I wish this was an election year.

[Andrew Mayer]

Bush at 45%
The Governator at 43%
Delay swirling around the bowl.
The Schaivo backfire.

Dean and Reid kicking ass and taking names.

The wheels are coming off the conservative wagon.

Hey, if we can just get rid of Lieberman for a start I'll be happy.

[Jakub]

Did Schiavo backfire because people disagreed with it, or because people saw through that it was just a publicity ploy?

[Andrew Mayer]

The numbers I saw (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/23/opinion/polls/main682674.shtml)suggest both. The numbers on folks who saw at as ploy were up in the seventies.

An overwhelming 82 percent of the public believes the Congress and President should stay out of the matter. There is widespread cynicism about Congress' motives for getting involved: 74 percent say Congress intervened to advance a political agenda, not because they cared what happened to Terri Schiavo. Public approval of Congress has suffered as a result; at 34 percent, it is the lowest it has been since 1997, dropping from 41 percent last month. Now at 43 percent, President Bush’s approval rating is also lower than it was a month ago.

That's the lowest for a 2nd term President in forever.

[Nick Walter]

Bush at 45%
The Governator at 43%
Delay swirling around the bowl.
The Schaivo backfire.

Dean and Reid kicking ass and taking names.

The wheels are coming off the conservative wagon.

Hey, if we can just get rid of Lieberman for a start I'll be happy.

Doesn't really matter, the conservatives have a lot of time to shine up the old image and do that politicking that they do so well (and the liberals so poorly) in order to be positioned as the frontrunners for the next white house race.

[SpoofyChop]

Hope springs eternal I guess.

:roll:

[Squirrel Killer]

Funny how 12 months ago you guys were pissing yourselves with joy that it was an election year... :wink:

[extarbags]

Funny how 12 months ago you guys were pissing yourselves with joy that it was an election year... :wink:

Hey yeah, I remember that. What ever happened with that?

Oh right :/.

[Rimbo]

As long as the message is about tearing down the Republicans instead of building up the Democrats, the Republicans have nothing to worry about.

I'll believe in Dean when I see people in Texas and the South start voting Democrat again, and not one second sooner.

[extarbags]

As long as the message is about tearing down the Republicans instead of building up the Democrats, the Republicans have nothing to worry about.

I'll believe in Dean when I see people in Texas and the South start voting Democrat again, and not one second sooner.

No matter how many times I hear this, it never starts making sense.

[Andrew Mayer]

The right is terrified that the left doesn't need the South anymore to win.

I'm enjoying Delay going down, and even the right wing senators are seeing the war didn't work out so well (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32440-2005Apr6.html)...


Democrats lobbed softballs to Clark and fired darts at Perle, who made little effort to ingratiate himself, calling one questioner "careless" and saying another cited "substantially incorrect accounts."

"You need a few more allies," observed Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.).

It was not always thus. At the September 2002 hearing, GOP lawmakers joined in Perle's dismissal of Clark's argument that "time is on our side" in Iraq and that force should be used only as a "last resort."

Perle said Clark was "wildly optimistic" and called it "one of the dumber cliches, frankly, to say that force must always be a last resort." While Clark fiddled, "Saddam Hussein is busy perfecting those weapons of mass destruction that he already has."

In retrospect, Clark's forecasts proved more accurate than Perle's, and even Republicans on the committee made little effort yesterday to defend Perle or to undermine Clark. The exception was Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who pressed Clark to acknowledge that the Iraq invasion should get some credit for signs of democracy in the region.

"We've got to do a lot less crowing about the sunrise," Clark rejoined.

When Hunter's GOP colleagues didn't join his line of questioning, he took another turn grilling Clark. The chairman likened President Bush's Middle East policies to those of President Ronald Reagan in Eastern Europe.

"Reagan never invaded Eastern Europe," Clark retorted.

In another try, Hunter said Clark was "overstating" the risk in challenging other countries in the Middle East. Clark smiled and showed his trump card -- reminding Hunter of their exchange at the 2002 hearing. "I kept saying time was on our side," Clark said. "I could never quite satisfy you."

As for who proved correct, the general said, "I'll let the record speak for itself."

[Qenan]

As long as the message is about tearing down the Republicans instead of building up the Democrats, the Republicans have nothing to worry about.

I'll believe in Dean when I see people in Texas and the South start voting Democrat again, and not one second sooner.

No matter how many times I hear this, it never starts making sense.

That's because it doesn't. If you're a democratic strategist, the southern states are last on your list of priorities... they're the hardest to win. Although the dwindling population of southern white voters may hurt the Republicans eventually.

[BrewersDroop]

I wish every year were election year. That way, politicians wouldn't be able to rely on the short attention span of the electorate.

[Squirrel Killer]

I wish every year were election year. That way, politicians wouldn't be able to rely on the short attention span of the electorate.

Like we don't already have enough mindless patronizing to the masses.

[Rimbo]

As long as the message is about tearing down the Republicans instead of building up the Democrats, the Republicans have nothing to worry about.

I'll believe in Dean when I see people in Texas and the South start voting Democrat again, and not one second sooner.

No matter how many times I hear this, it never starts making sense.

