2004 Elections: Democratic Party Contenders

Can Bush be beaten? If the economy continues in it's present malaise or worsens and the quagmire in both Afghanistan and Iraq does not start to heal rather than looking like Viet Nam more and more each day, there is no doubt that Bush can be beaten. No, will be beaten.

That analysis is fair enough, i believe, and it shows that all the money in the world cannot buy an election if one never has, or has lost the confidence of the people.

Which brings me to something i thought was rather bizarre here:



Then, Tart turns around, and makes this observation:



Sauce for the goose makes sauce for the gander--if the Shrub's fund raising is a surreal disconnect, than surely Dean's thousand bucks a minute is, as well.

I should let Tartarin speak for herself, Setanta, but the distinction I would make is that Bush is raising his $$ from high rollers at expensive feeds, while Dean is getting his $$ from relatively small contributions.

Let's face it, fund-raising is the root of all evil in contemporary politics. But without it, none of these guys has a prayer...

You make a good point, D'art . . . it just struck me as an odd juxtaposition of ideas . . .

The point being, Set, that many small contributions from many ardent supporters (and,one assumes, ardent voters) represents a wider spread of votes than $40,000 from DynCorp and Boeing. One hopes that a particular goose will get roasted, at that rate. Dean's many small donors are people who, by and large, are much closer to the pinch Bob Herbert describes than are large-scale Republican donors.

They've had to close down part of the website over at Deanland because there's been so much action. So far today $540,000 and counting, beating yesterday's (or was it the day before's) record of $514,000. Now remember: these are individuals contributing up to $2000 but most (if they're like me) at the $50, $25 and lower levels. These represent votes already in the bank, so to speak, not money in the bank to buy votes with PR. I hope someone who's a smart accountant/statistician is keeping an eye on this while the analysts parse the social and political implications of the process!

Oops, make that $565,000 at this writing.

Anyone else noticing that California, New Jersey, Mississippi, Oregon are about to go under as financial institutions??

Yes. The California situation is horrendous, as of tomorrow morning. All the states are suffering to one degree or another.

you now see where the ethical degenerates running this federal government are coming from when they wanted to push everything back to the states.

federal taxes for the rich are down, for the rest of us, little to no federal tax cut, but dramatic increases in state taxes will be needed to cover the bills for services, from sanitation to education, to roads and social services.

today i received calls from two friends, each 50 years old, each last week fired from their long-term jobs in the chemical industry, both hold graduate degrees, both with mbas, and each now expendable in yet another bush recession...and one of the men has a 19 year old son serving in iraq as a marine in an urban combat unit. this man, who told me that he has been a republican all his life now detests bush for what he has done to the economy and perhaps, to his son.

this economy is in free-fall. heavy manufacturing is flat or falling off, the lower dollar is meaningless for foreign trade, because nobody's buying. with interest rates so low, retired people who depended on bonds now are having their retirement plans wiped out, people who once would think nothing of investing in the US are now looking elsewhere to earn their margins.

anyone who thinks that this economy is just around the corner from prosperity is hopelessly full of $hit or an apologist for the worst administration in my lifetime.

meanwhile bush and his rich buddies laugh and fukk us all.

god damn that man and all of his followers to eternal hell.

Perhaps some of you might be interested in the following:

Tuesday, July 1 @ 2 p.m. ET, 11 a.m. PT:

Joe Trippi, Campaign Manager, Dean for America
Listen in as we put your questions to Joe Trippi, campaign manager for former Vermont governor and presidential hopeful Howard Dean. Dean, once cast as an underdog for the Democratic nomination, has amassed sizeable grassroots support, recently won an unofficial online primary, and is on the verge of collecting more money in campaign donations than any of the other Democratic candidates in the second quarter. Chat producer Will Femia moderates using questions from the audience.

All of MSNBC.com's chat events can be accessed through the chat page at http://Chat.MSNBC.com where you'll also find links to submit questions in advance.

You sure you're not thinking of Clinton?

scrat

I'm not familiar with Sowell, so I took a look. Here's the last two paragraphs from his column following the SC findings (note he is referring to Linda Greenhouse's column in the NY Times)



Another literalist!

bernie, sowell is a blackfaced joe sobran. his critique about thomas bringing to the court's decison on affirmitive action at u of m his own experience of being looked at as a token black in his meteoric rise in the republican firmament is dead on. the only problem with it is that thomas takes the position that his situation is one where he "earned' his spot, thus the objection to the questioning about his abilities.

yet the facts show that he is exactly that, a token black with limited experience as a judge or with an established record of excellence in his career prior to his appointment to the court. thomas was selected ONLY because he was in fact, black, and selected to fill the court seat of a black man who earned everything he ever got, thurgood marshall. he would never have been appointed were the scotus seat vacated by a white person. when the day comes that thomas shows that he was not a token black and was raised to the supreme court of the land because of his towering intellect and judicial philosophy, then perhaps sowell's comments and thomas's dissenting opinion on the majority decision would begin to be more than mere nonsense.

Bill Keller did a first rate piece in Saturday's (?) NYTimes about Justice Thomas. Please read it. Just type "Bill Keller" in quotes into their search engine and it'll come right up.

Here's a great editorial about Sad ass hankyhead Clarence Thomas:

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=1055&xlc=1017105&xld=1055

I think it was Chris Rock who said that a successful black man gets more disrespect from fellow blacks than from the whites. I wonder why that is?

Oooh - Chris Rock.... heavy source.

I don't disrespect Thomas because he's a black man who's successful.
That's so patently ridiculous an assertion, that I won't dignify it any further by pointing out why.

McG: have you ever heard of the Stockholm Syndrome? or the fact that when one person becomes "successful" in your eyes (money? status? respect [ha!] from the oppressor group?) they take on the characteristics of their own peoples' tormentors? Let it go, McG, you'll never get it...

Sure... I see you call white folks "hankyhead" all the time!