2004 Elections: Democratic Party Contenders

Here's a relevant article I received just this morning from a friend in Georgia.
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The God Gulf
January 7, 2004
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Religion may preach peace and tolerance, yet it's hard to
think of anything that - because of human malpractice - has
been more linked to violence and malice around the world.
And now as we enter a new campaign year, it's time to brace
ourselves for a new round of religious warfare and
hypocrisy at home.

America is riven today by a "God gulf" of distrust,
dividing churchgoing Republicans from relatively secular
Democrats. A new Great Awakening is sweeping the country,
with Americans increasingly telling pollsters that they
believe in prayer and miracles, while only 28 percent say
they believe in evolution. All this is good news for Bush
Republicans, who are in tune with heartland religious
values, and bad news for Dean Democrats who don't know John
from Job.

So expect Republicans to wage religious warfare by trotting
out God as the new elephant in the race, and some Democrats
to respond with hypocrisy, by affecting deep religious
convictions. This campaign could end up as a tug of war
over Jesus.

Over the holidays, Vice President Dick Cheney's Christmas
card symbolized all that troubles me about the way
politicians treat faith - not as a source for spiritual
improvement, but as a pedestal to strut upon. Mr. Cheney's
card is dominated by a quotation by Benjamin Franklin: "And
if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice,
is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

It's hard not to see that as a boast that the U.S. has
become the global superpower because God is on our side.
And "empire" suggests Iraq: is Mr. Cheney contending that
in the dispute over the latest gulf war, God was pulling
for the White House and fulminating at Democrats and others
in Beelzebub's camp?

Moreover, Mr. Cheney's card wrenches Ben Franklin's
quotation from its context and upends the humility that
Franklin stood for. If you read the full speeches Franklin
gave to the Constitutional Convention, including the one
with the sparrow line, you see that Franklin is not
bragging that God is behind him but rather the opposite -
warning that the framers face so many difficulties they
need all the help they can get, including prayer.

Meanwhile, Howard Dean is grasping for faith in a way that
is just as tasteless as Mr. Cheney's Christmas card. Dr.
Dean bragged to reporters that he knows much about the
Bible - and proceeded to say that his favorite New
Testament book is Job. Anyone who cites Job as a New
Testament book should be scolded not just for religious
phoniness but also for appalling ignorance of Western
civilization - on a par with Mr. Bush's calling Greeks
"Grecians."

After talking to Mr. Bush's longtime acquaintances, I'm
convinced that his religious convictions are deeply felt
and fairly typical in the U.S. Mr. Bush says the jury is
still out on evolution, but he has also said that he
doesn't take every word in the Bible as literally true. To
me, nonetheless, it seems hypocritical of Mr. Bush to claim
(as he did in the last campaign) that Jesus is his favorite
philosopher and then to finance tax breaks for the rich by
cutting services for the poor. If Dr. Dean should read up
on Job, Mr. Bush should take a look at the Sermon on the
Mount.

With Karl Rove's help, Mr. Bush has managed a careful
balance, maintaining good ties with the Christian right
without doing so publicly enough to terrify other voters.
For example, Mr. Bush doesn't refer in his speeches to
Jesus or Christ, but he sends reassuring messages to fellow
evangelicals in code ("wonder-working power" in his State
of the Union address last year alluded to a hymn).

Republicans are in trouble when the debate moves to the
issues because their policies often favor a wealthy elite.
But they have the advantage when voters choose based on
values, for here Republicans are populists and Democrats
more elitist.

As we move into the religious wars, I wish we could recall
how Abe Lincoln achieved moral clarity without moral
sanctimony. Though often criticized for not being religious
enough, Lincoln managed both of the key kinds of morality -
in personal behavior, which conservatives care about, and
in seeking social justice, which liberals focus on. To me,
each seems incomplete without the other.

Or there's the real Ben Franklin - not the one
counterfeited by Mr. Cheney - who warned each of the
framers of the Constitution to "doubt a little of his own
infallibility." That would be a useful text for Mr.
Cheney's Christmas card next year.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/opinion/07KRIS.html?ex=1074480152&ei=1&en=b8136aeb0d78da1e

Here's the man I'd vote for if he were running for prez.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0401/coates.php



Register the voters, and practice what you preach, all at the same time. This is true honesty.

CI - Take a deep breath. If you don't want to be held to account for your statements, don't make them. If you are going to make them, be ready to stand by them or retract them. Pretending it's my fault that you are taking absurd positions and making silly statements may feel good, but it doesn't look good.

Hope you find your sunnier, more cordial disposition soon; I've enjoyed lots of our exchanges in the past, and hope to do so into the future.

Some people I just prefer to ignore.

c.i. - will you never learn

Bill, I've always been a late/slow "bloomer."

CI - Shame... you are usually one of the more reasonable, level-headed folks here. Hopefully your current pique will pass and we can get back to our usual, cordial debates. We rarely agree, but I have generally respected your even-handed style here. It would be a loss to me and A2K for you to lose that.

Like a deer in the head lights............................

