Did Schweitzer run over somebody's dog or something?

[Recursion]

Seriously, I've been trying to get people to notice Schweitzer for a year now to solid "thuds", and suddenly he's the entire first page of GD? Did I miss a news story about him? Did a new set of talking points just come out?

[Warren DeMontague]

1. No shit. I mentioned his name several times in 2016 threads previously, and I think people thought

I was talking about a Schnauzer.


Speaking of dogs.

[MFrohike]

2. Yeah, he kind of did

He went a little over the top trying to differentiate himself from the president and the cheerleading brigade is nerdraging.

[Recursion]

4. Oh, so he did make a speech?

Thanks; I'll check it out.

[MFrohike]

10. MSNBC interview

It's linked in about a thousand threads or so, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it.

[NYC_SKP]

3. I think, yes, talking points were sent out today from a certain organization.

With directions to take him down a few notches, play up his position on gun right and other angles, deflate his progressive positions.

Go out, dirty him up.

Those points went out this morning.

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Flooded the inboxes of various operatives at about 12pm eastern time

[Recursion]

7. BREAKING: candidate distances himself from same-party two-term President prior to run

Seriously? Schweitzer's been making these same noises since about November 7th, 2012. What the hell else do people think a candidate is going to do?

[X_Digger]

22. Yup, all the threads are suspiciously similar, aren't they? n/t

[DisgustipatedinCA]

5. I'm watching him with interest.

I like his single payer notions. I don't like his NRA and Keystone stances. And of course, I'm always more interested in someone when he comes under attack from the centrists here.

[Recursion]

8. Huh. I'm pretty centrist by DU standards and I dig him.

It's been too long since we had a farmer as President.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

11. I can see you dig him, but I wasn't referring to you.

Take a look at GD. A subset of posters has gone to general quarters over his recent statement.

[geek tragedy]

25. Yes, those who disagree with the Teabaggers that Obama's entire presidency

ought to be repealed.

That crowd.

Those who agree with the Teabaggers that Obama has done literally nothing positive, worth praising or keeping, have their champion in Brian Schweitzer.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

27. No. That's not who I was referring to.

[geek tragedy]

30. Eh, maybe Schweitzer will reinstate DADT since he doesn't think getting rid

of that was a positive accomplishment.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. He was way out in front of the ball on medical marijuana, unless I'm mistaken.

That was how I knew of him.

[MADem]

20. He refused to repeal a MM measure approved by the voters that the GOP legislature wanted stricken.

He is virulently opposed to legalization on the recreational/Colorado model, though, and favors harsh sentences for drug offenders.

[Warren DeMontague]

32. I believe you, but a link would be helpful for future reference.

It certainly doesn't count as a check in his column, in that case.

[MADem]

38. Here are a couple.

Veto here:

http://blog.norml.org/2011/04/14/montana%E2%80%99s-gov-schweitzer-vetoes-medical-marijuana-repeal-bill-but-patients-are-still-at-risk/

Attitude on recreational use here: http://www.kpax.com/news/schweitzer-to-decide-on-medical-marijuana-repeal/

"If there are people that are legitimately helped by marijuana and I think there are some like that, I don't want to take this care away from them. So we want to make sure that we tighten these rules up, so that the people who really need the medical cannabis are getting it, and the people who are recreational users won't." He said.

Since Colorado, he's been waffling, almost in a "fuck it, I don't like it, but..." kind of way.

He campaigned as a major greenie but then he accommodates Clean Coal and Keystone.

His "guns for all" attitude and his chumminess with NRA POVs are things I think make him a problem child. It doesn't matter, though-I'd be surprised if he got a lot of traction once people start digging. There are east coast Republicans (not many left, but a few) who are more liberal than he is on some issues. I think his little digs at POTUS have fucked him. I'll be honest, and this is my opinion only--I get the pesky, back-of-the-mind sense he's dogwhistling that he's the "no black folk nor women" candidate for the D-team. Maybe he doesn't feel that way personally, but I am getting the sense he thinks he can tap a market with that kind of bullshit. I get a very creepy feeling. Maybe it's just the too-blue denims and the flag bandanna and those dumbass shoes...?



Here's the green guy cheering on Keystone: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/212439-montana-gov-slams-anti-keystone-jackasses-in-dc

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) is expressing frustration with the debate in Washington over the Keystone XL pipeline, which he strongly supports.

“Ninety per cent of these jackasses that are complaining about the Keystone pipeline in Washington, D.C., one year ago wouldn't have even known where the Keystone was. While we were doing the heavy lifting here in Montana and in South Dakota and in Kansas and Oklahoma ... in Washington, D.C. ... all these great defenders had never heard of Keystone before,” Schweitzer said in an interview published Thursday.

They're always prettiest when they don't have much of a record. I don't think this guy gets more beautiful with age....

[Cali_Democrat]

12. What about his stances on coal mining and fracking?

Just a simple question I'm asking.....

http://watchdog.org/24671/mt-schweitzer-leads-fight-against-new-federal-fracking-red-tape/

I don't mean to pile on, but....well actually I am trying to pile on.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

14. Do not like. Further questions?

[Tx4obama]

13. Brian Schweitzer Can't Really Think Of Anything Nice To Say About Obama's Record

Brian Schweitzer Can't Really Think Of Anything Nice To Say About Obama's Record

Article here: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/brian-schweitzer-obama

[Recursion]

15. Wow... a potential candidate distancing himself from a two-term President

I must get my smelling salts!!!

[geek tragedy]

21. That's not distancing, that's repudiation.

If one thinks that Democrats should run on repudiating everything Democrats have done under Obama including repealing the ACA, Schweitzer's the guy.

