On the establishment of majority rules
Amidst a litany of encouraging numbers for Democrats (e.g., “a solid majority of Americans want the Democrats to take over Capitol Hill”) are a few even more encouraging, and arguably more newsworthy indicators:
[S]hould the Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress, the American public supports their proposed “First 100 Hours� agenda. An overwhelming majority says allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies should be a top priority for a Democratic Congress (74 percent, including 70 percent of Republicans); 68 percent want increasing the minimum wage to be a top priority, including 53 percent of Republicans; 62 percent want investigating impropriety by members of Congress to be a top priority; and 58 percent want investigating government contracts in Iraq to be a top priority. Fifty-two percent say investigating why we went to war in Iraq should be a top priority (25 percent say it should a lower priority and 19 percent say it shouldn’t be done.)
Oops, looks like another bit of conventional wisdom might be consigned to the circular file. These poll numbers strongly suggest that Americans who vote Democrat next month won’t be doing so merely to punish their beloved, if haughty, Republican incumbents; they’re voting Democrat because that’s the party whose stated positions more closely line up with their own beliefs, values, political leanings, perception of reality, etc.
Or, in other words: If we win, it’s okay to act like Democrats. No, scratch that; it’s pretty much imperative.
(BTW, had anyone else heard of this so-called “First 100 Hours” agenda? I like to think of myself as at least moderately well-informed, and so does this guy, but this seems like something I might have stumbled across before now. You know, on account of the election and all.)
First!
First I heard of it, too. Sounds better than “the Longest Day” anyways.
it’s been talked about in places like daily kos for a week or so.
Well of COURSE!! I think the people, Democrats and Republicans alike, would be ecstatic to see our government stop rolling over on it’s back and letting big corporations scratch their tummy and get huge unreasonable giveaways. Big Oil, Big Pharma and the Financial Services industry in particular. The bush administration is getting hammered, in part, because they were so blatant in their pandering to corporations. Had they allowed the minimum wage to be raised and negotiated a little window dressing for their more obscene corporate giveaways, they’d be in a better position. But their sheer “fuck you” hubris is offensive to your regular Joe Sixpak kinda guy…
mikey
Oh dear, how will the media cope with this information? It…just…doesn’t…fit…their GOP-supplied storyline.
Conventional Wisdom pundits gotta eat too!
Well, yes, but . . .
I had heard about the 100 days thing but not from the Dems themselves — it came up as “The Pelosi Agenda” and was framed largely by the right (another example of Dems not putting their own message out, or at least not clearly or forcefully).
And I’m sure those stats are right, but here’s my worry: how many voters actually know that those things they support are actually Dem initiatives? I mean, I don’t want to pee on anyone’s Cheerios or anything, but I think the Dems better work a bit harder at clarifying and amplifying their message.
Here’s somebody peeing on Holy Joe’s Cheeriosâ„¢.
And a darned nice job of it!
Man, I hate it when someone pees on my Cheerios. I have to dump out the cereal, wash and sanitize the bowl and…
Oh. Metaphor.
So what does the First 100 Days Agenda include? Can I assume there’s some reasonable thinking about Iraq in this agenda?
Did they ask: “If the Democrats take back the Congress, are you for or against tarring and feathering the occupants of the White House?”
That would have been interesting.
Can I assume there’s some reasonable thinking about Iraq in this agenda?
Any actual thinking getting done about Iraq would be a warmly welcomed start, methinks. Getting to “reasonable” is the next step.
And I somehow think that had the Fairness Doctrine not gone by the wayside and had not our media been surrendered to rich righties, we would hear about this agenda. All I keep reading are “analysis” and stories about how the Dems are disorganized and scattershot and making gains despite themselves, while the GOP are just suffering a few rather tough breaks despite their self-evident superiority in theory, politics and governance. As Eric Alterman asks, “What Liberal Media?”
Actually, I was there at the College Dems convention when Nancy Pelosi announced the First 100 Hours. And that’s the last I ever heard of it. Quite a shame, as I recall it included tax breaks for college tuition and other sure-to-be-popular stuff that the Republicans wouldn’t dream of doing.
