Letters to the Editor
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Just another Joe
Worse than being a third tier candidate, I think Biden is just another Joe - he's this year's version of Joe Lieberman. For me, he has basically been this year's Lieberman from the beginning. I could imagine supporting any of the Democratic candidates this year - except Biden, just as in 03/04 I could imagine supporting any of them but Lieberman.
At least he's not threatening to become a Republican - yet.
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Thankyou
Thanks, Joan, for getting out front and voicing some of the disgust we feel for the democrats who won't oppose bush. The republican side of the aisle is deaf, but the democrat side is mute. If we yell loud enough, the dems might lip sync a bit out of embarrasment.
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They still don't get it
It's about framing, Democrats. If they continue to allow the Republicans to control the terms of the debate, they will continue to lose, and will probably lose the 08 presidential election to someone insane like Romney, McCain or Guiliani.
The reason we are always on defense is because we accept their premises: defunding the war hurts the troops, being anti-war is anti-troops....The Democrats have to ignore those charges and hit back: 1. Bush's Iraq war made America weak and helped Iran. If I were a candidate I would never shut up about the war weakening all our strategic interests: increasing our dependency on foreign oil, AND strengthening our enemies. Nice job Bush & Dick! Why don't we try smearing them as unpatriotic and unAmerican? They do it to us, yet they are the ones who have overthrown the Constitution. I think, by the way, that Obama is attempting to do this by saying that "this is not America. this is not us. We don't do these things" (torture and the like).
The second biggest problem the democrats have after framing is the follow-through. No discipline in the terms they use and the concepts they trot out through a revolving door. So in 2000 Gore randomly starts talking like a populist then stops. Kerry did the same thing. If you've got a theme, you can't just drop it. Clinton better pay attention, she just started talking populist-speak. Don't bother if you aren't willing to ride it out.
Another example: They got a wedge issue that helped them in 2004, with stem cells, and Kerry dropped it like a hot potato. Why? Look at the way the GOP beat gay marriage into the ground. It helped them eke out another election.
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ol' Joe
Joe Biden may not even make it to the first primary, at this rate. But, then, he's never had much of a chance. He's too eccentric in his rhetoric and geeky in his mein to achieve any kind of mass-popularity. He's just trying to get a little play. Sad.
I've been tweeked over on Greenwald's blog for suggesting that the Dems passed the war funding bill because they're afraid Bussh will actually deprive the troops of resources and then blame it on the Democrats.
I wish the Dems were spreading THAT meme, rather than the GOP version that Congress will somehow "not support the troops." The Dems inablity to get out of their own way rhetorically has always been utterly bewildering to me. It's not hard. If they just talked very directly and bluntly about what's going on, it might cut through. But they're too chickenshit to do that, apparently. At this rate, Fred Thompson will mop the floor with them in 2008.
I believe Bush could deliberate deprive the troops. And I believe he would do it. And I think the Dems are too disorganized politically and philosophically to counterpunch effectively. A plurality of Americans would drink more GOP Kool-Aid and end up believing "surrender in Iraq" is all the Dems fault.
I think a lot of voters are a bit confused about just who is responsible for the utter failure of our quixotic adventure in Iraq. They know who started it: Saddam. They're not sure exactly who is to blame for messing things up afterwards. Polls notwithstanding, I suspect a lot of voters--too many--would be more than ready to blame the Dems for everything. Especially swing voters who voted for Bush and don't want to have to face the fact that they were stupid.
I can hardly blame the Dems here...but I can be disappointed in them. And I am. Just like you, and just like Greenwald, I don't think they should have shrunk back because of mercenary political calculations, but that's exactly what they did. They want to win in 2008, and win big, and they don't want to give Bush and the GOP the smallest chance to hang Iraq around their collective necks.
But it's ugly. I agree. It's ugly. And wrong. Immoral.
Those are our politics today, however.
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@muze01
You write about "us" and "them". When you use the 1st person plural I hope you don't intend to include all the salon readership. There are a lot of conservatives here. Not necessariy neocons or jesus freaks. Just conservative - as in don't fix what ain't broke.
Hmmm, a conservative can be an activist these days without hypocracy because so very much is broken.
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@me
I hate when I'm hurrying and my spell check craps out. Sorry for the ebonics.
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"Supporting the war" is the new "opposing the war."
No, really. I don't get it anymore. Republicans offer enough votes to pass a withdrawal bill, then Democrats propose a new one with no deadlines. Borderline-conservative Hillary Clinton votes against the funding; once-liberal Biden sasses her for not supporting the troops.
Either some very strange backdoor dealings between the two sides of the aisle are going on here, or the party is just ready to implode. Maybe both.
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@nickr...nice
Nickr wrote:
"Supporting the war" is the new "opposing the war."
No, really. I don't get it anymore. Republicans offer enough votes to pass a withdrawal bill, then Democrats propose a new one with no deadlines. ...
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Nice. This is happening because EVERYONE on Capitol Hill is deathly afraid that THEY are going to be blamed for this war. Bush and Cheney and Rove have been so good at deflecting responsibility for this disaster that both dems and GOP'ers are certain someone ELSE is gonna get handed the blame for this debacle. That Bush and Cheney will never really be blamed for the war because too many dumbass voters voted for them, TWICE. And now those voters don't want to have to face, and admit to, how bottomlessly stupid they were.
I know if I were in Congress about now, I'd be very, very worried, regardless of party, because the American voter is too goddammed fucking stupid to really understand what's going on here. And that same voter is too ego-bound to ever admit that they made a dreadful mistake.
Dems didn't win in 2006 by converting a lot of Republicans. They won by mobilizing more Dems, and independent swing voters who tilt GOP, but went Dem, that time. Barely.
Imagine it. Those 50-million voters who voted for Bush in 2004, unable to admit how dumb and irresponsible they were to do such a thing. People who do dumb shit and then can't accept the blame, like to blame other people for their stupidity... this is Psych 101, and our politicians know the problem well..
So, everyone on the Hill is gyrating frantically, trying NOT to be the one the "American People" ultimately blame.
The GOP handled this amazingly well after Vietnam, and almost totally avoided blame for that mess, when, by rights, they should have had well over 50% of the blame (considering that Kennedy got us into the fucking thing to placate the right-wing of the GOP THEN. These spit-wads have been making trouble for us all for a long, LONG time.)
I expect we'll be seeing even deeper weirdness in this department as the war, and the political season, drag on.