Campaign 2008

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Maybe 1982 there'd be an argument, but they had learned quite a bit more about AIDS by 1992.

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Magic Johnson went public in 1991. There had already been the tv specials and such. Reagan's troglodyte attitude of the 80s doesnt mean a Southern hick governor can still talk like that in the 90s.

 

It's defenseless & Huckabee has no chance of anything but the GOP nomination.

 

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Evidently the DNC is keeping mum in attacking Huckabee because they think he has a glass jaw in the general election. That may be true but voters I talk to like Huckabee's straight forward speaking style and if he is paired against Hillary I doubt that the AIDS remark is going to be the item that breaks his campaign.

 

Personally, I think if the Democrats nominate Barack Obama this race is over. That man has aroused more enthusiasm over the political process than anyone I have seen in a long time. After all, this is a black candidate who is winning "lilly white" primary state polls in Iowa and New Hampshire right now.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

If Huckabee ends up the Republican nominee, that would make the election choice very easy for me. I am not someone who is even remotely comfortable with the religious right making heavy inroads in policy making, and Huckabee seems like a real advocate for them rather than just paying lip service.

 

Not sure if the glass jaw thing is very wise though, Democrats have proven to be remarkably inept at politics in recent years, and i"m not sure they are good enough to narrowcast and break the glass jaw.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Well Huckabee's surging candidacy and possible road to the nomination have been paved by the party's shift to the evangelical wing over the last several presidential elections. If Huckabee wins the primary and loses big in the general election that might finally prompt the GOP to re-evaluate that relationship. However, Huckabee's only challenger on the social conservative platform right now is Fred Thompson and it seems that his campaign is running in molasses right now. Either way, if I have to pick between Thompson and Huckabee I'm leaning toward Huckabee because Thompson has looked dreadful and performed very poorly in the GOP debates thus far.

 

I agree with invader3k in that none of the candidates greatly appeal to me either but if Hillary gets nominated I'll have to vote against her.

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Has Huckabee even said that he's changed his mind about getting rid of all Aids patients yet?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I heard Obama's remark this morning from the Dem debate where he said "I look forward to you advising me, too, Hillary". That made me laugh. It's nice to see him staying on the offense a bit.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Has Huckabee even said that he's changed his mind about getting rid of all Aids patients yet?

 

These were Huckabee's comments on the issue as reported by the Los Angeles Times on December 12th (http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-huckabee12dec12,0,5514341.story?coll=la-home-center):

 

"Obviously, we know a lot more today. I'm glad we do," he said, while visiting Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller's baseball museum in this town of fewer than 900 people. "That was 1992."

 

Huckabee was challenged on the AIDS issue Tuesday by two advocacy groups, the Human Rights Campaign and the AIDS Institute. They called on Huckabee to meet with the family of Ryan White, the Indiana teen who was banned from school and ostracized in his hometown after being diagnosed with AIDS -- a disease he contracted during his treatment for hemophilia. He died in 1990 at age 18.

 

Jeanne White-Ginder, Ryan's mother, called Huckabee's recent remarks alarming.

 

"It's very important to me that we don't live in the darkness," she told the Associated Press. "We have to treat this disease like a disease, and like Ryan always said, not like a dirty word."

 

Huckabee replied Tuesday that he was "very willing" to meet with White's mother.

 

"I would tell them that we've come a long way in research and treatment, and I certainly never would want to say anything that would be hurtful to them or anybody else," he said at a morning news conference in Council Bluffs. Huckabee said he "would have great regret and anxiety if I thought my comments were hurtful or in any way added to the already incredible pain that families have felt, regardless of how they contracted AIDS."

 

So basically he took the "it was 1992" approach to the issue and is somewhat hoping that it doesn't spark a ton of damage in the polls. The more I read about Huckabee the more I'm finding him to be the Howard Dean of the Republican Party: a governor whose ideas make him a liability in a general election but who could win the nomination based on a limited appeal to the party fringes.

 

I got a good laugh out of the Obama joke as well. Playing up his personality is a major plus for the campaign and the comment was somewhat Reagan-esque in turning an issue on its head (as Reagan did with age in the infamous 1984 debate with Mondale).

 

Furthermore, the chaos of the race continues as Huckabee and Mitt Romney have now displaced Rudy Giuliani on top of the polls in Florida according to Rasmussen:

 

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content...ublican_primary

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Someone should just show the Magic Johnson announcement as anti-Huckabee commercial.

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Matt Drudge has a very disengenuous link with a Bill Clinton "quote" up now. It's not even close to accurate.

[The Robfather 0]

I can actually understand why Hillary would stumble and Obama would gain.

 

At the end of the day, Hillary's campaign can be summed up simply as: Vote for me, I'm the wife of the last Democratic president. It is nostalgic notion and aren't democratic voters looking for change? Well, if so, they'd go with Obama.

 

On another subject, Alan Keyes got more airtime in the Des Moines Register debate than John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. Lovely.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Eh, I think a lot of Hillary's campaign is simply "It's time for a woman in the White House" as well, even if they won't outright say that.

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Hillary's is a campaign of entitlement, nothing less/nothing more.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Hillary's is a campaign of entitlement, nothing less/nothing more.

 

Exactly and that's the vibe that I think is coming off to voters. It appears in the early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina the more voters know about Hillary Clinton the less they want to vote for her whereas the more they know about Barack Obama the more they like him and want to vote for him. That's not a good dynamic for the Clinton team.