Fuckin’ morons.
If the Democrats take back the Congress… won’t McCain commit suicide? Jeepers!
And, completely and totally off topic:
MC Frontalot playing in DC tonight.
Solid.
It was reported in the WaPo, but kind of dissappeared except as a scare tactic, as noted. Maybe this new Newsweek coverage will turn that around; the old “Dems don’t have an agenda except…” whatever talking points the bullshiterati are pushing game might not work as well when real agendas actually get press and voters notice the Dems are planning to do what we want.
Did Gary get lost?
This link pretty much reiterates the post on this site:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/10/americans-support-first-100-hours.html
The First 100 Hours Agenda seems to be a good first step in letting the country know the Dems are more than the We’re Not Them Party. But it’s really not enough, as most folks see the parties as two sides of the same damn coin. And people like Hillary give them ample reason to think so.
I was watching Karl Rove on C-Span last night and he kept citing how many Democrats in the House and Senate had voted against this and that Republican piece of crap legislation and all I could say was, “All right! What’s wrong with that? Except that it wasn’t 100%!” But the weird thing was, there was practically no audience applause to any of his lines (this was a fundraiser of the faithful, after all). Will it ever dawn on Karl that even a lot of Republicans disagree with much of what his boys have been doing the past five years? Let’s hope not.
Funny, I was thinking of it as 100 days, but I like it a lot better as 100 hours. They really should push this — all Dems running for congress should be hammering on this specific, articulated agenda because really — what’s not to like? And if they could manage to get voters thinking about how much good they could do (or how much bad they could begin to undo) in just a few days, that would certainly speak to the need to get the country back on some sort of positive, ethical track.
As a side note, when I first heard about this from some GopShill (can’t remember who), the argument was basically “If the Dems get control, they’ll waste all sorts of time and money launching pointless investigations.” I don’t see a huge focus on investigations in the plan Pelosi outlined . . . but I do see a big focus on consequences from investigations that have already happened. That’s gotta be scaring more than a few members of BushCo.
Ohh, the last word I heard is that the committee was still debating if it should be 100 hours or 98.6 degrees or 99 Luftballoos or 99.99 percent pure love…updates to follow in 100 minutes.
more inane observations here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
The corporate media monopoly must be broken up, and FAST. If I had the power it is the *first* thing I would do. Seven or eight interconnected corporations controlling the flow of information and news is very much against the Constution, and should be corrected.
The fact is the Democrats don’t have any ideas.
The fact of the matter is corporations always look out for the best interest of average people, not just Americans, but all over the world.
The fact is Republicans may make mistakes, but they always have the best of intentions and the only reason many people think otherwise is because of the biased liberal media.
The fact is Michael Moore is fat.
The fact is Harriet Beecher Stowe is short, ugly and smelly.
The fact is slavery is OK because God wouldn’t let men own other men if there were anything wrong with it. Besides, the slaves are happy and well-cared for.
The fact is the Ku Klux Klan was just spirited hijinks and pranks put on by some Southern men to amuse the women and children in those terrible years immediately after the Civil War. If there were a handful of atrocities, they were committed by evil Northerners trying to make the South look bad.
The fact is there was no Holocaust.
The fact is Bambi’s mother was killed by liberals.
Find the talking points that make no sense.
Thought you all may be interested:
http://blog.myspace.com/mariognitrini111
http://www.myspace.com/mariognitrini111
MarioGeorgeNitrini111
mariogeorgenitrini111
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The OJ Simpson Case
Kathy, I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who absolutely agree with your point on media monopoly but who still manage to dismiss Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent as paranoia . . . of course those may be the very people who actually believe in the Liberal Media, mightn’t they? Hm. That’s depressing.
It’s baaaaaack . . .
