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Post by millring on Oct 15, 2006 9:28:06 GMT -5
Post your hopes and praises here.
I just watched a Sunday talking heads show in which they listed what they believed to be the Democrat hopefuls for 2008 and Bayh wasn't among those listed. I decided I needed to take action (especially in light of the rationale for why the hopefuls WERE hopeful).
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Post by billhammond on Oct 15, 2006 9:29:15 GMT -5
Post your hopes and praises here. I just watch a Sunday talking heads show in which the listed what they believed to be the Democrat hopefuls for 2008 and Bayh wasn't among those listed. I decided I needed to take action (especially in light of the rationale for why the hopefuls WERE hopeful). Is Evan Bayh a son of a Birch?
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Post by millring on Oct 15, 2006 9:36:18 GMT -5
not only the son of, but a Birch himself.
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Post by SteveO on Oct 15, 2006 11:31:46 GMT -5
insert smilie here<scratching my head> I must~a got lost, somwhere down the road.................
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Post by Supertramp78 on Oct 15, 2006 11:43:38 GMT -5
I've got my fingers crossed for him.
Who DID they say were front hopefuls?
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Post by TDR on Oct 15, 2006 14:14:06 GMT -5
We haven't had the 2006 elections yet, so its a little early to start jockeying for position in the 08 race.
But they say Bill Frist isn't running for his senate seat so he can concentrate on his presidential bid. So he's a likely R contender.
You have to hope the field of Ds looks better than last time.
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Post by Cornflake on Oct 15, 2006 14:29:52 GMT -5
In my conversations with other Democrats, the person who seems to be generating the most support is...well, no one.
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Post by timfarney on Oct 15, 2006 14:43:08 GMT -5
Here's hoping for someone good. From either party. Definitely not Frist.
Tim
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2006 15:10:51 GMT -5
I can't help but believe the Democratic Party on the National level has been steered far left (and you might say the same for Republicans going in the other direction) by some of their more outspoken members while ignoring or even shunning some of the more traditional members (speaking primarily of but not exclusively of congress). We may not know much about many of the potential candidates but we certainly know two of them. They're desire to occupy the White House has been no secret. On the Republican side we know that Bill Frist and John McCain have unashamedly expressed an interest in the title of "Mr. President". I hope the Republicans can produce something better than either of these two but my party history over the last 15 years causes me to keep my expectations low to avoid disappointment. Evan Bayh would be a good solid candidate for the Democrats but again I'm convinced the party is being steered too far left to be accepting of Mr. Bayh. Mitt Romney (R- Gov. Ma.) has been mentioned as a possible for the Republican Party but he too would most likely be pushed to the side in favor of a more extreme candidate. While we're on the topic of presidential candidates, does anyone find it funny that Mark Warner held a press conference to announce that he's NOT running for president in 2008. I suppose we are in need of comic relief between now and then.
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Post by SteveO on Oct 15, 2006 15:43:44 GMT -5
Congressional Ethics Everywhere you go lately you hear this Senator or that Congressman accused of padding expense accounts...milking campaign funds...or engaging in some form of financial hanky panky. We deplore this loose, unpatriotic talk. It can only lead to investigations...and convictions...and before long, no one would be left to run our government....of course, there are abuses...but usually there are reasons. These lawmakers don't like to take graft and big bribes...but how else can they get the money to buy votes...They can't all make great records like Everett Dirksen...And, all the fuss about that Senator who rented a yacht at government expense and threw a series of wild orgies...Picky...picky...picky...What do they expect him to do, spend six years staring at those crummy cherry trees?... A lot of these criticisms don't even make sense. I read one article that spent two pages proving how corrupt our Congressmen are...and another two pages complaining that they never show up for roll calls. If they're so crooked who wants 'em around? This is not to say that we condone loose conduct. We feel that when a man is elected, he immediately forecloses regress advocating all rights and moral dissections...without fear or favor taking upon himself dreps, chrone, maze, and obligations beyond gluts...or in the immortal words of Adam Clayton Powell... "A public office is a public trust." Some of us forget that these are human beings trying to do a job. Take my own Congressman...please... After twenty years in office, he was accused of chiseling millions on various contracts. Everyone turned against him. Imagine a decent man like that suddenly ostracized after twenty years... I felt so sorry for him that I looked him up...and it wasn't easy because he is now living in Argentina...under an assumed name... In conclusion, let's all remember that we have a government "of the people...for the people...and by the people..." and there are very few people in our government that you can't buy...
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Post by Supertramp78 on Oct 15, 2006 18:46:16 GMT -5
Frist? Is this the same Frist that calls Democrats "Defeatocrats" and also says we should let the Taliban have positions in the Afghan government?
So he supports continuing a war in Iraq, a country which had nothing to do with 9/11. And he supports giving power to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the same Taliban that actively supported the guys who pulled off 9/11.
Yeah, this is who should run the country.
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Post by millring on Oct 15, 2006 20:23:51 GMT -5
I'd vote Frist lsat.