That's because it doesn't. If you're a democratic strategist, the southern states are last on your list of priorities... they're the hardest to win. Although the dwindling population of southern white voters may hurt the Republicans eventually.

Oh man.

Geez.

We're going to have the Republicans in power forever.

We've become the inverse of Mexico.

Hrm... Japan's nice this time of year... the cherry blossoms are in bloom now...

[Derek Meister]

Sometimes I think both sides have already started to forget just how close the last two presidential elections were. Close enough that it could have gone either way with just a little bit more pressure one direction or the other.

If anything, neither side really won, it's just that Bush lost "less" than Kerry. Now don't get me wrong, Kerry didn't deserve to win any more than Bush did. Sure, Bush had his problems with his seeming inability to campaign well in any situation that wasn't a carefully controlled and screened town hall meeting, as the debates showed, but Kerry really killed himself with his constant "clarifying".

Really, I don't think it was the "anyone but Bush" that killed him and think even all the Swift Vets mud was just an early stumbling block. It was the fact that he didn't appear brave when he would constantly "explain" and "shift" the "nuances" of his platform. The whole "I voted for Iraq then and I would do so now, but I think it's a bad policy and ..." example is a classic example. I believe more people would have seen him in a positive light, even if they disagreed with him, if he would done the brave thing and just said "I made a mistake voting for Iraq and I am against it now" and just stuck with it.

[Andrew Mayer]

It's not going to be long now before the tide turns hard against the Repubs. The only if on this is that the Dems need to start making sure that they step out of the way of the splashing slime and make it cleary stick to those who are responsible.

Here's a nice one for today (http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050406/NEWS24/504060400):

A Columbus-based watchdog group called yesterday for Ohio lawmakers to revamp campaign finance laws following the news that a prominent Toledo Republican got $50 million in state money to invest in rare coins.

●Two coins purchased with state money and worth roughly $300,000 were lost in the mail in 2003.

●The funds wrote off $850,000 in debt over the last three years to cover a failed business relationship between Mr. Noe's Capital Coin and a fellow coin dealer who was managing a subsidiary set up by Mr. Noe.

●Capital Coin had loaned some of the state's money to a Toledo real estate business that buys and sells central-city homes. A state auditor could not find documents to prove if the loans were sufficiently covered by the value of real estate that a Capital Coin subsidiary held as collateral.

Lost in the mail... and the dog ate their homework!

[Derek Meister]

The cynic in me believes that the party's popularity will never really change the majority of their voters. The voters may hate the individuals on the ticket, but large enough numbers will always fear a Democrat winning far more than the incompetance of the guy they're putting up on their side.

I also believe the exact same situation is true on the Democrat side as well.

We've had plenty of stories here in Ohio that top the lost coin situation, and yet people went ahead and voted Republican anyway last year. The devil you know and all that.

[JeffL]

The sad thing is that all either side needs is a very television-friendly, good actor of a candidate. America votes for the presidential candidate that sounds the best in sound bytes, the one who looks the most charismatic on TV, issues in depth be damned.

[Jason McCullough]

How come McCain lost to Bush, then?

[Jakub]

So no one can venture an educated guess or at least opinion on why Terry Schiavo backfired?

From my Canadian perspective, it just seemed like yet another rallying point for the religious right.

[Sharpe]

How come McCain lost to Bush, then?

That was the primary which is a whole different animal.

Primaries suck btw. But I can't think of any better system really...

[Sharpe]

My guess on Schiavo: it was just too naked a use of power, along with a transgression against privacy, which most Americans, regardless of party are protective of. The rushing in to Washington on Easter weekend, the hyperventilating and name-calling press-conferences, the special session of congress, and then all of that to stick the federal government into a matter that most Americans consider private. Many Americans haven't quite grasped that the Republicans have a triple-lock on all 3 branches of government, and many Americans haven't yet seen how the Repubs have responded to that power. Schiavo was a strong example: too much power, blowing past checks and balances, to intrude too far into a personal issue. Americans are pretty protective of both their privacy (weird I know in an American Idol culture but still true I think) and of our checks and balances on government.

The Republicans were seen as overreaching, and as poking their nose where it doesn't belong.

[BooTx]

America votes for the presidential candidate that sounds the best in sound bytes....

That's really saying something about Al Gore and John Kerry.

[JeffL]

How come McCain lost to Bush, then?

Yeah, as someone mentioned primaries are a whole nuther beast. They are typically the tools of the power brokers of the parties. Such that we get Bush instead of McCain, Kerry instead of anyone warm-blooded.

[JeffL]

America votes for the presidential candidate that sounds the best in sound bytes....

That's really saying something about Al Gore and John Kerry.

What's interesting is how warm and natural Gore sounded in his concession speech. If he had come across like that during the campaign he might have done a lot better. Bob Dole is another case of a candidate that let his handlers make him sound stiff and cold during the campaign, yet if you've seen Dole since then in any number of venues you see the funny, intelligent, warm guy that many who know him (on both sides of the aisle) say he is.

[Andrew Mayer]

Too bad that instant run-off voting is too "complicated" for our tiny little American brains. We might actually get candidates we want.