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The Crank Case
Gawd, I must be bored. I clicked on crazy mario’s link. Yikes! I have no idea what it says, let alone what it means, but all it needs is a “blink” tag or two to be the wildest, ugliest most incoherent page on the web. He oughta hire that “Blargh – It is Mystery” dude as a writer. But Mario, no matter what anybody says, don’t let anybody else handle the design elements. You have a truly uniqe style.
mikey
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The Encino Grafiti Case
I’m impressed with the 100 Hours agenda. It’ll give a good start for the Congress, if Nancy Pelosi is Speaker with a smooth transition. What could likely happen though is that we’ll start seeing stories about Democratic infighting in getting the Speakership/Majority Leader position. Watch as two major in-party battles come up if we win the House (and that’s still a big IF… if we don’t, there are going to be some resignations and loss of power, but that’s another story for another day): First, Steny Hoyer’s going to challenge Nancy as speaker, and already has some support from the Blue Dog types. I’m not the biggest fan of Nancy Pelosi, but I’m no fan of Steny Hoyer. Second, if Rahm Emanuel decides to take on Murtha for Majority Leader, that’ll be one heck of a battle. I like Murtha’s style, but the dude is mad conservative. And Rahm just pisses me off. Where are Ed Markey or Jim McDermott when we need them…
Now, as we all know, there will be infighting on the Gary Ruppert side as well, with Blunt probably challenging Boehner, Hastert losing leadership, and the need to fill Pryce and Reynolds’ shoes in the case one or both are unceremoniously dumped. But the MSM won’t cover it, because they’re not in power anymore, and therefore aren’t exciting.
As for the media, that octopus has to be hard to break up. And it doesn’t help that beyond curmudgeons and Olbermann, the rest of the news is unwatchable.
THANK YOU MIKEY.
But Mikey, it’s not your fault you’re not able to follow what I say, if you follow certain cases the way I do and certain others do, you would understand and would be able to follow what I say.
I read this website everyday, and no matter what people may say about me here, I LIKE THIS WEBSITE, and your OK too Mikey>>>>>LOL
MarioGeorgeNitrini111
mariogeorgenitrini111
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The OJ Simpson Case
For a dose of searing honesty, please take a moment and read this piece by Kevin Tillman, Pat’s brother. Here’s someone who answered his nation’s call, sacrificed so much, and is now confronted with the taste of ashes, the venal lies and wasted lives. And he offers a brutal indictment. Charley Mike, Kevin…
mikey
All Chomsky does is apply the same rules to America as Americans apply to the rest of the world. And yes it goes the same for any country in the west, including my own. Chomsky ain’t paranoid, he’s right. The powers that be see democracy as a steam whistle to keep the people from getting to restless, but get in all a titter if the people actually wish to exercise power. That’s why the war in Iraq has them so shaken (and why they don’t want the dems to investigate or impeach), the powers that be (for whatever reason) thought Bush’s little war was a grand ol’ idea. They were wrong. They deserve some of the culpability of it turning into the disaster it is. Of course, they are desperate to NOT do this, as if the so-called experts were so damn wrong about such a significant foreign policy decision, what the hell are they doing in positions as “experts” anyways?
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The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump
Gary, in all his incarnations has officially gone meta. The real, the surreal, the parody, the anti-Gary…it boggles.
I can no longer ponder the wonder that is Gary(s). I must rest now.
Wake me up, before you go, go.
I need to know what the real Gary thinks about the First 100 hours, before I can have an opinion about it.
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Hall v. Oates
Q: Are we not men?
A: We are Gary!
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The Ruppert Case
Thanks for that link, mikey. I had seen mention of this piece, but hadn’t yet read it myself. It’s very powerful stuff from beginning to end, so it’s hard to single out a line for special consideration, but I would offer this:
In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity.
Of course it must be read in its original context, but even without that context, it shines light on a point that I don’t think many Americans have considered. And it’s time they did.
The fact is, I am Spartacus!
Actually, we are Spartacus!