P.S. He could have said repealing DADT or killing bin Laden or other low-hanging fruit. Chose to go the race route instead.

[TroglodyteScholar]

33. Bingo.

He's wrong politically and seriously lacking in class.

[Cleita]

16. He might run for President so the primaries have begun apparently. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

17. This just wasn't the week to stick yet another knife into the President's back.

Had Obama in 2007 implied that Hillary Clinton hadn't done a single good thing in her years as Senator or First Lady, I wouldn't have supported him either. It's just bad form to insult the sitting President of your own party like that. That's not policy or style differences--Schweitzer just wrote him off altogether, and that I do not like, no matter how much I may agree with him on other things.

[msongs]

18. is he criticizing the president's self-proclaimed moderate repub policies? get the torches lol nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Coordination: it's a thing of beauty.

Who said democrats are disorganized? Tune 'em to the right NYC frequency and some will sing in complete harmonic sync.

[X_Digger]

23. They might not be able to find a non-HRC candidate, but they sure can smear anyone else.

Kinda sad, really.

[geek tragedy]

24. Well, yeah, have some guy run on "I hate Obama more than the Teapartiers do"

and yeah it will draw a response amongst Democratic partisans.


We've been exposed to years the Teabaggers desire to delegititimize Obama and everything he's done, to wipe his entire record off the books.

And then that asshole from Montana steps up and validates what Louis Gohmert and Ted Cruz and Michelle Bachmann have been saying, agreeing with them that there's literally not a single damn thing Obama's done that's worth keeping.

So, fuck him.

[lumberjack_jeff]

26. I'm unconvinced that *democratic partisans* are the ones bashing the living shit out of Schweitzer.

I'm interested in listening to him and HRC during the primaries.

I'm undecided, but sympathetic to genuinely populist candidates.

[geek tragedy]

29. He can advance his own agenda without dumping on the rest of the party.

If he thinks that stating that the Democrats have done nothing good over the past 5 years qualifies him to be a party leader, he's seriously FITH.

[Recursion]

31. What does that gain him?

If he's running as the "aww shucks" outsider yoeman farmer from God's own country with sensible ideas like everyday folk have (and I assume that's his angle), I don't see why he would do anything but put as much daylight between him and every serving Democrat as possible.

[geek tragedy]

35. Ask Jon Huntsman how that approach worked for him in 2012. nt

[Recursion]

36. I wouldn't suggest it as a way for winning the GOP nomination

For the Democratic nomination, it's worth a try.

[geek tragedy]

37. No, as it turns out running against your own party in the primary is pretty

stupid regardless of which party one belongs to.

What Schweitzer is doing is sabotage. Democrats are on the line in 2014 and Obamacare is front and center.

So what does this self-promoter do? Barf up the same anti-Obamacare talking points that the Republicans trademarked "will collapse on its own weight" while repudiating the head of the party and stating that there are zero accomplishments worth defending under the current president of his own party.

He has all of the signs of a guy whose three favorite causes in the world are me, myself, and I.

[MADem]

39. Maybe he's running to be the "Single Democrat in the Republican President's Cabinet" guy.

Sure smells like that to me. Wonder what he wants? Interior? They won't give him HHS, and Homeland Security is too much of a plum.

[Recursion]

41. Ag would make more sense, but I don't agree

I think he's running to what he imagines to be the disaffected center, which is economically to the left and socially about in the middle of the two parties.

Whether that center actually exists? Not sure. That's why we have primaries.

[MADem]

42. That was snark, really. He sounds, to me, like he's targeting the White Guy vote.

I don't think the "Down with the brown" club is gonna get comfortable with this dude. I also don't think he'll appeal to urban women of any color. He may get the Michelle Bachmann types in the 'burbs, but I just don't him connecting with anyone who prioritizes diversity. And the gay vote? Out the window, that, too--and they don't just vote, they donate.

[Recursion]

44. Those are all good points

And I think that's pretty much his core weakness. And, yeah, "the white guy vote" is probably more honest than "the disaffected center".

If the result is that the voting electorate looks more like 2004 than 2008/2012, that's awful. We'll see.

[solarhydrocan]

40. yet a year ago you said: "He's everything that John Edwards was supposed to be...

20. I can live with his gun love--he is from Montana, where guns mean different things than in Chicago.

Single payer populist from a red state? He's everything that John Edwards was supposed to be, but he's gritty instead of shiny.

geek tragedy Sat Feb 23, 2013, 02:39 PM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=289671

[Agnosticsherbet]

28. He is the COB of a mining compnay who supporis the XL pipeline running as the Antii-Obama.

Oh he says nice things about single payer and getting out of Afghanistan, but being solidly in the column of big oil, big mining, and the NRA makes him sound more Libertarian Left in his political leanings.

[ecstatic]

34. Unfortunately, he's made himself look like the Palin of the left by

bursting onto the scene with nasty, divisive (hypocritical) comments. He's definitely getting noticed now, but not for the right reasons. Hopefully he fires whichever advisors told him to sell himself as the "anti-Obama."

I'm willing to give him another shot if he takes some time off to regroup and reemerges as a sincere person with a coherent message, delivered in a respectful manner. I don't expect perfection, or strict liberal positions, but I do expect sincerity. 5 years ago, he was a Blue Dog, and now we're to believe he's a liberal crusader? GTFOH. That might work on firebaggers but it won't get him very far in this party. I'm not an idiot, and anyone who attempts to treat me as such will never get my vote. Right now he's all over the place with both LW and RW positions and it screams phony.

[ZombieHorde]

43. The primaries are going to long and nasty.

Should be fun.

[Recursion]

45. Cthullu in 2016!

Why settle for just a lesser evil?

[ZombieHorde]

46. Damn straight! nt