As we size up our odds at taking back Congress this November, two seemingly contradictory points become clear. First, the current President and Congress are about as unpopular as any President or Congress has been in the modern era of American politics. Second, there's a good chance that after November, they'll still be in power. The explanation for this stems from the conspiracy of incumbents of both parties to gerrymander themselves to electoral safety after the 2000 census. While it looks like the big loser in all this is the Democrats in 2006, its important to frame this issue as a larger problem for all of America.
Whether you think T-Mac did a respectable job or totally blew it, I think we all recognize that he's gone and someone else is coming in. Kos, Atrios and a bunch of bloggers are throwing Dean around and the idea is certainly intriguing. But what I think we need to find out first, and perhaps its just my ignorance, is who actually gets to decide who our next DNC chair is. And once we know the answer to that, lets ask ourselves how the blogosphere can actually affect that decision. Finally, I'd like to know who is actually being considered for the job. The last thing we want is for all this to be happening behind closed doors. That's how the dem party used to do things and now things are different. I want it all in the open because that's democracy and that's how our party does things from now on.
The next DNC chair could be a place holder, compromise candidate from the various wounded factions of the Dem party, or he/she could be someone who will lead the transformation of the party into the majority party we know it can and should be. Lets make our voices heard.
What do the online futures markets think about Bush's debate performance? They think he blew it.
Tradesports has Bush's re-elect numbers down from 67 (right before the debate) to 59 (as of a few minutes ago), with a lot more pressure on the buy. That's a huge swing over 48 hours and who knows how far it will drop after the first post-debate polls come out. Could this be a toss-up by the end of next week?
Hopefully this can be the first in a series of diaries where we use the collective wisdom of the Dkos community to generate some quick, concise responses to counter what passes as conventional wisdom.
The inspiration for this first post came from a heated conversation with an old friend of mine from high school about his voting preferences. He said he doesn't really care much about politics, but voting Republican is better for his wallet, and that's the most important thing to him. Keep in mind, he's middle class, so he's deluding himself that Bush and his cabal are looking out for him, but it raises a larger issue. How do we take back the meme that the GOP is the best party for people who see elections strictly in economic terms?
I think its slowly dawning on all of us that we might actually take back the White House, Senate, and House, or at least 2 out of 3. After the 2002 midterms I have no doubt that the party establishment could find a way to completely screw this up, but given that I don't think they're completely running the show anymore and I think they've learned a bit since then, I have faith that a dem sweep in november is a definite possibility. With that in mind, it may be time to start a serious discussion on what we actually would do if fortune smiled on us and in January 2005 we're calling the shots. I mean this more as a question of tone and attitude rather than specific policy proposals. In other words, do we settle scores or do we bury the hatchet? Do we adopt the playbook of "The Hammer" Delay until we've fixed all the wrong he has done? Or does how we govern matter as much as what policies we put in place?
I live in Bogotá, Colombia and was recently thumbing through Semana magazine, a sort of Colombian equivalent to Time or Newsweek and something caught my eye. There's a full page ad of a blurred picture of President Bush alongside one of his famous Bushisms: (in Spanish): "If we are not successful we run the risk of failure." On the bottom of the page is the line "Now is the time to invest in Euros" and a phone number and logo of the Colombian bank, Colpatria. Bravo to them for clever marketing but I seriously hope these jokes will end come November.
I've caught his show a few times while channel surfing and I really can't comprehend what happened to this guy. From his days on SNL to his HBO show I always considered him more of the gadfly type of political humorist, definitely with a Clinton- Gore hating slant, but overall just pointing out the stupidity and arrogance of our ruling class. Either I wasn't paying attention or Miller has flipped out. He's a GOP hack. Every question is loaded with Ed Gillespie like spin, every pathetic joke is a jab at liberals and dems. The only difference between him and Hannity is Miller throws in some Proust allusions when he pushes the "Kerry is French" meme. And as his piss poor ratings prove, going high brow with the conservative gorrilla base has been a disaster.
Just got back from the Dems Abroad caucus in Bogota, Colombia, which was the only caucus in South America. A respectable 12 people showed up. Some heated debate, but when it was all over the count was 9 for Kerry, 2 for Dean, 1 for Kucinich.
