Does the "Torture Bill" mean that John Kerry shouldn't run in 2008?

[derby378]

Kerry's inconsistent and somewhat lackluster campaign helped ensure that Bush would hold on to the White House for another four years, which resulted in the Military Commissions Act.

Or is this statement completely and totally unfair? Is John Kerry the right man for the Presidency in 2008? Will he come out of the gate like a bolt out of the blue, and will a Kerry administration be just the medicine America needs?

What do you think?

[LSK]

1. Can we discuss this in 3 weeks and 1 day please???

:shrug:

[NewJeffCT]

4. Here here

I would support a ban on 2008 talk until the day after the election.

[nam78_two]

6. Correct as always

Thanks for the heaping dose of common sense :thumbsup:!

[saltpoint]

2. I would rather be a scientist or a teacher in John Kerry's America

than either in George Bush's.

Or a citizen. Or a world citizen.

I voted 'Run, Johnny, run.'

[nam78_two]

3. Yes it is ALL Kerry's fault!

and whatever isn't his fault is the fault of the anti-smoking Nazis or smokers (depending on who you talk to) and the rest of the Democrats can divide up whatever blame is left over!!!!

Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Condi and Chertoff ROCK -none of this had anything to do with them, Diebold or anything else :headbang: :headbang:


In fact I don't think any Democrat should ever run again-they all have something wrong with them. They are weak on one thing , or they joined some secret society 40 years ago and so on and so forth.
Democrats are torturers!

My 2 cents! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[ProSense]

5. There was nothing inconsistent or lackluster about the Kerry campaign

Kerry TV ads outpace Bush's

By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY

Sen. John Kerry's campaign and groups opposed to President Bush have run almost twice as many TV ads in closely contested states as the Bush-Cheney campaign. That is the opposite of what many political experts predicted before March, when Kerry emerged as the likely Democratic candidate for president.

The gap could grow by the July 26 start of the Democratic National Convention. This month, the Kerry campaign plans to spend $18 million on TV ads, outpacing the Bush campaign by about $10 million. Kerry's ads include the first one spotlighting his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. (Graphic: Ad spending)

"It was supposed to be 'poor John Kerry,' or 'poor Democrats, they'll be overwhelmed by a Bush money machine' " that would saturate 16 to 20 competitive states with TV ads, says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

USA TODAY obtained data collected by TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads. The data, covering 17 closely contested states from March 3 through June 26, show:

• The Kerry campaign's ads were shown 72,908 times, 3.1% more than the Bush-Cheney campaign's 70,688 showings.

• Political groups' ads were shown 56,627 times. All but 513 were ads by liberal, anti-Bush groups such as MoveOn PAC and The Media Fund. The others were by conservative groups.

Taken together, about 129,000 Kerry or anti-Bush ads were aired, 82% more than the Bush-Cheney total.

The 17 states used were Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-07-11-kerry-ads_x.htm

No single measure captures the extent of a presidential victory. The sheer number of voters that Bush inspired to turn out demonstrated impressive strength. But on several key indicators, Bush's victory ranks among the narrowest ever for a reelected president.

Measured as a share of the popular vote, Bush beat Kerry by just 2.9 percentage points: 51% to 48.1%. That's the smallest margin of victory for a reelected president since 1828.

The only previous incumbent who won a second term nearly so narrowly was Democrat Woodrow Wilson: In 1916, he beat Republican Charles E. Hughes by 3.1 percentage points. Apart from Truman in 1948 (whose winning margin was 4.5 percentage points), every other president elected to a second term since 1832 has at least doubled the margin that Bush had over Kerry.

In that 1916 election, Wilson won only 277 out of 531 electoral college votes. That makes Wilson the only reelected president in the past century who won with fewer electoral college votes than Bush's 286.

Measured another way, Bush won 53% of the 538 electoral college votes available this year. Of all the chief executives reelected since the 12th Amendment separated the vote for president and vice president -- a group that stretches back to Thomas Jefferson in 1804 -- only Wilson (at 52%) won a smaller share of the available electoral college votes. In the end, for all his gains, Bush carried just two states that he lost last time.

http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/8618.html

[nam78_two]

7. Yes but its so much more fun to quote some random

talking points.

Flip-flopper, halting speech, bad dress sense, didn't fight, skull and bones etc. etc.
Facts are boring...

[Dob Bole]

8. Kerry was my last primary pick in '04

I even considered voting for Sharpton before Kerry. Despite bringing nothing to the electoral table (except New Hampshire) he did well in 2004, and I wouldn't begrudge him another run. But he would still be one of my last primary picks in 2008, simply because it would be very difficult for him to win.

[razors edge]

9. I voted other

I supported and voted for kerry in 04 but something that happened election eve told me this ain't right.

Kerry came to Toledo Express airport, arriving about midnight. It was crowded in the hanger at the end of an access road about 3/4 mile long. We parked and walked the road in a cold rain and could not get inside, we waited outside the hanger and listened best we could Kerry and some local Dem's talking over an outside PA system. We stayed for the whole stop over, about 1 1/2 hours of soaking wet cold.

Thats when it got strange for me. As we walked back down the road there was no security, no police, no SS, nobody but supporters walking in clear view of his well lit jet, down a dark road 100 yards from the plane with nothing to the left but dark field as far as you could see.

Just as we were walking straight in front of the plane's stairs JK started up them. There was no police presence on that road or any where near that area. We all stopped to watch him board and cheer him, but as a former marine the zone was just too damn open for a nut to do something. Even my former army girlfriend said to me as he climber the stairs "someone could pick him off right there."

Don't ask me what that all means, but when he conceded quickly it just felt like a show.



:hide:

[politicasista]

10. Hey look, let's play Trash Democrats Underground

Yawn. :boring: