We can't let all the good things that happened to go to waste.  The blogs, the 527s, they need to be supported and be more active than ever.

The stakes are high, and we have to take the long view.  The march of one thousand miles begins with a single step.

I will always contend that the Democratic Party SHOULD have nominated Wesley Clark since this battle largely became about Iraq and security. A former Supreme Commander of NATO, unquestionable military service, tons of charisma, plus from the South would have gone a long way toward winning. Kerry's big mistake was picking John Edwards (sorry I like him too) but Gephardt should have been the pick. This battle was in the Midwest, Gephardt's home country, Hell maybe Gep should have been the nominee. While he has a progressive voting record he has a moderate image and is from Missouri which turned out a little closer than some predicted. Could have been won. So yes I believe nominating Kerry was a mistake but picking Edwards was as well. This is just my reflection on everything. We must start NOW lobbying to get a REAL Democrat into the Senate leaders job. I say NO to Harry Reid, we need a pit bull from a Blue state. I agree it should be Dick Durbin of Illinois. Let Reid stay where he is at number 2. The fight is now engaged for 2008 and I bet Hillary Clinton is on the phone right now lining up donors, like it or not she will be the frontrunner and will likely now emerge as the new leader of the Democratic Party. Who will be able to rise up and challenge her? She will have unlimited money and a huge base of support among African Americans and women. Who I ask? If Dean could not defeat Kerry could he really beat the Clintons?

Libertarianism is a strong argument against war, against the religious right and would resonate with the current American voter.

It is a hard transition in some economic areas, but many people consider themselves fiscally conservative and socially liberal. It means a turn away from the far left and socialist ideas. The "Two Americas" speech doesn't carry much weight in a successful country like the US.

Badnarik earned nearly 400,000 votes last night, close or more than Nadar! Think about it. I see the DNC going this direction and it would be good for the Nation we all love.

And every candidate who has attempted to be a more palatable version of what we think the public will go for, realtive to what the GOP presents, we lose.

Gephardt, Daschle, Keery, etc.

Even if Dean has lost every state then at least people would know what we stood for.

The seoond point is that we have to get our message to the public and stop just communicating amongst ourselves.

Dean is the energy we want, and some of the ideas, but not the message and the framing.

We have to convince the country that:

1. Bush's policies have been harmful
   
2. The Dems will do better (this part never took with the public)

Dean can't change the system if he's part of it.  He's much more effective agitating from the outside.  If the establishment couldn't stomach him as a presidential candidate, they won't accept him as DNC chair.

The only way I want to see McAwful is strung up on a tree.  He was such a miserable failure as DNC chair (except in fundraising) that I would rather see him gone from the scene.

Several things we need to reject:

1. We lost because we are too liberal on economic issues;
   
2. We lost because Americans really want to limit a woman's right to choose;
   
3. We lost because Americans really don't believe gays and lesbians should have the right to marry;
   
4. We lost because we are too soft on security;
   
5. We lost because Kerry and Democrats were too mean to Republicans.

1. When we stand up and fight for our principles, we do better;
   
2. The public really does not want to carve up social security;
   
3. Americans support a woman's right to choose;
   
4. Though it is an imperfect compromise, Americans will support civil union;
   
5. We need to constantly and at every opportunity call the Republicans on the incredible horseshit they purvey.

It was amazing how the Republicans were able to brand us as the *say anything* group.

Huh?

2008 is going to be an up-and-comer election on both sides.  It will look a lot like 1992.

http://www.house.gov/ford/biography.htm

Harold Ford, Jr.  Young, southern, good-looking.  Very young, but an EXCELLENT SPEAKER.

Allegedly black -- perhaps a light-skinned black from TN wouldn't scare the GOP'ers so much.

Just a thought.

    http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2109079&

I don't necessarily agree with the second premise that the author puts forward, though - that John Edwards is ready for prime time.  But it does seem that Americans have lost their ability to understand nuanced discussions about complex political and policy issues.

Four more years of poorly conceived, haphazardly executed governmental foreign and domestic policies, driven primarily by a religious ideology rather than rational thought and real-world evidence.