It just makes me sad, Mortician. And weary. And deeply, deeply angry. We want our cause to be noble. We want our actions to be on behalf of a just cause. At the very least, we want to BELIEVE. We want to believe that the loss and pain and horror were FOR something, and that we did what we did for some larger reason. When you finally must confront the indisputable fact that it was for greed, for lies, for power and wealth of a few, that the lives we gave and the lives we took were no more than than yesterdays crumpled banknotes, nothing more than faded marks on a bloodstained ledger in a basement somewhere, unimportant and unremembered – when you finally understand that you were used and wasted and the world is worse off for the price you paid – well, there is a kind of freedom in that. A wisdom about the real world, the real exercise of power, the relative measure of cost vs. benefit. For dick cheney, the cost is negligable. For Kevin Tilman, and so many others, the cost is immeasurable. You sigh, you pick up your ruck and your rifle, and you put one foot in front of the other. It never really ends…
mikey
True, but I have the feeling that the real Gary cannot express an opinion on the first 100 hours, because to him the democrats are infinite losers (on a good day) and indistinguishable from terrorists on a bad. Thus to him the fact that the Democrats are talking about what they want to achieve in the first 100 hours of them being elected (and talking mighty certain like it’s gonna happen) scares the living bejesus out of him. One second it’s all “The fact is that the democrats will be defeated because the voters will see that the Democrat’s plan of surrendering to terror won’t work.” The next it’ll be something on the order of “The fact of the matter is, if the liberal media wasn’t doing it’s best to help the terrorists, the GOP would have a veto-proof majority and Iraq would be peaceful.” Even for Gary, the kind of desperate logical lurches shifting between rationales has got to be discomforting. I sincerely doubt he’s even thought of what the Dems would do in the first hundred hours, except in his nightmares. Which would be something of the order of “We all get gay married and then recite the Koran while appointing Justice Bin Laden to the Supreme Court” or something.
mikey, some passages in your last post remind me of the brilliant closing passages of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a flawed but powerful book about another great American travesty of all that is decent and human. And for the first time I feel bad about my choice of pseudonym here — it’s from a great Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem, for anyone who didn’t already know that, but right now it feels flippant and wrong.
The fact is, I don’t know who Toni Morrison and Lawrence Ferlinghetti are, but I’m sure they hate America.
Flippant ain’t wrong, mi amigo. Laughter, even the bitter kind, is oxygen when there’s enough tears to drown in. Stand up, turn east towards Washington, extend your right middle finger, smile, and know they’ve won every round and they’re still not CLOSE to winning…
mikey
Yeah, the Washington Post covered it about two weeks ago. If you blinked, you may have missed it…not a whole lot of echo on it, I guess.
BLOGWHORE ALERT
I covered it on my blog.
Yay! I scooped Sadly, No!
I don’t get out enough.
Dammit, mikey, have you any idea how often you’ve brought something dangerously like a tear to these cynical old eyes? Well, not that old, but still. Oh, who am I kidding? Kinda old. Anyway. Ahem. I actually did it. Stood up, faced east, gave it the old one-finger salute, and I’ve gotta say it felt good. Fuck ’em. Let’s keep fighting.
This old man’s with you both. Facing east, delivering the bird and liking it.
“Pugna alius dies”. If the translator worked correctly, otherwise I’m probably wishing for a new snake.
“Gary, in all his incarnations has officially gone meta. ”
The fact is, Gary is now a fetus spinning slowly through space.
Oh man, now I’m seeing apes . . . apes with bones . . . near a monolith with some Richard Strauss music playing, and . . . and . . . Gary? Really?
Wow.
Shouldn’t that be “some Leo Strauss music playing”?
Just sayin’.
Touche, Hoosier.
Hi, Mario!
The Kevin Tillman piece is very powerful, The Editors are back and he has the whole thing because it was too good to excerpt. Sifu Tweety is back, too. I hope the seekret mishin went OK for him. Old Yeller is still dead. Gary Ruppert still needs therapy, do you hear me, Gary? Don’t make me call your mom.
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The Helle Crafts Case
The fact is that the Gary who can be understood is not the true Gary.
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Justice Cocklecarrot and the Case of the Twelve Red-Bearded Dwarfs
Hi Back at you Gentlewoman.
MarioGeorgeNitrini111
mariogeorgenitrini111
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The OJ Simpson Case
I have a question about Nancy Pelosi.
This has come up a few times recently and none of the conservatives I asked was able to provide a coherent answer (although their lame reasoning seemed to work OK for them).
