Search Is on for Perfect 2008 Candidate

[Champ]

By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

WASHINGTON - Wanted: a former altar boy from the Southwest who speaks Spanish, married into a rich Republican family from Ohio and revolutionized the Internet after working as a volunteer firefighter in Florida. Position: president of the United States.


Building a perfect candidate for 2008 is easy with hindsight and exit polls at your disposal. Some three years and 360 days away from the next presidential election, this is what Republicans and Democrats might be looking for:


_ A fifth-generation Hispanic-American from New Mexico who comes from a long line of Democrats, including a grandfather who is an elections commissioner in southern Florida.


_ His favorite uncle is a Catholic bishop in Iowa who shares his love for outdoor sports. They both drop their "g's" when talkin' about huntin' and fishin' and car racin'.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=696&e=1&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/the_perfect_candidate

[Catch22Dem]

1. Pretty good article...

I'm interested in looking closer at my own Governor Brad Henry (D-OK)
Anyone have any thoughts on that?

[JI7]

3. i liked him the times i have heard him

but i haven't seen him much. just a few minutes of debates on cspan when he ran for governor. i would like to see more.

[Owlet]

2. Lets's eliminate some categories

1. Millionaires
2. Yale graduates or holders of Yale law degrees.
3. U.S. Senators

There. That should narrow it down to where we at least have a fighting chance.

[PSU84]

6. No more New Englanders, thank you.

A current/former governor of a swing state or a red state.

MUST be "someone I'd like to have a beer with."

[SteveG]

15. How about

The Gov. of PA. Ed Rendell. Smart, articulate, folksy, and seems to be well regarded as Gov. and was very well regarded as Mayor of Phily.

[AP]

7. The Ivy League law degree is OK so long as the undergraduate degree isn't

Ivy, and especially if your parents were poor or middle class -- and so long as you didn't go work for a big firm after law school.

[The Sushi Bandit]

4. Dennis Kucinich

is our man!

[Free2BMe]

12. Neva happen.

[Hephaistos]

5. If 2004 showed us anything

it is that the biographical quality of the candidate does not matter.

What matters is whether the candiate will fight back against the lies and slander thrown at him during the campaign.

Kerry, the war hero, didn't. That was my biggest disappointment.

[pinerow]

8. I agree...we have to be able to hit back harder than

they do.

[AP]

9. I disagree. Biography is critical.

[Hephaistos]

27. Let me rephrase my statement

Biographical quality matters little if the candidate does not fight back against the lies and slander.

[Carla in Ca]

10. But maybe that is why he would be

the best choice for 2008? I'm really starting to think seriously about this. Any other candidate would mean a whole new nasty campaign. What do you think?

[Redleg]

18. What was he supposed to do?

How do you fight back when the media allows the other side to lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and get away with it?

[Hephaistos]

28. You have to get into a feedback loop with the media

They won't push a story for the dems if the campaign doesn't push it.

Once, for example, the NYT or WaPo showed how the swifties were liars, you go on every outlet and trumpet the quotes and the connections of the liars to the bush campaign. Then it becomes a story, and the media can weave it into its meta narrative.

Poster AP upthread probably knows the mechanisms even better.

[jmcgowanjm]

36. Understand this -We are in Hell

There are no checks and balances left. The US Senate now
has 55 of these Republicans. When they hit 60, which is
what will happen in 2006 mid-term elections—trust me—
that means that no matter what Bush and the crime family
want to do, they can do it. The House (of Representatives)
is gone for the next two to five generations. It’s gone.

The last thing rational people in this country need right now
is this whistling-past-the-graveyard horse hockey. Nothing
is going to happen; it’s going to get worse. There will
never again be a legitimate election in this
county.

Until we get rid of the machines.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI411B.html

[Free2BMe]

11. Simple....Jeb Bartlett

[Darranar]

13. Isn't it a bit early? n/t

[VegasWolf]

14. I know, let's get Davy Crockett!

[Charlie Brown]

16. It's going to be Hillary

and she'll be annhilated in the South and Midwest.

[BiggJawn]

31. Hillary will be anihilated EVERYWHERE.

Redneck Murka has been conditioned by YEARS of Cyst-boy and the rest of Hate-Radio to go into a froth at the mere mention of her name.
It's a Pavlovian (Rovian) thing.

I love Hill, but as long as all cyst-boy has to say is "She'll make your daughter get an abortion so she can have her and Bill's Sunday roast!" to get the Rednecks snarling and straining at the end of their chains, it's useless to talk about her as President.

She says she's having fun as Senator from New York, and I believe her. Would she like to be president? Probably, but she's at LEAST as smart as me, and probably knows she'd be torn to bits, too.

[Redleg]

17. There is no perfect candidate.

We liberals can't seem to agree on who we want. Some will say "he's too liberal" or "she's too republican lite." The republicans, on the other hand, rarely criticize their candidate in public.

[robbedvoter]

19. How about getting real elections first?

[Kool Kitty]

20. Exactly. If we don't get rid of these

goddamn touch-screen voting machines, it won't matter who we nominate. They won't have a chance.

[DeadManInc]

21. computer voting

How do we get rid of the computer voting machines? I'm sure diebold is already making donations for 2008.

[Kool Kitty]

23. It really is bigger than that.

The companies that make the machines are owned by repubs.

[Sleepless In NY]

22. Wesley Clark & Senator Mary Landrieu (La)

For President & VP. Both southerners, intelligent, articulate, attractive, extemely warm & likeable personalities. Also think for NJ Governor, Bruce Springsteen (if Arnold could do it, so can Bruce.)or Kristen Breitweiser.

[tedoll78]

25. If we were to do that..

we'd pick-off both Arkansas and Louisiana.

