For those who are undecided: Let's shorten candidate list

[Freddie Stubbs]

By JOHN CARLSON
Register Columnist
01/14/2004
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Five days to go and the candidates are frantic, careening around Iowa, trying to save themselves.

The wheels on the Deanmobile are wobbling badly; Kerry looks like he's been beaten with sticks; and Gephardt, incredibly, is paler than usual.

<snip>

After a year of rallies, dinners, phone calls, TV ads and mailings, they've had plenty of time to decide. Even though some still haven't made a choice. That's what I'm here for: to help the undecided.

First, the three who have no chance of winning anything, anywhere - Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

more: http://desmoinesregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/23252501.html

[LuminousX]

1. All in good time

I'm all for letting each individual candidate run his or her campaign the way he or she sees fit. Calls for people to quit is just arrogance.

[brainshrub]

2. I don't think Kucinich should be in the "can't win anything" category. (n

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. Where in the world can he win?

He came in behind Braun in DC, and even in Ohio Dean has more support.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. When did they vote in Ohio?

Oh, they haven't voted in Ohio, have they?

Dennis Kucinich has won every race he's entered as a longshot dark horse against a Republican incumbent. I remain committed to him no matter what the polls or the pundits say because he has the best positions on the issues, and that's what's important in this election year. We're not voting for Prom King here.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Caucues were held in Ohio the other night and Dean had most support

Area Dems support Dean

By STEPHEN ORAVECZ Tribune Chronicle

NILES - Howard Dean was the favorite candidate of the 800 Democrats who turned out Monday night at Niles Middle School to select delegates to the presidential nominating convention, but it was clear from the opening remarks that the person they all wanted to defeat was President Bush.

Democratic leaders were nothing short of enthusiastic about the turnout, which was three to four times larger than the caucus four years ago, according to Greg Hicks, the Warren law director who organized Monday's event. He and others frequently noted the large number of young people attending.
''We encouraged them to come, and they did,'' Hicks said.

The turnout ''means I don't think people are happy with the president we've got. They're enthused to make a change,'' said Christ Michelakis, chairman of the Trumbull County Democratic Party.

more: http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/news/story/0113202004_new01dean13.asp

Kucinich has won every race that he has entered? How about his 4th place finish in the DC primary on Tuesday?

[Mairead]

11. How about quoting DB accurately?

She said that DK has won every election in which he entered against an entrenched GOP incumbent, not that he has won every election.

In Oakland in early November DK estimated that he has --unlike Dean-- stood for election about 30 times, counting primaries, and has won about 20 of them. He has won --again unlike Dean-- at big-city, big-state, and federal levels, and he has won --yet again unlike Dean-- legislative, functional-management, and chief-executive positions.

Dean is where he is because the corporate media has been helping sell him. You can deny that til your dying breath, but you cannot change the reality. And if Democrats are ignorant enough to make him the nominee in these coming months, then no matter what the outcome next November We The People will have lost.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Dean has never lost an election

Kucinich has. Even as an incumbent. Against a Republican in a big city with a Democratic majority. The results of this week's Ohio caucus and DC primary show that Ohio Democrats must be, by your definition, pretty ignorant.

[Mairead]

13. So? Neither have I.

That's because I've not stood in any elections. Which is not completely unlike Dean's reason.

Dean has stood in what? Ten elections? As a conservative in a conservative state with a homogenous population no bigger than Kucinich's more diverse city and part-time legislators?

You can try to spin it as much as you like, Freddie, but the fact is that Dean's political experience is less diverse and of a lower quality than Kucinich's. The biggest challenges Dean has ever had to face while in office have been whether to oppose the loonies over the civil-unions measure, and whether to try for another term despite his clear circling-the-drain trend in earlier elections.

Kucinich, on the other hand, has pulled off something that almost nobody in politics has ever done before: successfully stood up to elite interests on behalf of The People, been blacklisted for it, and come back years later to resume his political career by election to higher office.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Vermont is a conservative state?

How conservative is Vermont? So conservative that the voters have elected Pat Leahy and Jim Jeffords to the United States Senate. So conservative that the voters have elected an avowed socialist to the United States House of Representatives.

Conservative indeed. ;)

[Mairead]

21. Conservative enough to elect Republicans (avowed and virtual) as governor

[OhioStateProgressive]

15. misinformation

you posted an article about one local caucus that night in ohio

I happen to have went to an Ohio caucus that night, a different one...and yes, Dean won, but it was slim, and MANY Dean supportres were persuaded to switch

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. So in the state where people know Kucinich the best Dean is still winning

That sounds like good new to me. ;)

[OhioStateProgressive]

17. wink at me all you like

but you consistently take a very rude tone and I don't appreciate it

[goodhue]

20. and these aren't real precinct caucuses

in the sense of Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, Washington because they do not determine delegate support in Boston in July.

Rather that support will be determined on March 2, 2004 at the Ohio primary. These recent meetings are simply to select delegates to send on based on the results March 2nd. Apples and oranges. Its really a misuse of the term caucus because, its an entirely different concept. Same thing in Santa Cruz, CA earlier; that was not a real caucus. I'm not sure if its just lazy journalists, Dean spinning or whether these party folks are actually calling these meetings caucuses. In any event, party conventions and meetings at district levels are not precinct caucuses.

[AnAmerican]

19. Your article reflects ONE caucus.

Where I was, in his home district, the DK crowd was by far the largest.

[AnAmerican]

18. DK has not even started in Ohio yet.

He has put the campaign focus in other states. Don't worry..Ohio will be just fine.

[DebJ]

4. I have enjoyed hearing their views and ideas and passion and

hope that the Democratic Party platform will draw from these people.
I especially love Kucinich....how can you not love the man...so clearly honest, passionate, forthright, caring...even though I am supporting Dean for the presidency. And Braun's dignity, poise, expression, and I feel also that she is connected and caring...and I love the last two debates when she has come out at the other candidates. I wish Sharpton would return to a comment from one debate, where he said the divisions aren't about race and gender, they are actually about the dollar..someone needs to keep saying that in just as bluntly honest and entertaining a way as he did that night.
Still, I'd like to see a narrower debate field that gets more in depth on ISSUES, not stupid questions.

[revcarol]

5. Why don't we let HIS candidate drop out first!!

UH OH, he's a REPUBLICAN? Better idea than I thought.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. The writer narrows it down to Kerry and Edwards,

says he'll choose one of the two on caucus night.

Iowans are showing more interest in/ commitment to Edwards and Kerry in the past few days, but there's also interest in Kucinich and I hope that translates into a surprise for all the pundits who are dismissive of him.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. " Gephardt, incredibly, is paler than usual. " - LOL!!

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Hey, some of us are melanin-challenged! It's a

genetic condition that goes along with blue eyes and blond(e) hair. We also tend to be more sensitive to allergens that affect the skin, plus skin cancers and sunburns. But some of us lead normal lives, despite the tragedy of multiple recessive alleles. :7

As a guy, though, poor Gep can't use eyebrow pencil and mascara to make his blond eyebrows and eyelashes show up.