What exactly did Nancy Pelosi do or say that makes her such a scary extremist lefty? I think I’m as well-informed as anybody, but I’m not aware of her saying or doing anything that warrants stuff like that idiotic Prickly City bumber sticker or some of the comments I’ve seen in the syndicated columns provided by the local right-wing newspaper.
(You know the kind of columns I’m talking about. Where the right-wing whacko is saying that people may think the Republicans are doing a bad job, but when they get in the voting booth, they’ll realize Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker of the House and that will scare them so much that they’ll vote Republican because it will be worse under the Democrats.)
So when I asked about this, the adjacent Republicans looked at me like it was just so obvious. There are so many examples. And just because they couldn’t come up with one doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
So is this one of those typical repug memes with no basis in reality? Something that has become true to Repugs just because they have repeated it over and over again? Like “CNN is so liberal.”
Is this going to fall apart under scrutiny, just like the case against Al Gore, in which Exhibit A is something he never said?
Help me out here! Are any conservative talking points based on anything except Hoover Institute delusions?
Hey, Lemonheads! Here’s hoping you get your new snake…
mikey
Hoosier, I think it’s basically this:
1. she’s a Dem
2. she’s a she
3. she could actually be in power sometime soon
That seems to be enough for those types.
Thanks, Smiling Mortician
I take it I’m on pretty safe ground when I challenge Repugs when they talk about how scary Nancy Pelosi is.
Just like I’m on safe ground when I challenge … pretty much anything they say. Unless management decides to shut me up by … firing me.
I think it’s shameful the way our country is polarized over this kind of bullshit. The Devil or his twin brother guys, there is no escaping here. 🙂
Hey, c’mon now guys. In the Indianapolis 14 camp where we end up, our barracks, while we’re being tortured and dying of disease and starvation, our barracks is gonna be the funniest by far….
mikey
The fact is, yes, Virginia, there IS a Gary Ruppert.
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A Case of Colt .45 Malt Liquor. Oh yeah.
She’s from San Francisco! And you know what THAT means!
Compulsory Rice-A-Roni, that’s what.
She’s from San Francisco! And you know what THAT means!
Compulsory Rice-A-Roni, that’s what.
And forced steroid injections from Barry Bonds’ private stash.
Annie, don’t you live up here in Canada? Or are you using the we in the Adam Yoshida sense?
And mikey, your barracks will definately be the funniest. Mine on the other hand will put on the best musicals.
The fact is we’re desperate.
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Alien v Predator
She’s from San Francisco! And you know what THAT means!
The Republicans aren’t talking about BART when they call Pelosi a “San Fransisco Democrat”.
Right now I live in Canada. Next year I’ll be living in Mexico. I’m a globetrotter, baby.
The fact is, Alien loves Predator.
http://alienlovespredator.com/
Even the “Bay Area Lub’rul (psst that means she wants your kids to get The San Francisco Treat)” bit has less to do with it than the fact that she’s an opposition leader. She could be a mostly-conservative Mormon from mostly-libertarian state (hi Sen. Reid) and they’d still try to paint her as Marx’s gay love child.
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Santa Claus v The Moon Men
I’m Marx’s gay love child.
You know, I’ve always found the wingnutt fixation on San Francisco and to a lesser extent New York, you know kinda weird. From a logical perspective, I can at least understand that the values of San Francisco aren’t exactly Red State, and thus mustn’t be tolerated. But it’s weird how they speak of it as the Devil’s City, USA and call upon God to destroy the evil like Sodom and Gemorrah. It’s equally weird that for all their prayers of destruction, the places that piss them off (San Francisco, Dover Delaware, Canada, France) don’t get destroyed but the Gulf Coast, which in my impression is a very Red Jesus land, get umm, wrecked.
Makes me wonder if they are doing it right.
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Marx v teh gay love childs
If the Almighty is sending America any message, it’s clearly, “Your not infallible.”
New Orleans was a cesspool of sin and sex.
Dam it, “You’re” !!
(Stay in school kids!)
Your Grace,
Trying to map reason onto the wingnut tropes is the first step down the slope to GaryBotism. Save yourself.
