The boy at Dixville Notch, John Kerry and electability

[KaraokeKarlton]

Did anyone else catch this on CSpan while watching the voting at Dixville Notch? A person from the media was bugging the kid asking him if he though John Kerry could beat George Bush. The kid chuckled, smirked and said "Not in NH." and walked away. Even a pre-teen boy has enough sense to know that John Kerry isn't electable in places like NH against Bush. Kerry can't compete in any of the red states and if a 12 year old boy is smart enough to see it, why aren't Democrats?

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Saw it!

He's dead right though.

[KaraokeKarlton]

6. Yep, he is dead right

And Congratulations to Clark for his early wins. I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but I want to warn you not to get too confident over his early wins. He's the only one who campaigned in those two places. John Kerry's criminal brother Cameron was there trying to get people to vote for Kerry, which is the only reason he got 3 votes there. I'm glad Clark won there because it will hopefull take some wind out of Kerry's sails. Kerry won't fly nationally because he is far too liberal. Nominating him is political suicide.

Anyhow...the rest of NH could go any way, so keep things in perspective.

[krkaufman]

10. OT: Love your signature

"I'd also like to say that whatever it is that Howard Dean knows, or whatever it is that he eats for breakfast every morning, if I could give it to every other Democratic office holder and would-be office holder, we would immediately become the majority in the Congress and we would have about 35 governors. I have to tell you, I think a big part of it is just producing for people, actually doing what you say you're going to do at election time." - - - Bill Clinton, 12 November 1997

Seriously, love your signature. If Dean doesn't get the P, we need him to replace Terry McAuliffe as head of the DNC. Focus on policy & issues, not money; and get some backbone into the DNC.

"If you build it, they will come."

[bicentennial_baby]

12. Hey thanks!

I'm not going to get too hopeful, but being a lifelong New Englander, I know that it could end up any number of ways. Yeah, I saw Kerry's sleazy lookin bro there...didn't do him much good! Thanks for the congrats and Good Luck to the Dean camp! If nothing else, I'd love to see him trounce Kerry :P

ps- My mom says she saw a piece on either CNN or NECN this A.M. about the dirty tricks/phone calls against the Dean camp, and they attributed it to Kerry!

[bearfartinthewoods]

27. if you are going to take the wisdom of a 12 yr old as gospel

i have two 14yr old twins here that say dean is "as wacko as jacko".

[Kahuna]

30. And? Out of the mouths of babes,,,

:evilgrin:

[peaceandjustice]

2. or a 12-year old kid is parroting some swill...

he heard from his conservative dad or mom.

We can beat Bush with Dean, Kerry, Edwards, or Clark. I'd prefer Dean but they are all electable.

[KaraokeKarlton]

9. Well, that boy is very typical of NH voters

And the kids are just as independent as the adults in rural New England. It's not necessarily true that his parents are Republicans, either.

[dno]

17. I dont agree!

I honestly don't think Kerry and Dean have a chance in hell to beat Bush. The southern states will not go for eather of them. How much more obvious could it be. Edwards is too young, I'd pick him for VP on a ticket with Clark. That's our best chance IMHO.

[OHdem10]

29. Good point, drio

If we are serious about winning this election we would have been smart enough to have coalesced early. I still would love to have seen what Dean could do in the South.I am not a Dean supporter.
Dean has that "tough " "give em hell" that just might have sold.
There is problem we have--for good or ill-- we are seen as a bunch of wussies. Dean is no wussie.

I am a Clark supporter so naturally I believe Clark was Bush"s worst nightmare. The efforts of the media to destroy him this week is clear evidence. As long as we continue to have the media select our leaders the Republicans win.

We have two who are not Wussies and the Media has done everything they can to take them down. The Corporate media look out for the Corporate Candidate and they are not above a little misleading.

[HFishbine]

3. I saw it too

I wanted the media guy to ask, "What about Lieberman?"

[XanaDUer]

4. I guess Dean cannot compete, even in his backyard...

I guess those independent swing voters are not so easy to call...considering he now ties with Joe Lieberman in Dixville Notch?


:eyes:

[KaraokeKarlton]

13. There were only two people trying to sway those votes up there

Wes Clark and felon brother of John Kerry, Cameron Kerry. Both were there to greet voters. If Kerry's brother hadn't of gone up there Kerry wouldn't have gotten any votes there at all. :shrug:

[janx]

34. John Kerry has a felon brother?

What did the guy do?

[KaraokeKarlton]

36. Trying to break into big brother's political opponents headquarters

It's been discussed here a bit before.

[w13rd0]

5. Are you trying to tell me...

...that the motorcycle thing on Leno and the hockey game didn't make Kerry look like the most electable man in the universe? Really, my enthusiasm knows no boundaries. Let's all rally round Kerry, because gosh golly, IT'S HIS TURN...

[mdmc]

8. Bush is God

to a 12 year old Republican in NH. What is your point?

[fertilizeonarbusto]

7. oh, for Pete's sake

Since when does some snotface know squat about politics? He'd probably say the same thing about Dean, Edwards, Clark or Jesus. I was a know-nothing, conservative Republican parrot at that age too.
I firmly believe that my cat could beat Bush by election time. And we better start thinking that if we want him beat. If you have any doubts two numbers for you: One trillion (dollar deficit) and 515 (dead Americans in Iraq). And these numbers will, tragically, only get bigger. Don't drink the media Kool-Aid (even if it';s handed out by twelve-year olds), folks. Chimp is toast.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Yes, what does the opinion of one kid

in a very conservative town mean? What do the opinions of 40 voters mean? In this case, it means that about 20% of the total voters (including the 11 who voted for Bush) in the town preferred Clark.

