wonder about that too

I just emailed the DLC actually. Dumbasses. They have a whole piece that includes the fact that in order to break even with Republicans we have to have ALL liberals and something like 7 out of 10 moderates. They then go on about appealing to those moderates. Okay fine. But do they just FORGET that they have to have ALL the liberals too? They just seem hellbent on pissing them off. Is it belief in an ideology? Or just maintaining influence. It would be sad to me to find out any particular group was intentionally sabatoging other Dems out of pure political expedience. I also think they're listening to too many Republicans telling them what Democrats and Independents are thinking. They don't understand the difference between success for Iraq, and "winning". I don't know anybody who cares about "winning" in Iraq, just about having the best possible solution with the least loss of life. "Winning" is a juvenile outlook in war, I think most Americans know at least that much from Vietnam. Except the DLC, because they're confusing Independents with Republicans I think.

[whometense]

9. That's a really interesting point

about "winning" in Iraq. You're right - what would winning look like? I have no idea. Whereas I have a very good idea of what Kerry's idea of success in Iraq would look like.

I've been trying really hard to work towards unity myself, but some days it's very hard. The more I read about the "virtually unstoppable" momentum of a Hillary candidacy (anyone remember any other candidates from, say, the 2004 election who were also "virtually unstoppable"?) the angrier I get. Is it the DLC pushing her? I had originally thought most of the impetus behind a Hillary candidacy came from the repug talking heads on tv. And in what universe do these people see her sweeping the liberal wing during the primaries? She seems to have gone way out of her way to piss off liberals in oreder to up her centrist cred. And why does anyone think her husband's charisma is transferrable?

Sorry - I'm really grumpy today.

Edited to add (case in point) this comment by Dan Kennedy from today's Boston Phoenix:

On the Democratic side, Massachusetts senator John Kerry hasn't stopped running since his narrow loss to Bush in November 2004. At this stage, though, the nomination appears to be New York senator Hillary Clinton's for the taking - and it seems increasingly apparent that she's taking. A cold-eyed observer may wonder how Hillary - perhaps the most divisive Democrat in the country - can win a single state that Kerry lost. But unless a dark horse such as Iowa governor Tom Vilsack or former Virginia governor Mark Warner can stop her, it looks as though we're going to find out.

:argh:

[TayTay]

10. This is still just a beauty pageant at this point

No one has really had a chance to evaluate these people yet. It's too early. At this point in time, the only thing that you can say with certainty is that unexpected things will happen. The current media 'common wisdom' will be upended and strange things will happen.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either trying to sell you something or has been drinking the RW Kool-aide. It's too early.

[sandnsea]

12. She just gets a pass

Because it's Hillary. I don't know that anyone is specifically pushing her, or whether it's just a presumed run and presumed that she'll do well. Why would any mainstream Dem vote against her and for someone else? How is Kerry going to convince people he could run a better campaign than Hillary? And are we even going to know who the Repub candidate is going to be? People may vote for her just because of the machine that's behind her, a machine that knows how to win will be the presumption. I think she's going to be tough to beat in the primary, and I just don't even know about the GE.

[karynnj]

13. The strange thing is there is little actual reason to know

how she will run. Her first run was against a very weak candidate (Lazio). It's true that she was initially against Guilliani - but that was the pre-911 Guilliani, who had just announced his divorce, neglecting to tell his wife first, likely had an earlier girlfried (who was still in a plum city job), and who had already angered most of NYC. He said he dropped out because he was being treated for prostrate cancer - which would make a Senate race difficult.

She will have Bill and Bill's machine. She is very smart - but she has sometimes come across as cold.

[sandnsea]

15. Check this out

If this is true, and Hillary really does think she's got the left in her back pocket, then I take back everything I said. Maybe she is listening to Republicans tell her what Democrats think.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2338629&mesg_id=2338629

[TayTay]

14. It's too early.

She has not declared yet. (Though she is raising money, and that is a sign right there.) The organized opposition to her is not yet there because it's too early. I am not ready to throw in the towel yet. I think she does NOT have a waltz to anything. We shall see.

[sandnsea]

16. Oh I'm not either

I'm just trying to think how to defeat her without ripping the party apart. I honestly do not want her as President, I'd much prefer Kerry or even Feingold. I'm as sick of the rightward tilt as anybody.

Based on that post above though, maybe she'll self-destruct by relying on the same kind of advise old Joementum got.

[TayTay]

17. Right now, she is the new old face on the block

Everyone looks good this far out. There are a lot of good potentials out there. Warner looks very attractive, though I find him sleight on foreign policy experience. John Edwards has a solid anti-poverty stand that is very, very attractive, though I also find him sleight on other things. And so forth and so on.

It's very early. A lot of people who want to run will realize that they can't raise the money or it just isn't the right time or something. (I can't see Joe Biden making a credible run. I just can't. He has all the policy and government credentials and such, but he just isn't 'a President' to me. I think the same thing about Sen. Clinton, she is a good Dem and has a lot to recommend her, but I just don't see her in the Oval Office as President. I just don't.

We shall see. There is a lot of ground to cover between now and Jan '08. Come Nov or so of '08, there will be 3-4 Dems who really have a credible shot at the nomination. This is different from now when it looks like 8-10 who think they have a shot. We shall see who gets winnowed out by the process and by blind circumstance.

[blm]

11. I've been saying much the same thing here at DU. Kerry WON his matchups

with Bush - the DNC and the leftleaning media got their asses handed to them daily by the RNC and itsRW noise machine who controlled the daily message.

Course....easy to do when you OWN most of the broadcast media.