Lame local political slogans.

[AndrewTS 0]

Despite having an interest in political science, I still can't find myself getting too excited about local elections. Concrete, easy-to-find information about candidates is hard to come by unless you really dig for info, and the end result doesn't really matter since the party I typically vote for has a minority of voters here.

 

One of the many things that make me so apathetic about local politics? Lame political slogans. Why should I vote for you if you can't even come up with something catchy?

 

For example, running for Commissioner around here...on one side, we have a candidate declaring he's a "Man of Vision"--ironically, they show this slogan next to a picture of the guy wearing glasses. Trite, and unintentionally humorous--but not a slogan to get me behind the guy.

 

The other person running for the position declares he'll "Keep Fayette (county name) on the move." What does that mean? I was unaware we were "on the move" in the first place. We're dead-last economy wise out of all the counties in the state I believe. However, it's well known that a great number of young people looking to have an important career tend to move out of the county--is that what he means? How does that make me want to vote for him?

 

This isn't really a "current events" topic persay, but since this is the thread usually used for political discussions, here it goes. I'm sure you guys have some doozies of your own you've seen.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

The other person running for the position declares he'll "Keep Fayette (county name) on the move."

Fayette County? I'm assuming you're from Southwest PA -- Westmoreland here.

 

There's this guy running for Judge and has the last name Bear (or is it Baer?) with a freaking TEDDY BEAR in his sign. It's so incredibly lame.

 

My conclusion from that ad is that he'll be a TEDDY BEAR ON CRIMINALS...

[Guest MikeSC]

The other person running for the position declares he'll "Keep Fayette (county name) on the move."

Fayette County? I'm assuming you're from Southwest PA -- Westmoreland here.

 

There's this guy running for Judge and has the last name Bear (or is it Baer?) with a freaking TEDDY BEAR in his sign. It's so incredibly lame.

 

My conclusion from that ad is that he'll be a TEDDY BEAR ON CRIMINALS...

Lame local slogans?

 

How' bout " 'No' on recall, 'Yes' on Bustamante"?

 

That was awfully lame and it was local.

-=Mike

...We also have Congressman Floyd Spence with his "Sold on Spence" slogan. Thing is, when you see the sign, "Sold" is in HUGE letters and "on" is barely visible --- so it looks like Spence is just sold.

 

Which he might be.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Oh, I forgot about this one.

 

There was this guy back in Ohio last year that was running for some local position and ran these commercials all the time where it touted him going to church for XX straight years. I voted against him on that issue alone, since I'm not a church-goer he obviously wouldn't be looking out for MY interests...

[Guest Choken One]

I remember that one...

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Can you remember that butthead's name? I think it was for Butler Juv. Court Judge or something.

 

The highlight of that election for me was walking into the voting place, looking at a group of activists for that dumb "railway" idea, pointing at them and laughing.

 

I love telling people that I’m not going to vote for their candidate/issue…

[Mecha Mummy 0]

"Vote Morgan True... It Will Be An Adventure"

 

With a picture of him and some Indiana Jones impersonator from some theme park.

 

... Yes, it was from a school election, what's your point?

[AndrewTS 0]

The other person running for the position declares he'll "Keep Fayette (county name) on the move."

Fayette County? I'm assuming you're from Southwest PA -- Westmoreland here.

 

There's this guy running for Judge and has the last name Bear (or is it Baer?) with a freaking TEDDY BEAR in his sign. It's so incredibly lame.

 

My conclusion from that ad is that he'll be a TEDDY BEAR ON CRIMINALS...

Yeah.

 

Another one I forgot--"Together We Can Make Things Happen." Uh...more vague, please?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

What's funny is that when these redneck local elections are held the vote totals are sometimes so small that it seems whoever has the bigger family wins the contest...

[Jobber of the Week 0]

How' bout " 'No' on recall, 'Yes' on Bustamante"?

 

That was awfully lame and it was local.

-=Mike

 

In a race where an opponent, no matter how politically attractive, is using movie slogans and SNL catchphrases, it's not that bad really.

 

I still loved that Marney post where she mentioned a campaign for some guy who's signs said "Vote for Rich White Republican"

[Guest Razor Roman]

visit www.friendsofjimphillips.com

 

 

spam his guestbook.

 

please.

 

he's a tool, and a liar.

[Ripper 0]

Here in Georgia there was this senator running against a guy and he was all. "My opponent is not patriotic. He is not for America, he is only for himself. [whatever his name is] is for America. When you vote for me, its a vote for America. Maybe my opponent should remember what it means to be American."

 

His opponent was a Vietnam vet that lost both his legs and a arm in war, and was given basically every medal you could. Something about telling a disabled war vet that they don't know what it means to be American was just plain weird.