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Post by Cornflake on Oct 15, 2006 20:29:43 GMT -5
A good friend of mine since childhood was a classmate of Frist's in college. Steve likes almost everyone but he detested Bill Frist.
We don't have much in the way of towering figures in either party. I like Bayh. I hope he has a better chance than I think he does.
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Post by Village Idiot on Oct 15, 2006 21:02:54 GMT -5
I hear rumors that Tom Visack, governor of Iowa is running. I'm not saying I'd necessarity support him, just passing along the rumor.
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Post by billhammond on Oct 15, 2006 21:10:00 GMT -5
I hear rumors that Tom Visack, governor of Iowa is running. I'm not saying I'd necessarity support him, just passing along the rumor. Governor Tom reminds me of "Boon" from "Animal House," for some reason.
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Post by timfarney on Oct 16, 2006 6:48:40 GMT -5
I don't know, Chilli. I know that's the conventional wisdom. And I know that if you look at Congress, the polarity seems to have created an almost uncrossable gap. And yeah, I know both parties spend far too much time trying to appeal to the "base" and ignoring most Americans. But presidential politics is different. Clinton was a moderate in every sense of the word. Try to shake off how you feel about the man and how he has been, and continues to be, positioned by the opposition. Look at what he actually proposed, supported and signed. And Bush ran as a moderate, and while he has occasionally indulged in the politics of polarity, he has also indulged in nation-building, massive government growth and the biggest expansion of entitlements since Johnson. Not exactly radically conservative stuff, that.
I think the problem with presidential politics is much bigger, much harder to solve than the pushing of the parties to the fringe. I think it's money.
I also think there's a simple solution to the problem with primaries. Let all registered voters vote in all primaries. Back it up with a public education campaign at least as big as the somewhat successful anti-drug campaigns of the 80s and 90s, to sell people on the power of choosing who represents them. In other words, let the people choose who runs, not just the hard core.
Wouldn't hurt if we could somehow make it a little more convenient to participate in representative democracy, either. How many people would vote for American Idol if they had to stand in line at their neighborhood school for two hours? And make that ease of access a part of broad election reform that might stand a chance of giving people a bit more confidence that their vote counts...
A guy can dream...
Tim
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Post by millring on Oct 16, 2006 9:06:25 GMT -5
I'm not sure we can get past the "uncrossable gap" either. I know that lots more could be said about it, but I think that one reason the gap is so uncrossable is that the extremes believe that they know what the other extreme believes -- often mistakenly -- but that mistakeness doesn't keep them from fearing the other side more than they believe IN anything themselves.
When that is the case, it is just too easy to mislead masses.
Heap that misunderstanding -- and the political exploitation of it -- on top of an already huge real gap in philosophy and world view and I do think it is insurmountable by anything but catastrophic event.
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Post by timfarney on Oct 16, 2006 9:31:10 GMT -5
You might be right, John. If you are, and the Democrats and Republicans are so far apart in both reality and rhetoric that they can no longer work together, then in a representative democracy, they can no longer govern either. And the catastrophic event, for them anyway, needs to be the creation of viable alternatives that actually attempt to represent the wishes of the American people. Don't know when that will happen, though. We've been ripe for it for years, but the obstacles are huge...which brings us right back to the money.
Tim
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Post by millring on Oct 16, 2006 10:43:49 GMT -5
Actually, everyone says it always comes down to money. I don't agree.
I think that a reform that would be WAY more effective in creating proper, less corrupted government would be to make it unconstitutional to be able to amend a bill with any kinid of amendment that is not DIRECTLY connected to the improvement of the initial concept behind the bill.
More miscommunication at campaign time is tied to the crazy way that we allow every and anything to be attached to bill right now. (this gets to the real problem behind negative campaigning -- it's not that it's negative, and it's not that it's false -- it's that it is almost always tied to the manner in which bills are voted for and against.
For instance, the Democrat challenger in our area is trying to campaign that the conservative Republican in our district voted against a pay raise for the military. I don't even have to know the particulars to bet dollars to donuts that IF the Republican voted against that pay raise it was ONLY because it was either an attachment to a bill to fund more sex with sheep, or the sheep sex was an amendment to the military pay raise bill.
And it is ALWAYS that way.
Give me truth in lawmaking over campaign finance reform ANY day. In fact......
.... I'll bet you that the next bill introduced to have campaign finance reform will have a sheepf___ing attachment to it.
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Post by lakeside on Oct 16, 2006 11:07:18 GMT -5
I don't know much about Evan Bayh. I got a Voting summary of Congress from the NFIB (national Fed of Indep Bus) the other day and I see that Bayh voted WITH small business on issues only 22% of the time this year and 0% of the time last year. I usually agree with them (NFIB) on most business-related issues so those low numbers are a concern to me. By comparison, McCain is 100% and 83%. Kerry is 0 and 0. Clinton is 13 and 0. Frist is 100 and 100.
But, I'll try to keep an open mind. Still early.
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