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Edited on Sun Sep-09-07 11:43 AM by Mythsaje
People weren't kidding when they said it got rough in here. Got myself seriously stung yesterday and I was SERIOUSLY hot under the collar when I left for work.
I don't like it when people put words in my mouth, or ascribe to me motivations that aren't mine. It's a cheap trick and I shouldn't be surprised that some DUers will do it.
That said, I'm going to now sit here and spend the next several minutes eviscerating ALL of the serious candidates. I've had JE's negatives thrown in my face with such aggressive joy, I figure it's about time I returned the favor.
Some of you may notice that I've changed my avatar. Not because I have changed my candidate, but because I have come to believe that there are those who'd immediately choose to discount what you have to say because of who they think you represent.
I ain't playing that. I've chosen the yin/yang symbol because it comes closest to representing my belief system of any symbol that now exists. Before switching to the Edwards '08 avatar I was running the Jolly Roger, which just cracked me up.
But I digress.
Let's start with Edwards. My chosen candidate. No, I don't like the fact that he co-wrote the IWR. I'm also not crazy about the huge house. Couldn't care less about the haircut. Despite the fact that his voting record in congress has, in general, been very progressive, he's voted the wrong way on more than one occasion with regards to some very important issues. Of course, without research, I can't determine one way or another if there were provisions of these bills that made it seem like a good idea at the time.
I'm not going to spend all day defending him or his record. The fact is that he is saying some very important things that America needs to hear and I'd like to see him and his ideas get more national attention. I don't personally think he's a hypocrite as much as someone who has realized over time exactly how bad the neo-con agenda really is, and how our economic policies are not only unsustainable, but eminently destructive to America.
If he gets the nomination, he's going to be speaking to America as a whole about his vision, much of which I share. He sees how dangerous the status quo is and isn't shrinking from telling people about it. He's saying some very important things in ways that don't make him sound like a crazy person or a far-leftist ideologue. Which means he can reach people who would never have imagined voting for a Democrat. Particularly now, when things are as obviously bad as they are that even the generally uninformed are seeing it.
Obama strikes me as dangerously naive. I don't like his choice of friends. I don't like the fact that he thinks it's possible to work in concert with people who've made it very clear that they'd like nothing more than to wipe us off the face of the Earth. I think "decorum" is greatly overrated when it contributes to the kind of atmosphere where pretty lies hide some very ugly truths. Where the expectation of being what they'd consider civil ONLY applies to Democrats, and speaking the truth out loud brings blistering attacks from the media, the Republicans, AND some Democratic Party factions. Then, after all this, when the truth-teller is then forced to apologize, they are then attacked by left-leaning bloggers and people here on DU.
I'm looking for a candidate that is willing and able to deal with ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. I don't want someone who wants to work together with the very people who've been systematically trying to dismantle our Constitution. I don't want a President seeking and thinking he can achieve an accord with people who are smiling broadly while sharpening their knives under the table, just waiting for the chance to plunge them into our backs.
I think he's an honorable, decent guy. And that he thinks that he's dealing with other people who are honorable, decent folk. I'm not precisely sure HOW he's come to that conclusion, considering the past several years, but there are a lot of things that happen way up there that we don't understand. I wouldn't mind at all if he were elected...but I don't think he'd be ready for what they'd do to him the first time he stepped wrong. They'd hound him as bad as they did Bill Clinton and it would get ugly fast.
Or so I perceive it.
I don't trust Clinton. I think she's more or less signed on with the neocon policy positions with regard to many of the foreign and domestic agendas. Her major bitch with the Iraq war seems to be that they did it all wrong, not that it happened in the first place. Not that Congress and the American people were lied to, and the fact that American soldiers and Iraqi citizens have died for nothing but Bush's ambitions. I don't like the fact that she's buddy-buddy with insurance lobbyists, and pharma lobbyists, and pretty much all of the same lobbyists who've practically been living in the White House for the last several years.
She's a status quo, don't-need-to-change-anything-important kind of candidate. Given a Democratic congress, she wouldn't block progressive legislation, but she'd do very little to bring it to fruition on her own. She couldn't afford to take those kinds of risks. She's thrown her lot in with the wolves. (No insult to wolves intended).
Despite the fact that a lot of people here think Kucinich is the "truth" candidate, the fact is that a lot of people here think he's a new age kook. His overall poll numbers suck and despite the fact that I agree with the majority of his positions, there is NO way he could beat back both the media blitz that would herald his candidacy AND the Republican candidates. After eight years of "terror-terror-terror all-day-every-day" the vast majority of Americans are NOT ready for a touchy-feely, "let's-hold-hands-and-envision-peace" candidate. It's just not happening. Americans need to feel as though they'll be protected and there's no way Kucinich will give them that.
There's only one candidate who's got a proven track record of taking on the powerful in this country and coming out on top. There's only one candidate who is saying the things America desperately needs to hear in a way that makes sense to the average person. There's only one candidate who is consistently sticking by his guns, answering back the Republicans every time they shoot off their mouths, and not bending to the prevailing political winds despite the fact that he's still polling far behind the other two "top tier" candidates.
He's been referred to as "smarmy" and "opportunistic" by several people here. But I have also noticed that he isn't changing his overall message despite his poll numbers. He's still saying the same things, and saying them well. And he's reaching people who wouldn't ordinarily give a Democrat the time of day. Because his message resonates.
So, yeah, I still support Edwards. I think he's the best choice and, when it comes right down to it, he's the ONLY choice...for me.
Your mileage may vary.
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