We need someone to lead the Dem's?!

[gizmo1979]

people need to be fired.I mean come on,Bush spies on us,leaks information about a spy,half of congress is involved in scandal,medicare drug plan is a disaster,he lied to go to war,the budget deficit is at all time highs,ditto for the trade deficit.What more do you need to bury a guy or party?We need someone who can use this to our advantage instead of every time our people open their mouths the other guys poll numbers go up.I like Howard Dean but he doesn't have the support.I like Al Gore but he doesn't have it or he would have killed Bush in 2000.We need a leader!We need a democrat who has a clue.

[neverevergivein]

1. If Howard Dean ran again, he'd have the support

Just keep Kerry and Gephardt honest in Iowa

[OneBlueSky]

2. I think Al Gore has grown a lot since 2000 . . .

he'd be my choice to rebut the SOTU address . . . but the Dems would never let him, which tells me all I need to know about the Dems as a party at this point in time . . .

[gizmo1979]

3. He did his big speech

and it had no effect on Bush and the boys.They are talking to the base,we've got the base,we need the independents.

[welshTerrier2]

5. Gore's speech was not partisan ...

he quoted Bob Barr and talked about how both Dems and republicans have failed to check bush's power grab in the Congress ...

to suggest that he was only talking to "the base" and fail to recognize he was reaching out to independents as well could only come from someone who did not watch the speech ...

[gizmo1979]

9. Who was listening?

Do you think his speech helpped the cause any?Maybe I'm wrong but I didn't see it resonating beyond people like us,the base.If it did that would be very encouraging to me,but I don't see it.If Bill Clinton gave that same speech then it would resonate.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Yes. I think the speech helped a GREAT DEAL.

Bill Clinton, bless his heart, is too busy playing kissy-face with Poppy and gearing up for Hillary's 2008 run. While he was the best President of MY lifetime, I don't expect him to start rocking the boat any time soon.

Al Gore is the rightful leader of our party, if he chooses to accept it. He has moral clarity on the subject of Iraq, he's smart, he's capable, and he understands that the number one security issue facing humanity in the coming century is the Environment.

In case you haven't noticed, the press doesn't give our people or our side ANY coverage. That has nothing to do with the caliber of the speaker. They only want corporate media-approved voices getting out on their high priced airwaves- which means we get to hear from the Feinsteins, the Hillarys, the blow-dried blowhards like Biden. REAL dissent is certainly not going to show up on your cable news channels... at least until things change.

Whether Gore steps up to the plate is another matter, but I think if he continues to speak out, the media will be forced to pay attention.

[gizmo1979]

18. Maybe I judged to hastily

I hope you're right.

[leeroysphitz]

7. I don't know about all that....

The republican base DOES NOT vote for democrats. It's anathema to them, it's unthinkable. It's like having inappropriate thoughts about a close relative to them. They just don't do it in any significant numbers.

Democrats, on the other hand, being, in my opinion, more open minded end up voting for repukes all the damn time. We've seen it: Nixon, Raygun, and BushII.
It happens. It just does. This is why I agree with the OP. We, as a party and as a movement, really need fresh NEW voices that will actually LEAD. People who will be "out in front" of their constituents not always obsessing over polls.

But what do I know.

[leftofthedial]

4. I think a figurehed "leader" is less important than lockstep organization

the real "leaders" of the repukes are unelected ideologues like Norquist, think tank fascists, etc. They have an organization that almost immediately develops talking points and gets all their media whores, talking heads, politicians, etc. in lockstep.

[gizmo1979]

6. I think you may have something there.

That goes to Dean not having the support of the democrats.They go off in 50 different directions.

[leftofthedial]

12. it dooms them to failure

when I get emails from Kerry and Dean and Reid and whomever on the issue du jour, it almost strikes me that they are pre-campaigning against one another and other Dems in Nov or 2008 than that they are in opposition to the fascist corrupt criminal repukes.

[astonamous]

8. The Sky Is Falling...

The dems are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. No leadership, no direction and no plan. It's getting to be an old story. They are over thinking all the issues. I don't have all the answers and I don't expect someone else to have them all, but if someone would just speak their mind and say, "F*ck it" to special interest groups and big corporate lobbyists, the American people would sit up and listen.

I'm sick and tired of not counting in this country because I can't afford to pay off the politicians to get what I want. I don't think my demands are that much different than most Americans.

Trudy

[gizmo1979]

10. I'm not the only one then!

Yeah.I got so pissed yesterday when they hammered Hillary and the mayor for what they had said and how Bush is gaining in the polls.People don't understand what the spying on your own people means.They think I have nothing to fear so go ahead,They don't understand the slippery slope to the loss of civil rights.

[astonamous]

16. And have you noticed when trying to explain it to those that don't

get it, they repeat like a parrot..."We haven't been attacked again...Boosh is protecting us". And it happens every day for me here in Utah. In fact even from my Democratic Representative.

Trudy

[gizmo1979]

22. Makes me want to throw up.

[Marleyb]

11. how about these two

[gizmo1979]

13. That'll never work.

way to far left.I like them both but we need someone who has the vision to unite the whole party.

[xiamiam]

14. gore..n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Why don't you just come out and tell us what it is you're proposing.

You've got a laundry list of people you don't like, mostly because they're allegedly "too far left". :crazy:

(As if the people in this country have even been offered the OPTION of voting for someone presenting real alternatives on things like health coverage and the war)

So, what do you have in mind?

[gizmo1979]

19. You miss my point

I love all the people I have talked about,but they are not doing the job.We should be crushing the repugs right now.We should be able to use their crimes to get some of our agenda passed,and that's not happening.It was suggested we have too many folks with different agendas.We need a unifying force someone who can lead.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. You know what's interesting, though?

Because I hear what you're saying. And I open the opinion page on my so-called "liberal" newspaper, and it's full of right-wing voices gleefully chirping about how the Democratic Party is in "disarray" ... (nevermind the fact that the GOP is under indictment) ... like you say, we're being 'crushed' .. and I got to thinking - where do they get this analysis? What objective truth does it contain? I mean, the last MAJOR elections were in 2004. The presidential split, even with widespread fraud and theft on the part of the GOP, was 51%-49%. Somehow this was translated into a mandate and a massive ideological defeat for all propositions democratic, of course.. But then, in every race up for grabs in '05, we won as well.. Why can't we get our agenda passed? Well, we don't control congress, nor do we control the committees and whatnot. And we've got a media that is repeating these big lies about what sad-sack, sorry, agendaless losers we are.

I still think Al Gore is a good choice for a powerful voice in the party. I think Howard Dean, whenever they let him on tv, does a bang-up job (his retort to Wolf Blitzer a week or two ago, when ol' Leslie kept trying to say that Abramoff was a Democratic Scandal as well as a Republican one, was nothing short of beautiful).. Even John Kerry has been throwing some knockout punches lately. But the media, as always, wants to paint the party as a bunch of on-the-run pantywaists. The media, and these big, oft-repeated lies, are the problem. I think our party is solid --- and our ideas are even more so.

[gizmo1979]

21. I agree media is a

big problem.I'm looking for the guy smart enough to manipulate the media to our advantage.I was at a Feingold listening session today and he stated they have the votes to overturn medicare plan D,but they can't get a vote.So the few that are in power truly hold the strings.He doesn't expect things to get better unless we win the election in 06.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. I agree.

And Sen. Feingold is one of the best voices in our party. I'll follow Russ wherever he wants to go.