That's 15EVs right then and there. Assuming we hold the Gore states and New Hampshire, we'd be in really good shape without Ohio or Florida. And I'm betting that two southerners, fairly or unfairly, could hold the Gore states more easily than someone from the northeast. It sucks, but then again, Clark is what I'd call a "stealth liberal." We won't let the "Southern General" mantle fool us, but why not let it sway less knowledgeable voters?

[SmokingJacket]

34. Yep.

Until then you're just spinning your wheels if you're trying to bio-engineer some perfect candidate.

Like ** is perfect????

[Dogmudgeon]

24. Let's get really innovative

Here's one for the GOP:

Susan Smith -- who famously murdered her children in 1994 -- should fit the bill.

She'll be 35 by 2008, her first chance to run for the White House.

She has no compunctions about killing, so waging war will not trouble her too much.

She's a born-again, Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christian from the South, which is the only kind of person we'll allow to be President.

She initially blamed the killing on a black man. Karl Rove could not have done better.

She was promiscuous all her life, even tempting her stepfather, a local Republican politician and Christian Coalition activist, into having sex with her, and she was only fifteen. The hussy! Even worse, she continued to lead him into evil until shortly before the trial. But that kind of gumption will come in handy when dealing with the treacherous A-Rabbs.

She has a love of money and became greatly depressed when her rich boyfriend dumped her for a younger gal (he said it was because she was not a "nice girl", a conclusion he came to even before her affair with her stepfather became known.). She has a lot of anger over it. She gets two checks in the Republican column right there.

She's been on her good behavior behind bars, and was born again again lately, just like George Bush was when he was 25, 40, 41 and 46 years of age. Just like George, her "base" will forgive her while blaming her Democratic challenger for the smallest of mistakes.

I tell you, she's perfect for the job. Besides, she`s single, available, and I think she`s hot.

:evilgrin:

--bkl

[Wink]

26. Give it up already....

It doesn't matter who we put up, the repugs will vote for a dust mop as long as it registers itself as a Republican. And if that doesn't work, they just get Diebold to finish up their dirty work.

Face it, we are fucked and with the chimp in charge of the Attorney General, the voting machines will never be investigated.

[Laelth]

30. Sadly, I agree.

It's going to take a global catastrophe, now, to swing the pendulum back our way. We can't win, regardless of who we put up, in the current environment. We ran a strong candidate this year against one of the weakest and worst candidates the Republicans have ever offered. John Kerry is a decorated war hero who has served the people in public office for most of his adult life. Bush is a draft-dodger who has destroyed every business he's ever run and who seems to serve only himself and his rich friends. According to the American people, in scientific polls taken immediately afterward, John Kerry won all three debates. We had more money than usual this time--nearly as much as the Republicans. We fought toe-to-toe in television advertising across the nation. By one count, the Democrats registered three times as many new voters as the Republicans did for this election.

And we still lost ...

There was nothing wrong with John Kerry. There's nothing wrong with the Democratic party. There's something very wrong with America. If Kerry can't beat Bush, then I don't think we can win at all. I think we're in for about 20 years of one-party rule.

-Laelth

[Flagg]

29. You could put Mother Theresa on the ticket

With the liberal media and Diebold, it wouldn't make one bit of difference.

It's their country now.

Unless we start being a little more "violent", we're not taking it back, ever.

[LibDemAlways]

37. I could not agree more.

It doesn't matter who we run. We can't win until we adopt the Canadian system of voting -- a pen, a sheet of paper, and election moniters in every precinct when the votes are counted.

[lebkuchen]

32. After 8 years of Bush, the dems are going to want to inherit the mess?

I predict the Democratic Party will say, "No thanks. You keep it."

[SmokingJacket]

35. Frankly, I'm relieved we don't have to clean it now. n/t

[NashVegas]

33. This is Just Fucking Peachy

Can we please stop looking for someone to fill the Johnny Bravo seat, and instead seek leaders?

[Neshanic]

40. Thank you for that moment of sanity. It is appreciated.

[Richardson08]

38. Bill Richardson/Wesley Clark VP in 08

Former Clintonista,Harvard educated,governor of a southwest state,hispanic-Richardson in 08

Clark for VP

[stlsaxman]

39. We could get a crack whore elected if we had control of the vote count...

or a lying sociopath who thinks Jesus will return with the next war. Any state have a pig that looks good with lipstick?

Until we fix our voting system, the nation is broken.

[jmcgowanjm]

41. we have hours, days, maybe weeks to fix this election

When you hear people saying, ‘take a deep breath, we will
pull through this’, ‘we need to work harder’, ‘we need
to organize’—no. We will not. It’s
over.

Unless electronic vote tabulation is history, and
these companies are driven out of business, it’s their
country. Not ours.

Nobody knows, and no one will ever know, what the actual
vote count was.

The only way to look at this:

The DNC and Rep's are one and the same.

Prepare for casualties.

Germany, France, Russia, China, India,
see exactly what the Hegemon is doing.

If I was Iran, I'd be checking coordinates of JFK
and Aegis cruisers.

Oil at $65/bbl by JesusDay.

[reprobate]

42. NO! NO! NO! Im tired of dems playing follow the leader with repugs.

Kerry would have won resoundingly except for one thing: When it came to ending the Iraq folly no one could tell his plan from bush's plan. It was basically the same plan.Why should anyone vote for the unknow if his direction is the same as the known?

I want a party that will stand up for the core values of democrats-and most other americans- the values of fairness, equality, and the welfare of the people, not the corporations. Everything else is bullshit and a just "me too" campaign stance.

People just don't care for policy wonks. We need a charismatic leader who can generate the fellings of identity within the people.