The number of democrats worth receiving the nomination in 2008

[ncteechur]

is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. The republicans were doing a fine job or getting their one-party system without the dems help. Now several are seeing fit to help them out.

Wesley Clark look good. He is beginning to look real, real good.

[napi21]

1. I persoanlly haven't seen even ONE that I can say I really LIKE!

I'm looking for a combination of Howard Dean and Bill Clinton.

The courage of Howard to say what he believes, and not care who slams him because he knows he's right.

The eloquence of Bill Clinton to actually speak to people and have then want to listen!

I'm still waiting!!!!

[safi0]

2. I think there

Are two that fit your bill. DU's favorite General Wesley Clark and my Senator Russ Feingold.

[napi21]

4. I'm willing to listen to both, but I've not seen that yet.

I don't dislike either of them, but I'm not really impressed yet either.

We'll see.

[safi0]

8. I don't want to

Speak for Wes Clark. He has a lot of supporters on this board who know a helluva lot more about him than me. But looking at my Senator Feingold he definetely will say and do what he believes his vote on the Patriot Act is the perfect example of this. As far as his eloquence, he doesn't have the Clinton/Edwards style, but he's very quick on his feet, is an excellent debater, and is really at his best when doing interactive town hall type meetings

[Hippo_Tron]

17. Damn straight, both would be great

[Ysolde]

3. Maybe a combo of Dean & Edwards?

Dean is tough and was a good governor, so he knows how to govern. Edwards is a good speaker, but needs experience. If you'd could meld the two, I'd be happy!

[1932]

23. I think you're right: the nominee will have a combination of those

two candiates' qualities. But the qualities I see will be (1) the direct connection to the grass roots and the passion of Dean, and (2) the populist/progressive focus on the notion that people who work for a living do so today to make rich people richer and don't participate in the rewards of their own labor.

I think it's an extremely safe bet if you're putting your money on the candidate who captures those two sets of qualities the best in 2008.

I think even the DLC is trying to figure out a way to be pro-corporate and still sound like populists, so you know that people are sure that only a populist will get nominated in 2008.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. The only person even close to Clinton in charisma is Barack Obama

Bill Clinton was a once in a generation politician. That's why it's such a shame that his presidency turned out to be such a disappointment.

[AmericanDream]

30. Edwards is up there too... on his best days, he can even outshine Clinton

[whistle]

5. We need only one, a party uniter

[dolstein]

6. I would be perfectly happy with any of the following candidates

Evan Bayh
Mark Warner
Wes Clark
John Edwards
Tom Vilsack
Hillary Clinton

[politicasista]

7. Can we just focus on 2006 first?

It's still too early to talk about 2008? We don't know how the world and political environment will look like in 2008.

[Gemini Cat]

9. Wes Clark!

After Clark then either Boxer, Feingold or Edwards.
I like Dean and think he's where he needs to be.

[zulchzulu]

10. I'll take Kerry over Clark any day...so shoot me...

I like Clark, but he is not in the same level of knowledge and proven background as a fighter for Democrats than Kerry.

Flame me....whatever...I know the truth.

[snowbear]

12. So shoot you?

Ah c'mon zulchzulu.. We'd never shoot you for picking Kerry as our next candidate.

Ready, aim...

[FrenchieCat]

21. That little "Frenchie Cat" is just too die for.......Larissa!

uhr....I mean that little "Kitty Cat"! LOL!

Freudian Slip, maybe?

[FrenchieCat]

14. Well, I understand YOUR truth,

but MY truth is different from yours, and is just as valid.

I am an American, and Wes Clark is fighting for me.

The elected Democrats....well they fight sometimes, and sometimes, they don't.

Kerry had his big chance to fight for the Democratic Party on November 7th, when he made his decision. I respect him for doing what he felt he had to do but....I will always remember that this was the most important election in our lifetime.....as we now see.

===================
Maher: OK. I'm just wondering, of all the people who have the credentials to say "liberal" is not a bad word, I'm wondering if I could get you to say that.

Clark: Well, I'll say it right now.

Maher: Good for you!

Clark: We live in a liberal democracy. That's what we created in this country. It's in our constitution! We should be very clear on this... his country was founded on the principles of the enlightenment. It was the idea that people could talk, have reasonable dialogue and discuss the issues. It wasn't founded on the idea that someone would get struck by a divine inspiration and know everything, right from wrong. People who founded this country had religion, they had strong beliefs, but they believed in reason, and dialogue, and civil discourse. We can't lose that in this country. We've got to get it back.

[HootieMcBoob]

34. Wes Clark is the only Democratic candidate in decades to defend liberalism

He's done it on more than one occasion in very public forums.

And what's even better is that his public persona is more conservative than any of the other would-be candidates.

He fits easily into both the "nurturing parent" and the "strict father" frames.

If Clark is the Democratic nominee he will win in a landslide. He'll unite the country under a progressive vision for the future and set us on the path to taking back the house and the senate.

Instead of hearing about Reagan Democrats well start hearing about Clark Republicans.

He is also the only person who is capable of getting rid of the waste in the DOD. He has the creds and he knows how the system works. He's called the Pentagon a "want machine". In the same way that Nixon, who made his reputation as an anti-communist politician, was the only President who could have opened up relations with China - Clark, a four star General, is capable of being the first President who can begin to act to end what Eisenhower, the last General who became a President, warned us about - the "military industrial complex".