We won't know about the rest of the state until this evening.

[KaraokeKarlton]

19. Kerry would double the deficit if he keeps all his promises

How is he going to pay for all the things he's promising and still keep tax cuts? The ONLY way he can do what he says he will is if he makes the deficit even worse.

The kid is right. Just because you don't like what he said doesn't give you the right to call him names. Geesh.

[booksenkatz]

28. Don't forget the number 4 as well...

It's been said that the next prez may install as many as FOUR new Supreme Court justices. Four young Pickerings could very well affect the fabric of this country for 40+ years!
:scared:

[jsw_81]

14. Since when are 12 year-old boys experts on presidential politics?

When I was 12, I was planning to attend President Ross Perot's inauguration. It didn't happen.

[Nicholas_J]

15. Nah

One of the candidates supporter probably set it up because of the "Who's Unelectable?" Letter sent in to the Des Moines Register by a 12 year old girl in Iowa, about Kerry, after the caususes stating that Kerry was the only cnadidate who was electable.

Guess the kids in Iowa are better at math.

As is well proven, girls also are more mature at earlier ages
than boys.

Yeah thats it, more sour grapes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=178500

.

http://debateusa.com/featured/hull_richter.htm

Iowa: Who’s Unelectable Now?
By Natasha H. (age 12)

January 19th, 2004 was anything but a good day for Howard Dean. After being asked to leave a Martin Luther King celebration, Howard Dean placed the blame for the eviction squarely on the news media. What made this strange is that much of his success was owed to a news media that intentionally avoided covering other Democratic candidates who had led a more consistent opposition to Bush’s policies. After being twice placed on the covers of Newsweek and Time Magazine, after being the benefactor of ABC’s Ted Koppel’s attempt to turn a debate into the Howard Dean Show and after ABC and NBC pulled embedded reporters off coverage of other candidates who were more of a threat to George Bush, Howard Dean seemed to be turning on his closest allies, the media. As if the day couldn’t get any worse for Park Avenue Dean, whose popularity is largely based on his believed electability, the caucus goers of Iowa placed this media hit a distant third behind two of the candidates Dean had claimed were unelectable, John Kerry and John Edwards.

[oasis]

32. Natasha, a 12 year old genius, doesn't think Dean is electable?

[Mobius]

16. they are smart enough

The news lies, polls lie...Iowa PROVED that beyond a shadow of a doubt. I read something earlier today that said , "Kerry looks about as in touch as Boris Yelstin trying to Rock N' Roll".
I would like to put in my oneliner and say Kerry is about as hip as Abe Vagoda.

[Trajan]

18. Just because the rules allow fallacious appeals to emotion ...

Doesnt mean that should be expressed ....

Kerry is a good man .... Why denigrate him like this ? ...

This is more about ego than reality ...

Asking a child such an opinion: a child with NO experience in the wide world, shows to what lengths an 'adult' will stoop to gainsay others ...

Pitiful ...

[KaraokeKarlton]

20. The media guy was trying to get the kid to say Kerry can win

You could tell that in his voice. And he was clearly taken aback by the boy's reaction. He wasn't asked because they thought he's say what he did. He was asked because the media guy foolishly assumed he'd like Kerry. That's what makes it so damn funny. But hey, I'm a Vermonter who appreciates rural New England's opinionated kids, so it's all good.

[elixir]

21. Has anyone seen any results yet (except knoxville)?

[KaraokeKarlton]

22. That's Dixville Notch, not Knoxville

okay, off to work with me...later.

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. I guess this means Kerry loses the 12-year old Dixville Notch vote

I'm shivering right now, shivering, I tell you.

:scared:

:D

[fob]

24. I hate to rain on your unelectable rant but the facts say otherwise

In Dixville Notch there were 26 registered voters - 11 voted repuke and 15 voted Dem (8+3+2+1+1)

In the other small town there were 30 rv's - 13 voted repuke and 17 voted Dem (6+5+3+2+1)

So to summaraize, in back-woods, White mountain rural NH, which should be a repuke feeding ground, bush* is 14% BEHIND! Hell, if he gets HALF of the difference to swing his way it's still only a TIE!

Once our Nominee is declared we have a 57% to 43% lead in Dixville and the other small town(My apologies for not remembering the name, Lorton or
something like that)

MORAL OF THE STORY: Do not take your political advice from 12 year olds!

[cindyw]

25. I'd like to find that kid after we kick Bush's ass and wipe that smirk

off his face! Who's with me?

[seaglass]

26. Ignoring the extreme bitterness on display, the kid has one

thing right - NH is NOT going for a Democrat in the GE. I don't care who the Dem is.

[jsw_81]

35. I disagree completely

New Hampshire went handily for Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and Gore only lost there by a few points. Remember, this is New Hampshire we're talking about, not Mississippi.

[seaglass]

37. I know, I'm a MA resident and I don't think too highly of NH.

Remember they just elected a Repub governor, both Senators and Rep are Repubs and the state legislature are Repub. I travel to NH at least once a week, I know this is just my impression but I do think NH has been getting more conservative since 2000.

[Monument]

31. The boy said that because NH is a "RED STATE" - not due to Kerry

Although the demographics of NH are changing DRASTICALLY, especially since the last election, anybody in Dixville Notch would think of NH as being ridiculously conservative, and no way could ANY democrat be elected.

I don't think he was speaking about John Kerry in particular.

[incapsulated]

33. I agree

The State polling indicates high favorables in NH for Bush right now. Unless things change, I would call NH for Bush regardless of the Democratic nominee.