FISA Tabled

[filkertom]

You can find stuff about it everywhere, but I think this and this warrant a little extra attention.

And, at this point, I think I would be extremely happy with an Edwards/Dodd ticket. Neither is perfect. But both are better than I could've hoped.

Who do you envision on the final Democratic ticket, based on what you know right now? And in what order, i.e., who for prez, who for veep?

Comments

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

I like your choice.

I REALLY don't like Hillary. Obama seems okay, but he's not my first choice.

I would like to know why there are so many senators running. Historically, senators don't do well when it comes to winning elections. I think the last one was JFK. Governors tend to do much better, but there aren't any of the "big name" democrats that are governors.

[gavroche42.livejournal.com]

Senators don't do well because of the 'paper trail' that the opponent can so easily pick apart. A successful senator must broker deals in order to be effective - and they find it difficult to explain this in an election campaign. The voters will usually insist that the negative attacks aren't what convince them - they will usually say they're voting for the person with 'more experience.'

JFK was the last Senator to 'win'...though there is a question if he really won. Instead of a full state - Florida/Ohio - JFK had one city - Chicago. Nixon didn't demand a recount.

There's only one Democratic governor/former governor running. And I think he's pretty low in the polls.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

I was so ready for Reid just to push it through.

As I wrote in my own journal - It's sad that something so small should seem so huge. But we have to start somewhere and maybe it'll shake things up finally.

I would be very happy with that ticket!

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Envision? Clinton-Dodd.
Want? Kucinich-Edwards.
Get? Probably something altogether different.

I don't trust Clinton ever since she defended the lobbyists at that campaign appearance. Not that I really trusted her beforehand, but that sewed up the ok,-business-as-usual campaign for me. And we most definitely do _not_ want business as usual, given how the Democrats in Congress have been rolling over for Our Glorious Leader for the past 11 months...

(Edit: oops, brain fart there.)

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

I'd LOVE a Kucinich-Edwards or Kucinich-Dodd ticket. I'd even settle, if all else fails and they MUST have their golden boy, for Kucinich-Obama, but I'd be cranky about it.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I've been homeless while employed full-time at $20/hr, so I'd really like to see Kucinich in there. He knows what it feels like.

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

He's my man, let me tell you. I even like him more than a couple of third-party folk, and that's rare.

[bschilli.livejournal.com]

Personally, I don't want to see any of the Senators for Vice President. Dick Cheney is the exception as VP. Most of them spend their time going to funerals Richardson would be a good VP candidate.

Ben

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

Do I have to choose Democrats? I usually go Libertarian myself...

ok..

Kucinich/Gravel 2008

The only two Dems IMHO with a head on their shoulders and loyalty to the USA first, second, and third!

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Doomed/Defeated in '08.

They stole the last two, what makes this one any different?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of expecting Clinton/Obama, but wishing for Gore/Edwards.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I'm concerned about who the Republicans might nominate, as it seems to me that each Democratic nominee has someone on the GOP side who can run effectively against them... and I'm not sure if there's anyone on that side I'd really trust with the job (except maybe Ron Paul). Then again, I'm not too enamored with a lot of the Democratic runners either.

However, if I knew the Republicans would screw themselves up badly enough to elect almost anyone? That would leave me with a clear choice of Dodd/Richardson.

Although I would be amused as hell to see someone like Christie Whitman jump the aisle and get the VP nomination.

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Want: Edwards/Dodd
Probably get: Obama/Sibelius

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

I think Richardson is a pretty good candidate for the actual working JOB of being a president. He's done some excellent things as governor of New Mexico and has good experience in foreign relations. On the down side, he's had some Clintonesque incidents around the ladies, which the party REALLY does not need Round 2 of, and he's successful because he can work the Good Ol' Boy Biz As Usual game. Which I hate and hope to see eliminated in my lifetime.

Richardson is also not a pretty face. I'm thinking he has a pretty good shot at the VP slot.

What I would LOVE to see is Howard Dean try again. But now I'm REALLY dreamin'!

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

What I can truly see is not Hillary and Obama (in ether role). Everyone else hasn't made enough noise yet IMO.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side (a Democrat talking about Republicans? SACRILEGE!), we have:

• Guliani, who's stuck on Sept 11th.
  
