I AGREE WITH YOUR POST 100% about how/why the Dems *DO* lose, to a point. I've argued all along that the Dems are choosing, wimpy middle-of-the-road candidates like Obama and Clinton, and they keep losing: Gore,Kerry, and I fear Obama is the next in line. We do certainly need someone like Kucinich to stand up on national TV and tell it like it is: You all are being fucked over economically by the large corporations, so wake up.

This way such a candidate might actually pick up some votes from people who don't vote, at all.

I don't canvass looking for rednecks to convince to vote Democratic. I canvass based on what Chicago has placed in the "persuadable" category. How they actually do this, I don't know. My point is that we don't have the type of candidate you're describing, so therefore, the dumbfucks will be energized to come out and vote, and Obama will lose, that's my fear. But no, I never advocated that the Democrats go after the Bubba vote, specifically, with reason.

Someone here posted that elections swing on voters who "feel" that they trust a particular candidate. I'm afraid Obama comes off as too educated, too complicated, for many voters. Kucinich, though, can talk the raw deal, and couch the economic misery in easy-to-understand terms.

I worked at a chemical plant that closed in 2006 in Ohio. Like thousands of other workers, I was displaced due to the very policies that McCain has supported the past 20 years: all the jobs were shipped off to China. Like McCain and you are going to change trade policy? Shut your face and quit lying.

Fuck you, Palin, fuck you.

Looks like she's on her way to a heart attack...

I'm not confident that Obama will win. After 2000 and 2004, I've resigned myself to the fact that most people love a demagogue, love the tribalism, US v. THEM mentality. Patriotism and religion are the poisons I'm talking about.

My aunt just called to tell me she didn't like Obama because he was for "socialized medicine." Never mind that she didn't define the term. I said, "Aunt Helen, you have Medicare, right?" She's 73. "Yes," she replied. "If you don't like socialized medicine, why do you use Medicare to provide your health care? How about you go on the open market and get your own policy?" I said. Never mind that she couldn't qualify, because of her health history, age, and expensive pre-existing conditions.

I'm such a mean bastard that I even brought up the fact of my cousin being on disability due to alcoholism (cirrhosis of the liver). Her son almost died were it not for Medicare. So I threw that up in her face. "What the hell are you thinking?" She got mad and hung up.

I really don't give a fuck anymore. I survived 8 years of Bush/Cheney and even thrived because I'm more educated and have more experience/skills that the high tech market wants. I see my less educated relatives plugging into this shit and I think: YOU DESERVE IT. As one poster put it a "shitstorm" is going to brew. What makes me sick is that my relatives are screwing their own kids and grandkids.

If any of you have any ideas to convince my asshole relatives to not vote agains their own interests, I'm ready for suggestions.

Going more to the Left, being progressive, populist, is where Obama should aim. I cringed when he brought up the fact that he considered joining the military. Obama NEEDS to hammer away at and direct popular anger toward McCain and the Republican machine.

1. Highlight "defense" spending: so-called defense spending does absolutely nothing for working people. It drains the treasury while maintaining an Imperialist Empire that benefits the rich. Tie this policy into the so-called "free trade" policies of both major parties to synthesize an explanation how most of us got screwed.

2. Maintain abortion rights. Remind people that women were considered property by their husbands. Briefly review history of the struggle and explain why you won't turn the clock backwards.

3. Explain how you will shore up and expand the social safety net including unemployment insurance, health insurance access (better yet, go single-payer), increase minimum wage, worker safety, etc.

4. Explain and expand on the Green Revolution that invests in America with a tie-in to shoring up the crumbling infrastructure.

Obama needs to hire Kucinich to take some lessons on how to get fire in his belly. I guarantee you that he'll gain in the polls and draw in some new voters.

This soft approach of calmly and rationally explaining his positions is a prescription for failure. Until he becomes more resolute/angry on behalf of the people he's toast, I agree.

Is come out swinging. He needs to display righteous anger, tell like it is, and also end with a message about the hopeful future. He's not attacking the RNC machine head on. Quit O'Reilly and trying to go after the so-called "middle". It won't work. If he keeps this up, he'll lose just like Kerry and Gore did.

YOU are 100% correct, in that if Obama wins, he will have to deal with an economic holocaust. I do agree with you that the shit WILL hit the proverbial fan for more years to come.

Although I might add that the dumbfucks are both male and female. Most of my family is voting Repuglican this year as usual, and, they pretty much split the genders equally.

I *DID* work on my dad's wife, however. She is starting to think that voting Repuglican is a bad idea. This is a woman who owes $20,000 in medical bills, is retired, because her health insurance lapsed when she fell down the stairs. The personal is political, I told her.