[snuffbox 0]

Other than George Bush in 2000, when was the last time a candidate successfully ran a campaign of entitlement?

 

The failures (both in primaries & generals) roll off the memory....Kerry, Dole, Mondale, Hart Humphrey (68 generals AND 72 nomination), etc.

 

I don't count Bush Sr's 1988 run as that was more a combination of image-buiding and negativity. Dole was more of the entitlement candidate that year, in the primaries.

 

It was probably Nixon in 1968. And that panned out real well.

[snuffbox 0]

Looks like another big money day for Ron Paul.

[NoCalMike 0]

Hillary's is a campaign of entitlement, nothing less/nothing more.

 

That and the keeping of "status quo"

 

It is almost like she is saying, "you might not like me, but can you roll the dice on any of these other guys? At least with me you know exactly what you're getting"

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

I guess that's true considering that everyone advising her is pretty much from the old Clinton administration. I think if the Democrats nominate Barack I'll be voting Democrat in November unless Romney possibly wins the GOP nomination (and that looks increasingly unlikely). Although experience is an issue I'd trust him to bring some qualified people into the cabinet. Maybe I just yearn for a great orator to be back in the White House because listening to eight years of Bush speeches makes me feel that my IQ has been lowered. However, if the Dems nominate Hillary I'll be voting GOP just to vote against her.

 

Also, I think it's a bit of a gamble for Bill to start intensifying his campaign role for Hillary as has been reported. I see three risks in this: first, it makes Hillary's campaign seem more desperate than it really is and is only going to help the media play up Obama as a more solidified candidate. Second, if Bill campaigns hard for Hillary in Iowa and she still loses then that will also play into Obama's hands if he comes out on top because he had to "overcome the odds" of a former popular president campaigning for his wife. And third, Bill could overshadow Hillary's candidacy. The guy has tons more charisma than his wife and she could easily fade into the background making her look weak by comparison.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

tru luv

 

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I want Democrats to be back in the majority in Washington and elect a Democratic president in 2008. This man [Ned Lamont] and his supporters will frustrate and defeat our hopes of doing that.

-Joe Lieberman, 2006

 

Fuck Lieberman.

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From Al Snow to Iraq, Lieberman is easily one of the most embarassing American politicians of this era.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I like that Connecticut voted for Lieberman and not for The Party. That made me feel good, that they decided that they were pleased with the results that they got from their senator, and didn't just vote for the guy running as a Democrat. I'm not sure how much I agree with Lieberman, but to call him one of the worst politicians of the era is probably a reach.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

they decided that they were pleased with the results that they got from their senator

 

haha

 

It helped that he lied and pretended like he opposed the war in Iraq. And said he would still basically be a Democrat.

[snuffbox 0]

I said "embarassing" not "worst" but Lieberman can qualify for both.

 

His awful belief in Bush Jr and his Iraq ideas instantly qualify him to stand among the worst. He's supporting the worst policy this country has enacted since Vietnam. You can't just magically give him points because he stopped being a Democrat, Czech.

 

And the Al Snow toy shit was among the more pathetic depths an American politician has reached in some time.

 

The guy is terrible and his disengenuous campaigning in 2006 is not something to hold in esteem.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

they decided that they were pleased with the results that they got from their senator

 

haha

 

It helped that he lied and pretended like he opposed the war in Iraq. And said he would still basically be a Democrat.

What constitutes "being a Democrat," and how has he failed in this regard?

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Not supporting delusional/bullshitting Republicans for President is probably a big part.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Well no, he's not a party line automaton, but I find it hard to believe that means he "isn't a Democrat." I thought I was told that the Democratic Party was politically superior, and even ethically superior, to the Republicans because they tolerate dissent and have so many varying opinions. Much like John McCain, I think the whole "maverick" thing is really blown out of proportion.

[snuffbox 0]

He's been a Bush Admin. autamaton. He protected them by refusing to subpoena anybody in the Adminstration for various scandals after promising to do so during the '06 campaign. He's been in lock-step with Bush on Iraq and is now supporting another war policy toadie in McCain. He's played along with the everyone-opposed-to-the-Iraq-War-is-really-a-terrorist line as much as anyone else, Mike DeWine included.

 

And, he has long been one of, if not the, biggest proponents of mindless censorship of any "Democrat" for a very long time.

 

Why do you feel the need to defend him so admamently?

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

they decided that they were pleased with the results that they got from their senator

 

haha

 

It helped that he lied and pretended like he opposed the war in Iraq. And said he would still basically be a Democrat.

What constitutes "being a Democrat," and how has he failed in this regard?

 

Not calling other Democrats traitors and endorsing conservative Republican candidates for President?

 

I would say these two things can constitute "being a Democrat."

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Well in Lieberman's defense I don't think he has any love lost for the Democratic Party after Christopher Dodd and other party leaders told him to not run in the general election in Connecticut and then tried to defeat him there. I can understand why the Democrats were doing those actions in order to support the candidate who won the primary, but it's not as if he has to be lock-step with the Democrats since he isn't a real Democrat anymore.

 

And honestly, I'm not surprised he endorsed McCain. I don't believe there are any other politicians whose views match up as well with Lieberman in the race. Also, someone supporting a candidate from the other party is not unheard of. Georgia Senator Zell Miller crossed party lines to support Bush and even spoke at the RNC convention in 2004.

 

I think just because your a Democrat or Republican doesn't mean you can't endorse whoever you want or exercise independent thought. The major problem in the political system right now is "partisanship or nothing" that leaves little middle ground.