[Politics]

[holzman_tweed]

I had been reserving final judgement, but I think I've concluded that it's time to declare for Howard Dean for President. Like Molly Ivins did,

George Bush: "Junior." "G.I. Joke" I think I've documented throughout this journal why John Gotti would be a better choice for President -- in either his dapper or his decomposing phases.

Dennis Kucinich: Pro-life politicions, take note: your position on this matter shall haunt you all your days, and if you want to shake off that onus, I'd better spend several years reading about your leadership role undoing the damage you've done.

If this wasn't one big frelling downtick, the fact that he's been an Ohio politician for most of my life and my native Ohioan brother-in-law has never heard of him is a kiss of death all by itself. It makes me figure he's an Internet-only phenomenon.

I also don't think he's put forth very much in the way of policy that seems realistic, and that's a third kiss of death.

Wesley Clark: I hear tell his running was Clinton's idea. Clinton is a likable president only because he's sandwiched between two Bushes. Michael Moore made the case some time ago that he was the most successful conservative President we've ever had. Big downtick.

I'm not very big on people with no political experience who want to get into the game at the top. Yes, I know one has to be a politican to be a General, but that's a different game with different rules.

I'd vote for him in preference to Bush -- hell, I'd vote for Winky The Space Rat for President before I'd vote for Bush.

Carol Mostly-Gone Please. I voted for her twice in my life, and that was enough. She doesn't have the sense the Gods gave a lemming, or she'd still be Senator Mosley-Braun. For those unfamiliar with Chicago politics, she got elected to the Senate by presenting us with the opportunity to make history by putting the first Black woman into the Senate. She also had the advantage that the Republicans put up a bloated plutocrat from Kennilworth who didn't bother trying to disguise exactly how bloated a plutocrat he was. We were given to understand that a Black woman Senator would bring an improvement in how Senators conducted themselves. When she was elected, she proceeded to act just like all those white guys.

It really should have occurred to her that people were watching, her being so historical and all, and that we were going to notice that and not like it.

Her big pitch running for President is... that she's a Black woman. I've already ridden this ride, thanks. And losing her cool on Fresh Air the way she did, I don't ever want her anywhere near being able to order the military to do her bidding.

Al Sharpton: I have to confess, Al surprised me. If he somehow won the nomination, I could feel good about voting for him... sort of. I've been involved in New York politics since I was 16 (my cousin is on the State Assembly, and I've worked on election campaigns), and Al plays dirty. I still haven't forgiven him for how he played Tawana Brawley for his own political ends, and I'm not likely to.

Dick Gephardt: Another anti-choice flip. He's been more active as a pro-choicer than Kucinich, but even so... Aside from that, he's failed to bring the noise.

John Kerry: Speaking of failing to bring the noise...

John Edwards: Speaking of failing to bring the noise...

Joseph Lieberman: Pretty Please with sugar on top. Carol Mostly-Gone is a preferable candidate. Ralph Nader is a preferable candidate. If I wanted to vote for a Republican, I'd vote for Bush. And somehow I don't think I can count on Lieberman to share my views on Israel.

PLUS, he's failed to bring the noise.

Ralph Nader: Fuck that union-busting motherfucker. I don't understand how the Greens have been able to consider him a viable representative of their platform.

OK, that's what I don't like about everyone else. What do I like about Dean?

I like what I've heard about his policies. I appreciate that he understands that now that Bush has invaded Iraq, we can't simply pull up tent spikes and leave -- no matter how much the anti-war crowd wishes we could. I appreciate that when the right pulls their shit, he swings right back -- while maintaining the high ground. Too many political fights have been lost because Democrats have been confused on the difference between standing up for themselves and "going negative." I appreciate that he's gone direct to the people for his funding. I appreciate that he's been effective in his online funding -- and I haven't given him any money yet. I like that he addresses all sorts of constituencies -- who else has talked to or about Native Americans in this campaign? Good old fashioned coalition building.

There you have it

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Any comments on Kristof's article in today's NYtimes?

This is what scares me.

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

He has a lot of good comments on the issue. I see Dan's statements on this - and frankly, Dan's much father to the left than I am - but ideology aside, Dean scares me a lot. He reminds me of a cross between the evil politician in THE DEAD ZONE and someone who sold his soul to the Devil for power.

See also the quotes and such on the candidates and the campaign and who I went for at either http://www.marmotgraphics.com/jim/journal/2003/12/journal_120803.html
or http://www.livejournal.com/users/jrittenhouse/7127.html

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Sure.

The first thing I note is that while Kristof lays out a thesis about why Dean won't win, I can't help but notice that he doesn't suggest who he thinks can. If that's because he doesn't think any of them can, then we may as well go with who we're leaning towards anyhow.

Aside from this, I think his thesis is mistaken:

To start with, a recent Bush vs. generic Democrat candidate poll came out with Bush ahead 48%-42%. That's not the strength I normally associate with incumbency.

seduce "Reagan Democrats," like Ohio steelworkers and Tennessee tobacco farmers.

