Reply #117: the primary wars on DU were awful ...

[welshTerrier2]

it became much harder to discuss the issues and DU was inundated with Party operatives who attacked anything that sounded like criticism of the Party's positions ...

here's a recap of my 2004 "candidate migration":
i was one of the first if not the first DU'er to post about Howard Dean ... i was very interested in Dean's campaign for a very brief time ... i remember several calls i made to Dean's 5 person campaign office in Burlington, VT about all the online activists who "would be very receptive to Dean's message" ... but i could not support Dean's equivocating about the War ... i still don't ... when Dean made a statement saying the US should give Saddam 60 days to disarm and then we should invade, he violated the long-held standard of "imminent threat" ... even if Saddam had WMD, there was no evidence he could, or would, attack the US ... invasion in 60 days, as Dean called for, was inappropriate ...

second, i moved to Kucinich ... Kucinich had the right message on the war ... i voted for him in the primaries but, to be honest, i think he's a terrible candidate ... i think he relates well to people when he's one on one but there's just something that strikes me as odd about his personna ... i hate to say it but i don't think he'll every be viable nationally ... but his views on the issues were very appealing ...

and finally, once Kerry got the nomination, i got behind him financially although i never did much work for his campaign ... i was very involved with a local Dem running for State Senate (she won!!) ... my Kerry support was as ABB as you could get ... i did NOT vote for Kerry in his 2002 Senate race because of his support for the IWR ... and i had no passion for Kerry last year ... my view at the time was that he was a necessary albeit undesirable alternative to bush ... i know feel that i was totally wrong ... i had hoped a new spirit of unity would well up in the Democratic Party in appreciation of those who chose an ABB route rather than voting for a third party candidate ... how foolish and naive was that ?????

not that you asked, but here is my current thinking on Kerry ... i'm totally disappointed in him ... i read most of his speeches ... some of them are truly excellent and should become part of the Party's roadmap on certain issues ... his thoughts on an energy program are especially noteworthy ... but as a candidate, i though Kerry was awful ... he just never learned that you can't play it safe and i doubt he ever will ... because of this, Kerry comes across as more calculating than passionate ... and, to digress even further, this is the essential flaw in today's Democratic Party ...

Democrats believe they can regain their majority Party status if they can repaint their image ... they think Americans see them as weak on defense and they blame the left for sticking them with this problem ... and they are wrong on both counts and will continue to lose until they learn the truth ... the truth is that Americans will not measure strength by calls for war and a hawkish foreign policy ... what Americans value as strength is having the strength of your convictions and the passion to fight for them ... until Democrats learn this lesson they will continue to lose and we will be stuck with two parties that value war and conquest more than peace, security and stability ... it's really tragic ...

anyway, that's what the world looks like from my little window ...