[Firestarter 0]

You're thinking of Saxby Chambliss vs Max Cleland. It was a brilliant campaign; Cleland came off looking like a soft, weak union panderer. Which, being a Democrat, he was.

[Guest Choken One]

who won?

[Ripper 0]

You're thinking of Saxby Chambliss vs Max Cleland. It was a brilliant campaign; Cleland came off looking like a soft, weak union panderer. Which, being a Democrat, he was.

Yeah, I knew Clelands name but I couldn't remember Chambliss. And Chambliss(the one with all of his appendages) won the election in a year that had most of the sane people in Georgia saying 'What the fuck just happened. How did these morons win?"

 

Only in Georgia could you insult a war vets patriotism and WIN a fucking election. Goddamn rednecks.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I remember that race. Boy were the Dems on CNN pissed about losing that race in GA. (I'm talking about Carville/Begala -- not the entire CNN newsroom, although Judy Woodruff did look like she was about to cry when it was announced the GOP was going to win the House and Senate)...

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Basically, IIRC, the Cleland loss was due to terrible voter turnout. There's no way the voters should've let Chambliss get away with bashing a 'Nam war vet as "unpatriotic" or some shit, and it still baffles me that he lost.

[Firestarter 0]

And that's why you guys suck.

 

Seriously, why should anyone get a free pass on national security just because he fought in a war 30 years ago? One can respect veterans in general and still question a particular veteran's patriotism, integrity, and intelligence. Democrats try to inoculate themselves with military service against any and all charges without ever specifically addressing them or arguing the issues. It doesn't work anymore. It hasn't for a while. Sorry.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

How does a guy who skips out on service in a war (for example, Bush) get more cred for "patriotism" than a guy who served his country and lost limbs for it?

 

You would be completely irate if anyone questioned Bush's patriotism based on his 'Nam non-service, but you think questioning Cleland's patriotism is fine?

[Guest MikeSC]

Basically, IIRC, the Cleland loss was due to terrible voter turnout. There's no way the voters should've let Chambliss get away with bashing a 'Nam war vet as "unpatriotic" or some shit, and it still baffles me that he lost.

Why can't you?

 

Just because you served doesn't make you a patriot.

 

Lee Harvey Oswald served in the military. Timothy McVeigh served in the military.

 

Do you describe either of them as patriots?

 

Heck, Wesley Clark is an inept buffoon, military service be damned. Ditto John Kerrey.

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Since we're talking about this, I found this funny. Personally, one of the reasons I don't care for Kerry anymore is becasue just about every time I hear from him now he's pimping his military service...

 

Source.

 

Howard Dean’s presidential campaign sharply criticized Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday for seemingly flip-flopping on the importance of serving in Vietnam in presidential politics.

 

Kerry seeks to distinguish himself from his White House rivals — both Democratic and Republican — by drawing attention to his war record. But this emphasis stands in marked contrast to his past utterances about service in Vietnam as a qualification for the highest office.

 

“Before he became a political candidate for president, John Kerry clearly believed that military service should not be used for political gain,” said Jay Carson, a spokesman for Dean, the former governor of Vermont who is running well ahead of Kerry in recent New Hampshire polls.

 

“And he was right about that,” Carson added. “Unfortunately, now John Kerry and his campaign have a strategy to use that record to further his political career.”

 

On numerous occasions this year, Kerry cited his distinguished war record as a decisive factor in who should be the nominee. As a naval officer, Kerry earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with combat V, and three Purple Hearts for his service on a gunboat patrolling the Mekong.

 

Kelley Benander, a spokeswoman for Kerry’s campaign, responded to the charges by saying:

 

“John Kerry has always said military experience is not a pre-requisite for the presidency, but it informs the tough questions he asks and it certainly gives him the firsthand perspective you can’t learn in the situation room. He is the only person running for president who combines military experience, broad foreign policy experience and a tested commitment to Democratic values — and yes, we will talk about that.”

 

Asked Monday at a New Hampshire gathering about the possible reinstatement of the draft, for example, Kerry told the audience it should be administered “without politics and favoritism.” He added, “There are some people in high office today who pulled strings to get into the National Guard.”

 

President Bush served as a pilot in the Air National Guard.

 

At a Democratic presidential debate last Thursday, Kerry responded to a jibe from rival Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) about his privileged upbringing by recalling his war experience.

 

“Can I say that when I was serving in Vietnam on a small boat, the one thing I learned was nobody asked you where you came from,” Kerry said. “Nobody worried about your background. You fought together, you lived together and you bled together.”

 

Kerry then sought to turn his answer into political capital.

 

“I think I stand here with a broader base of experience, both in domestic affairs and in foreign affairs, than any other person,” he said of his Democratic primary opponents.

 

In May, Kerry told the Orlando Sentinel, “I am the only person running for this job who has actually fought in a war.”