We get a lot of that here in The Northwoods





(If ya hit one, ya can keep the meat if ya want it :wink: )

Timber - Just going by the photo, but are you driving with night-vision goggles on? Must make taking only the biggest bucks that much easier! :wink:

But, the car damage is greater. Don't have to get to the Northwoods for that, have a few close calls around here every year.

As a matter of fact, about 2 months ago on a trip south of Little Rock going into Bastrop, LA; I felt like I was playing a game of Asteroids. On one occasion, a big buck buck lower its head and charged. I went into the other land and he still barely missed hitting me. The final score:

BillW 15
Bucks 0

whew!!!!!!!

I have to be careful driving near my home anytime day or nite, so many deer around it's rediculous.

Is that like Rudolph the "Red-ic-u-lous" Rain Deer

I've hit a few. Last year was real bad; Mrs. Timber and I each got one. Totalled her car (She really likes the heated seats in the new one though), and the one I got did damned near $4 Grand damage to my year-old Blazer. I once hit one twice. I saw him, braked and swerved, almost missed him, but at the last second, he pivotted and crossed back in front of me. I tagged him lightly, knocking him down but doing no damge to my truck. I stopped to check on him, he was laying in the other lane. As I was opening my door, he scrambled to his feet and charged right into the side of my truck, stunning himself again and caving in the left rear quarter panel. I shot him before he got up a second time. I think about the funniest one I ever got was a few years ago. I was coming home, driving a snowplow. I saw him bolt across a few yards in front of me, and I knew it was gonna be a hit as I was goin' about 50. I reached up and slapped the plow into "float", hit the deer with a huge thud, then there was a real clang as the plow hit the pavement and a shower of sparks from the guideshoes, and all of a sudden the windshield was awash in a sticky red fluid. I got the truck stopped and went back to check on the deer. It was dead, of course, but to my surprise, it wasn't all torn up. When I got back to the truck and toggled the plow lift, I discovered the source of the red mess wasn't the deer, the impact had burst the plow's hydraulic lines. It tool half an hour with a bottle jack to lift the plow enough to continue the drive home. No other damage, and I came out about 120 pounds of sausage to the good.

Mark your calendars:

January 19 -- Iowa Caucuses
January 20 -- State of the Union address
January 27 -- New Hampshire Primary
February 1 -- Super Bowl
February 3 -- Primaries in Delaware, South Carolina, Missouri, Arizona, and Oklahoma; caucuses in New Mexico, Virginia, North Dakota, Michigan, Washington state, and Maine.
February 10 -- Virginia and Tennessee primaries
February 14 -- Nevada caucuses
February 17 -- Wisconsin primary
February 24 -- Michigan primary; caucuses in Hawaii and Utah

And then there's Super Tuesday, March 2. -- ten state primaries. I'll be very surprised if we don't have a nominee by March 3.

That's the reason Okahoma went to Feb 3.........

Now how did that sneak in there?

He's prolly in there, there is a huge national park near in which the deer thrive so there is a heavy population that has spread to all wooded areas.

Hrumph. I'm deeply dissapointed in TNR.

For Joe Lieberman and a renewed Democratic Party

I mean, it was clear enough they werent going to endorse Howard Dean - that was obvious. But Lieberman?

I guess its to their credit that, throughout the "TNR Primary", I didnt have a clue who they were going to go for in the end. I guess that says something about - if not the objectivity, then at least the diversity of TNR opinions. I kinda somehow had the feeling that, of all the candidates (none of which seemed all too palatable), they felt the greatest sympathy for Edwards. Course, Edwards doesn't stand a chance in the primaries, which is a fair enough reason not to go for him. But Lieberman doesnt stand a chance in hell to win the primaries, either. A punter at MSNBC just put his odds at xxx, the lowest of all candidates.

Basically, this is just showing the Democrats the finger - saying, we consider you our party, but we don't actually like your voters. And indeed, it's telling enough that in the lead article TNR is announcing its support for Lieberman in, it doesn't get round to saying anything positive about the guy for almost two full screens' worth of text. And after it finally does, it goes right back to attacking Dean for another screen's worth. Whatever the merits of its arguments, this is not an endorsement, it's a aanklacht. In fact, its a great many words to say: we've given up on you. It basically says as much:
"It may take years, or even decades, for Democrats to relearn the lessons we thought, naïvely, they had learned for good under Clinton. But one day, Joe Lieberman's warnings in this campaign will look prophetic."

As if this was time for defeatism. Compare the case they make for Edwards (they've made a separate case for each of Lieberman's main challengers, apart from Kerry), and see what a positive choice would have looked like - here no talk of other candidates, just paragraph after paragraph of specific praise for specific aspects of his candidature, and nary a critical word. Instead, they chose to make a point and pick a fight. Hrumph.

What happened with Edwards? Back 2 years ago the "buzz" was all about Edwards and Bob Kerry. Bob Kerry didn't even get into the race but Edwards was supposed to be the "up and comer" for the Democratic party.

A year ago, when this thread was started, Edwards seemed to be losing steam already and Dean had just hit the national spotlight (but was still largely an unknown..).

Did Edwards just get steam-rolled? It seems like he never really got rolling.