Letters to the Editor
Dana Runs
Published Letters: 161 Editor's Choice: 15
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Bush will be disdainful
[Read the article: It's just 2,501 days too late]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If there is one constant in the Bush/Gore backwards-universe, it is Bush's unending contempt for Gore. I think Bush actually believes the defamatory stuff said about Gore during the campaign. He thinks Gore is the worst kind of human being, and sees him as effeminate and weak. Bush also has contempt and scorn for the Nobel Peace Prize, though I'll wager he harbors a secret belief that he should have been awarded it.
Bush also isn't very good at hiding his feelings. They show through like a black bra under white lace. Plus, he's so arrogant that he feels very little need to hide his feelings, so I think he actually lets them come through on purpose, sometimes.
Scorn and smirk mixed. What a pleasant expression that will be.
I wonder what message Gore's expression will send?
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Anon 12:31 rocked, and answers to Chris' questions
[Read the article: "A bunch of charts"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hey, Anon 12:31, that was a rockin' post! I couldn't agree more. And I was very impressed with Biden last night. I am very much considering voting for him in the primaries, though I am still undecided.
And to answer Chris' rhetorical questions at the top of this thread...
The question is do any of us really believe that Hilary is a hard-charging hell-raising Progressive...
Yes!
...that will be a champion for all working men and women throughout the world?
Maybe not completely, but I think she tries to strike a fair balance between labor and management.
Is she the Progressive that will stop Corporate America from waterboarding every last one of us if we're one day late on our subprime mortgage?
Um, weeding through the hyperbole, yes.
Will she have the guts to stand up to Capital One? Will she stand up the insurance companies?
Stand up to them how? An emotion-laden but vague question. Insurance, especially medical insurance, liability insurance, auto insurance, YES! Other kinds, and what Capital One is about (credit card interest rates, perhaps, though my Capital One interest rate is very low), I haven't the foggiest.
Will she shut down the offshore tax havens?
No.
Hope that helps, Chris! ;-)
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Can the Dems use this as a political flu shot?
[Read the article: Pickens weasels out on Swift Boat challenge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think this issue could be used to the advantage of the Dem presidential nominee. Hear me out...
I think Kerry (with the help of the DNC and the eventual Democratic nominee) should push this. This is just the kind of thing that could be used to insulate the nominee from a Swiftboat equivalent, making the public roll their collective eyes at any such new allegations and backfiring against the Republcan candidate. Maybe Kerry even has a viable lawsuit to lawsuit, and put those Swiftboat rats under oath and every Republican operative who ever quoted them.
In the law, you need three things for a binding contract: an offer, an acceptance and adequate consideration. Pickens made a public offer, which if specific enough to surpass the status of mere advertisement can create a right of acceptance in anyone who wants to accept it. Here, a good argument can be made that Picken' offer created a right in Kerry to accept and make a binding contract. Consideration on both sides is adequate: a million bucks for Pickens and the effort and revelation of proof for Kerry.
In this case, Kerry probably cannot create a binding contract by just saying he accepts the challenge. He must accept by performance; i.e., by proving one of the (material) allegations wrong. If he does that, and if Pickens doesn't pay (he won't, and if he does it's a great admission), Kerry has a lawsuit that could conceivably allow him to dig into all of the Swiftboaters' allegations, questioning each of them under penalty of perjury about all sorts of things, and then questioning anyone who repeated their allegations. (Sound familiar, Mr. Clinton???)
I would advise Kerry to take a bunch of the Swiftboat allegations and prove them wrong, not at once, but one at a time. Let them trickle out. And demand the million dollars after each proof, starting with the first one.
Republicans will no doubt try to shift the focus, saying, "Oh yeah? Well, what about this!?" And if their example was on my list of things to disprove, I would disprove that one next, making them think twice about their strategy; and if it wasn't on my list, I would simply make a statement that we will get around to proving a number of the allegations false, doing them at our own pace and in our own time and order. And then I would just ignore their shrill cries, and set about disproving another allegation and demanding the million dollars, once again. Over and over and over.
Just think of the potential power in the upcoming presidential election! On the surface it may look like irrelevant water under the bridge. But for the voting public, past is prelude, and disproving allegations of the Republican slime machine one after another would definitely get into the psyches of millions of voters, and would make them take any new slime efforts with a grain of salt. All it would take would be a roll of the eyes and a Reaganesque, "There you go again," and all the power will be taken out of the charges.
The DNC should support this and make sure Kerry (with all the help he needs) takes this on and makes it an issue in the current campaign.
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Hooray for Hillary!
[Read the article: Clinton on the attack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not because I'm a fan (I'm actually a waffler on her), but because her "response" to being the punching bag was both fair-minded and tough. She drew real distinctions on policy differences, and criticized specific actions or lack thereof. She did not engage in ad hominem attacks, personal destruction, phony characterizations or name-calling.
I'm all for tough. I'm all for letting them have it with guns blazing. I'm all for a hard-fought, bare-knuckles campaign.
The Republicans could take a lesson from both Clinton and Obama. (And so could Edwards.)