 

A decade ago, however, Kerry rose in the Senate on two separate occasions to decry presidential candidates who used their military service record as a qualification for the highest office.

 

On Feb. 27, 1992, Kerry defended then presidential candidate Bill Clinton against an attack by his Democratic rival Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.). As the primary season unfolded, Kerrey, who lost part of his leg in Vietnam, had peppered Clinton with uncomfortable questions about whether the Arkansan had evaded the draft.

 

Kerry hit back at his Senate colleague, saying: “I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way… What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be re-fighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary.”

 

Jan Scruggs, president and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, attributed Kerry’s shifting position to political expedience.

 

“It was just smart politics,” said Scruggs. “Kerrey was a presidential candidate, and John Kerry was basically defending the guy who was going to win.”

 

In October 1992, Kerry again defended Clinton from remarks by President George H.W. Bush. In a television interview, the president had questioned Clinton’s involvement in anti-war protests while a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and a trip by Clinton to Moscow as a post-graduate student in 1969.

 

In prefacing his Senate remarks, Kerry recalled the words Bush had spoken four years earlier. “This is a fact: The final lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can long afford to be sundered by a memory,” Bush then said.

 

Kerry proceeded to ask a series of biting rhetorical questions of Bush from the Senate floor.

 

“What has happened to the George Bush who made that statement?” Kerry asked.

 

“Why, President Bush, now do you choose to break another promise? Why do you choose to break your own statute of limitations?

 

“Why do you choose yourself to bring back the memory that only four years ago you said sundered this nation? Is your desire to hold office really so great that you would betray your own sense of decency and fairness? Is your desperation now really so great that you would adopt a conscious strategy of reopening and pouring salt on some of the most painful wounds that our nation has ever expected?

 

“You and I know that if service or non-service in the war is to become a test of qualification for high office, you would not have a vice president, nor would you have a secretary of defense, and our nation would never recover from the divisions created by that war.”

 

Then Vice President Dan Quayle served in the National Guard. Dick Cheney, then

Defense secretary and now vice president, never served.

 

“It’s unfortunate that [Kerry’s Vietnam record] has become the stock answer for almost every issue for Kerry’s campaign,” said an aide to a rival campaign. “At a certain point, Kerry’s going to have to articulate a vision that speaks to voters across America and not simply lapse into his military record.”

 

But Benander said: “Good luck to the aspiring president who would argue that national security credentials haven’t taken on greater importance in the post- Sept. 11th world. John Kerry’s Vietnam service, 19 years on the Foreign Relations Committee and overall national security experience are part of who he is and what kind of president he’ll be.”

 

“When you’re running, you use everything that may get you a few votes,” observed Scruggs.

[Guest MikeSC]

How does a guy who skips out on service in a war (for example, Bush) get more cred for "patriotism" than a guy who served his country and lost limbs for it?

 

You would be completely irate if anyone questioned Bush's patriotism based on his 'Nam non-service, but you think questioning Cleland's patriotism is fine?

Bush was in the Guard, I think, never went AWOL, and was honorably discharged.

 

I love that Bush's service is fair game --- but mentioning what Clinton did to avoid service was just dredging up ancient history.

-=Mike

...Don't worry, Tyler, I'll eventually ask you to explain how Dean can be a legitimate leader for the country when his economic policies are amongst the worst I've ever seen

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Basically, IIRC, the Cleland loss was due to terrible voter turnout. There's no way the voters should've let Chambliss get away with bashing a 'Nam war vet as "unpatriotic" or some shit, and it still baffles me that he lost.

Why can't you?

 

Just because you served doesn't make you a patriot.

 

Lee Harvey Oswald served in the military. Timothy McVeigh served in the military.

 

Do you describe either of them as patriots?

 

Heck, Wesley Clark is an inept buffoon, military service be damned. Ditto John Kerrey.

-=Mike

He may be completely inept as a politician (I don't know, I'm not up on Georgia politics), but comparing him to Oswald or McVeigh is utter blasphemy. For the love of Christ, Cleland didn't do anything treasonous or remotely malevolent to our country.

 

The "questioning patriotism" bullshit is asinine, especially in this case. Attack them on the issues, by all means; he was obviously not the strongest politician. However, you of all people should know that dirty politics is utter bullshit, ESPECIALLY with your defense of Arnold against the Hitler bullshit.

 

If you can truly defend this, you're more of a hypocrite than I had originally imagined.

[Firestarter 0]

How does a guy who skips out on service in a war (for example, Bush) get more cred for "patriotism" than a guy who served his country and lost limbs for it?

I'm not sure how losing your limbs makes you a patriot. It's not like he was given a choice: "Either you can betray America or lose both your legs and one arm. Which do you prefer?" That's more like John McCain. Losing your limbs simply indicates that you were unlucky, unskilled, or both. I'll grant that the fact that Cleland enlisted willingly gives him some cover, but let's be serious. Are people supposed to choose their senators on the basis of competence and sound stances on the issues or blind emotional appeals?