[Booster]

11. I really would like to see Joseph Wilson run in 2006. He's got

what it takes to win elections and he'd certainly get my vote, although I don't even know which state he lives in.

[snowbear]

13. Hmm.. what about a Clark/Wilson ticket?

:shrug:

General Wesley Clark / Ambassador Joseph Wilson..

:think: Those are two candidates I've never thought of together before.. I know that Virginia's governor, Mark Warner is interested in Clark as his running mate if he's our nominee..

And yeah.. 2006 does need to come first.. But it doesn't do any harm to dream :bounce: :grouphug:

[Booster]

20. Sounds perfect to me.

[1932]

24. I heard a Wilson lecture podcast on iTunes (under Education-higher learn'g

UC Berkeley).

Wilson is from a family of Republicans. I think he said he had an uncle who was a Republican Congressman and someone else in his family was a Republican governor.

He was living in Europe when he was in high school (boarding school?) and at the last minute decided to go to Santa Cruz for college because of the surfing. After college he worked as a carpenter for five years in CA. He and his first wife (girlfriend?) moved to Seattle where he decided it was time for a new career because the weather was so bad. He applied to grad school at U of W. To help his application he also took the Foreign Service exam. He did so well, they gave him a scholaraship to get an MA at U of W, but they offered him a great job before he was able to finish his degree.

His first F.S. job was in Africa where most of his time was spent negotiating with the landlords who were creating hassles for American citizens renting homes. He said his carpentry background was really helpful.

He had a pretty interesting story.

[Wetzelbill]

31. What Larissa is trying to say is she wants a Brian Schweitzer presidency

:)

[mrgorth]

33. I'm down with that!

[WCGreen]

15. Yep, I believe it is the General who can pull us together...

[genius]

16. I'm backing Dennis. He's got a perfect voting record.

He's got the issues and the integrity.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

18. Al Gore and David Cobb could unite the party

provided we could have a fair election. Yes, I know Cobb is Green but he is much more democratic than most Dems.

[1932]

22. Two things: I didn't know Bill Clinton was going to be such a good cand-

idate until February 1996, 9 months before the election. I think there are a half-dozen democrats who will be very promissing, and they've all won elections as Democrats already.

[FrenchieCat]

25. But the question is, We will have time to read their books?

Does these (yet unknown) candidates winning an election mean that they are guaranteed to only win from this point on, or something?

Let see.... Kerry won elections, Edwards won elections, Gore won elections, Lieberman won elections, Carter won elections, Dukakis won elections, McGovern won elections.

Oh, I see, most candidates on a ticket have ran and won an election before....but when it comes time to win a presidential election, the losers had won elections before losing.

Apart from Eisenhower, seems like both losers and winners of the presidential race won elections.

Gee, So I guess, that means that winning elections doesn't seem to historically mean THAT much, in the larger scheme of things.....now does it? Seems like a 50/50 chance in losing the presidential race, no matter what election you previously won. huh? :shrug:

[1932]

27. Clark had two books out by 2003, so I'm guessing that people running will

have their books ready for me to digest by the time I have to vote. I also think podcasts are going to revolutionize the possibilities for non-hearsay evidence of what candidates have to say about themselves.

So there's going to be a world of possibilities for people to get to know the candidates first-hand without having to trust the internet spinners' versions of the candidates.

[napi21]

26. THANK YOU! That's what I've been hoping for!

I remember that too. It's very early for a candidate to declare.

[1932]

28. To be clear, my point is that it's too soon to know who's going to be...

...a great candidate, and that there might be someone you've never thought of, or a person about whom you don't know very much today who will turn out to be a great candidate. (It's not that it's too soon to declare -- in fact, I think the sooner they declare, the better.)

I really didn't like Clinton until Feb 2004, and I admit today that I had totally misread him up to that point -- partly due to the fact that there wasn't that much info out there about him, and partly because I really had no idea how most voters thought.

[Texas_Kat]

29. I'd remind you of one point ...

In 1991, the Internet did not exist as we know it. The advent of the World Wide Web has made the grassroots much more informed and active than it has ever been. Even 15 or so years ago, it wasn't easy to discover who intended to run for POTUS unless the MSM reported on their intentions. Those days are long over.

Most of the candidates who have the national backing or interest in running in 2008 are already working on their organizations.

Many who get mentioned as potential 'dark horses' are not in a position to build those organizations 'at the last moment'.

If you are waiting for an unknown to jump out of the tall grass, I suspect you'll be waiting for a long time.

[bklyncowgirl]

32. I haven't heard that he's interested but how about Harry Reid?

I don't agree with the guy on alot of issues but I'm impressed with the job he's doing as Senate Minority leader, he's smart, a good infighter and he knows his way around DC.

He's a westerner--gets us out of that Northeast liberal thing--and has that quiet tough guy image--not to mention a neat background story as an honest guy who faced down corrupt Vegas casino owners.

[safi0]

35. I like Harry Reid too

But I think as a candidate he's much less appealing than as a leader. The reason I like him so much is because he's consistently fighting and wont back down to Frist and the extreme right. As a candidate he's not that charismatic, he's not particularly telegenic, and he is Pro-Life. Plus when the Senate re-opens in 2009 I firmly believe he will be the Majority Leader.