Another Dem "exploring"

The National Journal released a new Washington Insiders poll of 70 Congressional lawmakers and 150 political insiders on who they think are the likely Republican and Democratic nominee for the 2008 Presidential election.

The National Journal released a new Washington Insiders poll of 70 Congressional lawmakers and 150 political insiders on who they think are the likely Republican and Democratic nominee for the 2008 Presidential election.

Republicans
1. John McCain
2. Mitt Romney
3. Rudy Giuliani
4. Newt Gingrich
5. Mike Huckabee
6. George Pataki
7. Chuck Hagel
8. Condoleezza Rice
9. Sam Brownback
10. Bill Frist

Democrats
1. Hillary Clinton
2. Barack Obama
3. John Edwards
4. Al Gore
5. Evan Bayh
6. Tom Vilsack
7. Bill Richardson
8. Joseph Biden
9. Wesley Clark
10. Christopher Dodd

But there's still a lot of time for a dark horse to appear.

Rice and Frist you can forget. They won't run.

Hillary doesn't have a chance against Obama. He'll get the black vote and Hillary will lose the peace vote because she supports the invasion of Iraq.

I think the big guns in the Republican party will be McCain and Brownback. Brownback will be the darling of the social conservatives. Giuliani, a social liberal will lose the social conservative vote.

But there's still a lot of time for a dark horse to appear.

Hillary, Kerry and Gore are old news and old blood. I think the Democrats will go for new material and not rerun old losers.

It will be fun to watch.

I believe they're like everybody else, they think for themselves.

The black vote can't carry anybody to the nomination, they're what, 15% of the population? The black vote along with the hispanic vote, could do that. However, I'm not one that believes that all black people nor all hispanics think alike. I believe they're like everybody else, they think for themselves.

xingu wrote:

Rice and Frist you can forget. They won't run.

Hillary doesn't have a chance against Obama. He'll get the black vote and Hillary will lose the peace vote because she supports the invasion of Iraq.

I think the big guns in the Republican party will be McCain and Brownback. Brownback will be the darling of the social conservatives. Giuliani, a social liberal will lose the social conservative vote.

But there's still a lot of time for a dark horse to appear.

Hillary, Kerry and Gore are old news and old blood. I think the Democrats will go for new material and not rerun old losers.

It will be fun to watch.

Old loser? Seriously whether you like her or not, by what possible standard can you measure Hillary Clinton an old loser?

The black vote along with the hispanic vote, could do that. However, I'm not one that believes that all black people nor all hispanics think alike.

Evan Bayh's day of infamy

[..]

What to think? One gauge of Bayh's conviction and character might be what he did on March 13, 2001. That day, the Senate was debating so-called "Bankruptcy Reform," a bill promoted by the credit card companies that made it much harder for consumers to escape debt by declaring bankruptcy. Congress had passed a version of the bill in 2000, but Bill Clinton had vetoed it. Now, with George W. Bush backing the bill and Republicans in control of both houses, it was heading toward a vote.

Some Senate Democrats tried to introduce amendments that would benefit consumers. Diane Feinstein of California and Chris Dodd of Connecticut proposed amendments that would protect minors--particularly college students--against inordinate pressure from credit card companies.

The companies would often pay colleges for access to the students and inundate them with offers--frequently accompanied by gifts--when they arrived on campus. With credit cards in hands, students would then run up large debts on high-priced electronic gadgets and other non-necessities. In 2001, Nellie Mae, the college loan agency, found, 83 percent of undergraduates had at least one credit card (up from 67 percent in 1998), and 47 percent of these had four or more cards. More than one fifth left school with debts between $3,000 and $7,000--and were therefore less able to pay back their college loans. [..]

Feinstein offered a very mild amendment to the bankruptcy bill. It capped the debt limit on credit cards for minors at $2,500 unless they could obtain parental consent or proof of financial independence. Dodd's amendment was somewhat tougher. Companies could only sign up minors if their parents co-signed the credit card agreement or if the minors could prove financial independence or agreed to take a financial management course. Both amendments lost--Feinstein's by 55 to 42 and Dodd's by 58 to 41. The great majority of Democrats voted for these amendments, but not Bayh. He joined the credit card companies and the Republicans in opposing both.

Why did he do it? Bayh didn't say during the debate, and he didn't issue a statement afterwards. [But] there is an obvious explanation for why Bayh would take the credit card companies' side. In states like Indiana, Georgia, Arkansas, Nebraska, Florida, and Montana, where there is not a powerful labor movement [..], Democrats often look to the credit card companies for campaign contributions. [..] Bayh was also a recipient of credit card money. He was tenth among all Senators in 2001-2002 for the receipt of money from finance/credit companies, the year of the vote, and he was tenth in the 2005-2006 session, when the bill finally passed both houses and was signed. So he was paying the companies back for their support.

But it may not be that simple. Feinstein's amendment was a fly on the elephant's hide. While 17 Democratic Senators eventually backed the final bill in March 2005, eight of them also supported Feinstein's amendment in March 2001. They included Baucus, New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman, North Dakota's Kent Conrad, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln, and Florida's Bill Nelson. Many of these senators were as dependent on credit card contributions as Bayh was, but they were willing to vote their conscience on what was a really a small financial matter to the companies. Not Bayh.

Bayh talks repeatedly about helping families make "higher education more affordable." He and Lincoln recently formed a "Parents' Caucus" in the Senate, declaring that "parents deserve a government that is more supportive of parents' efforts to support their children." But, when he had a chance to protect parents and their children against the greed of the credit card companies--and to do so without paying a great political price--he took what seems like the easy and unprincipled way out.

KUCINICH JUMPS IN:

In 2008 news, Dennis Kucinich has announced he will soon, well, announce:

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, said Monday he is planning to run again because his party isn't pushing hard enough to end the war in Iraq. In a statement, Kucinich said he plans to formally announce his candidacy for 2008 on Tuesday at City Hall, where he served as mayor of his hometown in the 1970s.

LoneStarMadam wrote:

I believe they're like everybody else, they think for themselves.

Everybody but Christian's right? Don't they think for the greater good of humanity, or are they just as selfish as the rest of the world?

LoneStarMadam wrote:

The black vote along with the hispanic vote, could do that. However, I'm not one that believes that all black people nor all hispanics think alike.

You're right, of course, though blacks and hispanics did show great agreement this year in that they both overwhelmingly voted Democratic. The gains Bush had made among Hispanics in '04, creating a divergence between the two groups in voting patterns, were all swept right back again.