 

You would be completely irate if anyone questioned Bush's patriotism based on his 'Nam non-service, but you think questioning Cleland's patriotism is fine?

I don't think either is relevant. Patriotism is what you feel, do, and stand for now, not what you did or didn't do three decades ago. You can't say "I'm a patriot because I served in Vietnam." Look at the tenses. The only thing you can reasonably say is "I am a patriot because this is what I believe."

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Cleland was on my list of "Democrats I could live with if they were representing my state," but if his departure means a GOP majority in the Senate then see ya...

[Ripper 0]

It wasn't bad voter turnout that cost him the spot, it was the angry redneck vote (and some of the republicans actually said they were going for the "redneck" vote so its not TOTALLY my words)

 

Chambliss, Sonny Perdue and alot of the GA polititions won in some of the most ridiculous campains I ever saw. Sonny Perdue won because he pushed that the former governer(who was doing a GREAT job) changed the flag without a vote. Chambliss won, although he NEVER said what his stance was on any other issues besides homeland security in the race. NONE of them. Cleland had been doing a great job for Georgia, but lost due to that and Chambliss suggesting that he supported Roy Barnes decision on the flag.

 

Cleland should have won not because he was a vet, but because he had been doing a good job and gave good reason why he voted against the homeland security act in its then incarnation. The Chambliss campaign was pure mudslinging, calling him un-American, and never stood on any issues. Plain stupidity got this guy into his position and that is all. If there is one place that Republicans should hang their heads over how they won a state, it is Georgia. There shouldn't be any pride taken away from this.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

How does a guy who skips out on service in a war (for example, Bush) get more cred for "patriotism" than a guy who served his country and lost limbs for it?

 

You would be completely irate if anyone questioned Bush's patriotism based on his 'Nam non-service, but you think questioning Cleland's patriotism is fine?

Bush was in the Guard, I think, never went AWOL, and was honorably discharged.

 

I love that Bush's service is fair game --- but mentioning what Clinton did to avoid service was just dredging up ancient history.

-=Mike

...Don't worry, Tyler, I'll eventually ask you to explain how Dean can be a legitimate leader for the country when his economic policies are amongst the worst I've ever seen

Wrong, Mike.

 

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campai...ard_duty+.shtml

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?p...5&notFound=true

 

http://www.awolbush.com/newrephtml.html

 

http://www.globe.com/news/politics/campaig...tary_gaps.shtml

 

http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/05..._046-7650.shtml

[Guest MikeSC]

Why can't you?

 

Just because you served doesn't make you a patriot.

 

Lee Harvey Oswald served in the military. Timothy McVeigh served in the military.

 

Do you describe either of them as patriots?

 

Heck, Wesley Clark is an inept buffoon, military service be damned. Ditto John Kerrey.

-=Mike

He may be completely inept as a politician (I don't know, I'm not up on Georgia politics), but comparing him to Oswald or McVeigh is utter blasphemy. For the love of Christ, Cleland didn't do anything treasonous or remotely malevolent to our country.

 

The "questioning patriotism" bullshit is asinine, especially in this case. Attack them on the issues, by all means; he was obviously not the strongest politician. However, you of all people should know that dirty politics is utter bullshit, ESPECIALLY with your defense of Arnold against the Hitler bullshit.

 

If you can truly defend this, you're more of a hypocrite than I had originally imagined.

Wasn't comparing him to them. I was saying that military service does not make you a patriot and gave you two prime examples.

 

Read the quote again:

 

Just because you served doesn't make you a patriot.

 

Didn't say that anybody was like them. Said that military service does not make one an uber-patriot.

 

Hell, I could have mentioned Benedict Arnold, if I really wanted to.

 

I didn't even follow the race --- I don't CARE about Georgia politics, so I don't even remember any of the ads --- and I've learned not to always buy what the left-wing members of this board state happened.

-=Mike

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

I'll grant that the fact that Cleland enlisted willingly gives him some cover, but let's be serious. Are people supposed to choose their senators on the basis of competence and sound stances on the issues or blind emotional appeals?

That's precisely my point. He absolutely SHOULD have been challenged on the issues, not on some bullshit accusation of him being "unpatriotic". I laugh my ass off at everyone's hypocrisy who defends Arnold against the "dirty politics" but defends the usage of them in this and other races.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Read the quote again:

 

Just because you served doesn't make you a patriot.

 

Didn't say that anybody was like them. Said that military service does not make one an uber-patriot.

No, and I didn't call him an "uber-patriot" either.

 

However, the sheer fact that he lost his fucking legs in the war makes him far from unpatriotic.