Right about now, Bush is driving the Ohio steelworkers to the Democrats with a switch.

Not another Michael Dukakis.

There are two things that Dukakis and Dean have in common: They ran for President and they are from New England. That Kristof thinks this makes them comparable shows that Kristof isn't looking at this too clearly -- Dukakis lost because he let Bush the Elder get away with stuff like Willy Horton when he should have had a field day. Dean has already demonstrated he isn't playing that way.

Angry bluster rouses the party faithful, but it frightens centrists.

This is exactly what I was talking about with the problem seeing the difference between standing up for oneself and going negative. It's also evidence that Kristof isn't paying attention.

Take a look at the conservative press and candidates and tell me that angry bluster isn't working.

Dean's a cut above angry bluster, in any case.

Mr. Dean's recent remarks about Southern men and Confederate flags showed both his awareness of this problem and his ineptitude in addressing it.

I read that exactly oppositely -- I'm glad he brought it up, he was raising a very valid point, and he stood by the statement he was making, and didn't buckle under when Sharpton tried to spin it into something it wasn't. I think this sort of "verbal self defense" is exactly the sort of thing we need in a candidate to take on Bush when he tries to go there.

You get the feeling that if Mr. Dean and Mr. Bush were stuck together in a small Missouri town, Mr. Dean would lecture farmers about Thomas Paine's writings, while Mr. Bush would have the cafe crowd in stitches by doing impersonations of Mr. Dean.

Once again, one only gets that feeling if one is not paying attention. I expect that if they were stuck together in a small Missouri town, Dean would talk about what's on the minds of people in a small Missouri town (having been briefed by Missourians for Dean), and when Bush tried to do an impresonation, Dean would come back with a line that send Bush home with that look on his face.

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

It's funny - when I read Kristof's "not another Dukakis", I immediately thought of Kucinich.

I mean, think about it - both of them mysterious urban technocrats speaking in academic jargon with roots so Eastern European as to scare the hell out of any swing state.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Dunno.
I hadn't heard of Kucinich until I played with one of those candidate chooser sites and he matched me the best.

Then I read his answers, and he seemed way out there.

Then I saw his picture, and heard what Clevelanders thought of him and just simply shook my head.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Re the angry Southerners, Dean certainly could have better forseen the reaction and come up with a different choice of words. I know of one person who was completely turned off by the confederate flag thing, and no amount of explaining what was meant seemed to help.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

It may be a difference in outlook, but I specificly liked the confederate flag reference. Why?

Because it's how the people he's talking about talking to indentify, and people always respond better to being spoken to than being spoken about. And talking to them is not only the key to getting them to see who's got their best interests at heart; it's the only way to getting to a space where we can talk with them about the race and class issues around that symbol.

Also because one of my biggest criticisms of Clinton is that he was afraid of turning someone off -- to the extent that he screwed his own team over. I appreciate someone who can meld a vocabulary that includes "contretemps" with straight shooting.

BTW -- something else occurred to me about the Kristof article: I recall people telling us in '92 all about why Clinton wasn't electable.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

If there was going to be any tizzying over that Confederate flag remark from one side of the spectrum, I'd've expected it to come from Moseley-Braun, considering how nasty it got with Jesse Helms over that very issue back in her Senate days. but she understood exactly what Dean meant, and she stood up for him. (The other candidates understood what he meant too, but pretended not to in order to get some digs in).

The reason the C-flag is still so damn loaded is because it means different things to different people. What Dean was talking about was trying to undo years of the Right attempting to divide-and-conquer the white and black working classes.

I think plenty of the people I know who have C-flag stickers on their trucks (who aren't racists, just Skynyrd fans) got that message just fine.

[vyoma.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the club. As you probably knew already, I've been a Dean supporter since well before he ever officially declared. I've got a lot of reasons for that, most of which I've blathered about in my own journal in the past months.

Anyone who thinks Dean has no chance in a run against ShrubCo has failed to remember that this guy came out of nowhere. Just a year ago, he had zero name recognition, and now he looks very much like the frontrunner among Democrats (and Independents, too) nationwide. He's come out with some relatively detailed ideas on on-site energy generation, health care, and the environment that make a lot of sense to me. I don't agree with him on eveything, but if a candidate who I did agree with on everything ran for office he'd never get elected! I think Dean has his priorities right, though, and that's important. I also like the fact that Dean has a track record of being very stingy with spending; while governor, he never sank money into a project that didn't promise strong returns. This kind of fiscal conservativism may end up being a strong draw for disenchanted Republicans, and that could be what ends up putting Dean over the top in 2004.

And he's not a ShrubCo affiliate. That's important if we don't want to find ourselves embroiled in an endless string of military offensives designed to further the profits of Boeing and Halliburton and the Carlyle Group.