The enitre Repub strategery revolves around whipping up frothy mix of hatred and fear of “them” to keep the plebes and proles distracted from the consolidation of wealth and power. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make sense, or that they don’t actually share that hatred, all that matters is that the followers trade their votes for protection from the evil them du jour.
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Gay Love Children of the Damned
Hey kingubu, remember in that 1984 book when that happened cuz of SOCIALISM??? XD
You rang?
One day there will come a post when every stinkin’ comment will be signed by a pseudo-Gary.
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The Case of Clap
_
You rang?
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Gary Ruppert v. Gary Rupert v. Gary Ruppert
PREVIEW BUTTON!!!!11one!1
Aw, man, now I can’t decide whose barracks I wanna be sent to when the big lockup comes.
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Standup Comedy v. Musical Theatre
Now I’m worried that the real Gary Ruppert [is that an oxymoron?], having ignored Gentlewoman’s advice, has been consigned to the Looney-Bin of Psychopharmacology.
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Justice Cocklecarrot and the Case of the Twelve Red-Bearded Dwarfs
Dear Mr Mortician:
I have considered it – before we invaded (notice 1st person plural) and after seeing a photo of soldiers at a makeshift service for a dead comrade, and after reading about the sacking of the Natl Museum in Baghdad (freedom is untidy) and especially after reading about the criminal chaos that has engulfed Iraq (kidnapping, execution, extortion, murder etc). This is why I yell at wingnut friends and family about how the GoP needs to go and they just say “oh you are just Bush bashing…” or you are a librul etc
well fuck that – I am pretty far away from the madness in Iraq but I can at least imagine what it is doing to the Americans on the ground there (emotionally, psychically, physically) and even for the Iraqis themselves
I suppose the wingnuts dont read and/or are really afraid what would happen if they had a little empathy and looked into their own souls…. Its really frustrating to think that people really eat up the bullshit GOP talking points about Pelosi, BushHaters, DeathTax, Family Values blah blah blah – when people are dying unnecessarily. We are snuffing out our own future….
gah
its not some fucking football game
Hey kingubu, remember in that 1984 book when that happened cuz of SOCIALISM??? XD
Hey annie, remember in that 1984 book when Eric Blair penned a critique of socialism from the LEFT??? XD
One brain good. No brain better!
Vote Republican!
Thanks, mikey, The new snake just arrived.
I’ll call him…Gary.
As S. Jackson exclaimed:
“I want these mutherf*ckin’ Republicans off the mutherf*ckin’ plane!!!
“What exactly did Nancy Pelosi do or say that makes her such a scary extremist lefty? ”
Good question. I’ve also wondered exactly what Hillary did or said that makes the wingnuts call her the things they do – lesbian, bitch, hater-of-the-military.
There’s no logic behind it. The dishonestly calculating ones make shit up, and the deranged ones fall in line behind them.
Hillary’s female, so that’s the number one reason the Repubs hate her.
Probably the same for Pelosi.
But Clinton does give them fodder. She’s a consistent fence-sitter who goes the way of the polls. It’s the number one reason I don’t support her. There’s moderate, and there’s a lacking of spine, and she fits into the latter.
It’s too early for Obama; he’s charismatic and consistent, but too green. I’d love Feingold but he’s probably too far left to gain any steam.
I’d love to see Edwards run again – but I can’t see a way that they (the DNC) won’t “class warfare” him right off the ticket.
“It’s too early for Obama; he’s charismatic and consistent, but too green.”
I disagree. Who was the last Senator elected as executive? Every vote is a trap. If he’s ever going to run and have a hope in hell it’s now or never. This is in no way a statement of support, just some good ol’ pragmatism applied to him and his goals as a person.
“What exactly did Nancy Pelosi do or say that makes her such a scary extremist lefty?”
She’s a chick! Can you imagine a speaker of the house with a uterus? Well, can you? What if she menstruates all over some important documents or something?
Not to mention, as Gingrich noted Pelosi can’t serve ’cause of all that nasty stuff in the trenches.
The 101st, on the other hand, have no such excuses. Doughy Pantload, I’m looking at you!