• Huckabee, who's stuck in Rome (I hate over religious people, just ruins a faith) and has a terrible record.
  
• John McCain, who's the embodiment of Heisenberg's Uncertanty Principle (HEY! NO CLINTON!)
  
• Fred Thompson, who's the embodiment of Ronald Regan after he started getting Alzheimers (not mentally fit... but is Dubba not mentally fit ether?)
  
• Ron Paul, who's ideas are so radical they might actually work -- and he's getting money hand over fist because of it.
  
• Mitt Romney, who's Mormon... but then we know Howard Tayler who also is Mormon.
  
• And the rest, who haven't made enough noise

I think we'll get a Paul/Romney ticket, and then four wild but nessisary years.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

All of the Republican candidates are jokes. Ron Paul is the best of a bad, bad lot, and even he has some major problems (yet another OMG Taxes candidate, anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro free trade, very controversial and rather confusing views on environmental protection, etc). I would laugh my ass off at any of them, and especially any combination involving Guiliani, Huckabee, Romney, and/or McCain would be absolutely shredded by any Dem candidate. That would be their four front-runners. Bwahaha.

[ericcoleman]

I still kind of want Edwards/Obama, but seeing folks posting I really think that Edwards/Richardson would be a good thing.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Richardson has a fair amount to recommend him. I don't think he's ready for prime time, but he very well may be in four years.

[ericcoleman]

Which is why I was thinking VP ...

I think that it is going to be hard for the Democrats to lose the election this time around (although they could certainly pull it off). I do think that who ever is the candidate for president has to choose carefully, they need to pick someone who could run in 8 years.

[jss]

As much as I'd like to see a non-Republican in office, I do believe the Dems are perfectly capable (and given their spines and behaviour the past 7 years, unfortunately likely) of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Richardson would make a brilliant Secretary of State, IMO. Certainly 1,000 times better than the "brain" we've got there now.

I like your Edwards/Dodd ticket. But I could be happy with Edwards/Obama too. I'm trying to explain to my daughter, who is 11 and would like to see a woman president, why I don't like Hillary. *sigh* I'd love a woman president, but Hillary's not it.

[sdelmonte]

Looked at purely from the regionalist view, though, a ticket with a Southerner and a Far Westerner would be stronger in some ways than one with a New Englander.

[sdelmonte]

Edwards is slowly starting to impress me. A ticket with him and Dodd or with Richardson would work for me.

Though I still want to find a way to get Gore/Dean. But one's too smart to run and the other seems to have vanished from the MSM.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Dean hasn't vanished. He's head of the Democratic National Committee, and by all accounts doing a great job. His 50-state strategy was a major contributor to the Democratic gains in 2006. And I'd bet he deserves some credit for the huge edge the Democrats now have in fundraising.

And to chime in generally, I definitely like the idea of Edwards/Dodd, with Richardson as SecState.

[sdelmonte]

I remember knowing that about Dean, but I keep wondering why he isn't running. All the things he did four years ago, added to his successes, could have worked.

But then, the MSM would have brought back the barbaric yawp again. So he is probably better off doing what he's doing and making a difference away from the MSM.

[violinsontv.livejournal.com]

Edwards has lost me. Oh, if in some twist of fate he does get the nom he'll get my vote but it is really, really hard to get excited about someone I cannot vote for due to a technicality, as a Michigander. I will not mention all the unprintable things I am feeling toward the Michigan Dems right now but David Bonior, former Michigan gubernatorial hopeful and Edwards' campaign manager is very much the focus of my ire. OK, don't campaign in the state, don't run ads (ain't stopping Romney, though) but when you pull your name off the ballot, you're not "teaching the leadership a lesson," you're spitting in the faces of the people you say you want to help.

It's hard for me to reconcile that. I also have a hard time with Obama because I can't forget that he was the public face of the DLC's "nothing to see here, move along" attitude towards voting discrepancies in Ohio in '04.

At this point, I'm past trying to envision anything. I am encouraged slightly by the Iowa polls showing Obama winning, Hills winning, Gern Blansten winning over any GOP candidate. But "hope is on the way?" I ain't holding my breath till it's over.