It's just so, so sad....

Wrt the next election, I have little doubt that the Reps are going to nominate John McCain in 2008.  All that posturing he did earlier this year was meant to do two things, in my estimation.  1. Show that he has a LOT of support and respect on both sides of the aisle and 2. Scare the Rep leadership into cutting a back-room deal in which he becomes the presumptive Rep nominee.  He would be a fine candidate to represent the Rep platform (much, much better than Dubya).

So, that leaves the question of what the Dems should do so that we, the American people, can have a decent race.  To be viable, the Dem candidate has to be from the South, has to come from a "Red" state, can't have been a legislator, can't have been a lawyer.  Has to be smart, and yet able to deliver a simple message.  Has to show that s/he can work with both sides of the aisle. Bonus:  s/he should have success in business endeavors to point to, to court the all-too-important business lobby.  Believe it or not, there actually is one man who meets these criteria.

I nominate...

JOHN WARNER FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008!

Even though I'm an Independent, I'm starting the grass-roots movement.  You heard it here first!  Spread that around... GRYNN

Someone is going to have to throw a chop block at Hilliary, though.  No doubt she's setting up to run in 2008.  Her problem is that, regardless of the validity of her political beliefs and policy platform, she has NO chance in breaking into the Red states, given how polarizing a view those regions have of Bill's presidency.  Given that, I don't that that she could even be a viable VP selection.

Warner v McCain in 2008.  That would be a fantastic contest...

---anactofgod---

"One thing that is very strange is how much the exit polls differed from the final results, especially in Ohio. Remember that Ohio uses Diebold voting machines in many areas. These machines have no paper trail. Early in the campaign, Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell, a GOP fundraiser, promised to deliver Ohio to Bush. He later regretted having said that"

This, from  http://electoral-vote.com/ and http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm

This election could very easily have been rigged.

I don't really care who the DNC chairman is, but the one, single most important thing the Democrats do is build and maintain alliances and relationships with the non-Democrats who've had the courage to show up on our side.  I'm talking Republicans, retired military brass, retired diplomats, economists, and essentially everyone who ever had the courage to stand up to W. and call him out.  Because when the hysteria subsides, and the American people realize what they've done to their country, they'll want to come back to the center.  And they will find us there.  

But now I felt I must speak my mind.  WE LOST FAIR AND SQUARE.  I know hisis hard to swallow, and yes there may have been some unhonest/immoral tactics used to supress voter registration. But for the most part, the election went off with out a hitch.  Now the real read I joined the fray.

1. We deluded ourselves into thinking registration = votes. One man at my company said "If you have to go and know on someone's door to get them to register, chances are they are just signing the paper to get rid of you and they aren't going to wait (in the rain) fr four hours to vote.   There is some true in this.

2. We were loking for the 18-24 old to come out in record numbers and they didn't.  They never have and we need to find a way to get them involved. It is the same for the GOP with the Latino Voters, they have been saying for many years if the come out...

3.  Many of you can crusify me for saing this, but that is ok.  I think it may be time for the Dems to go there seperate ways.  You can't be everthing to all people.  I have thought for years that the moderates in both parties shoud form their own centrist party.  Think of all the old fasions Rockerfeller Repubs that are being forced to the fringe of the GOP (Guliani, Pataki, Weld, Arnold,specter, chaffe, snowe), now think of all our guys who are right next to them or in the middle of the road (jefford, Kerry, Bill Bradley, Edwards, Gore) You get the picture.  Barak might just be the future ut he may not, How well would he have match up with the Repub guy if the Skeleton's didn't fall out from his cloest(or were dragged out).  Ask yourself would he have still won??

If there was a centrist party of moderates on from both sides, I tink they could stop the radical from pushing their agenda down the rest of our throats.

3.  Don't worry, they way things are going, Bush and his cronies will continue as they have for the past three years and keep pushing this country to the right.  There will be a backlash.  After 8 yrs of fear, lies, inudendo and cronism, the people will be fed up with it all, just like the last time, they will be looking for US (the DEMs) to bail them out and fix all the problems they have created.  If they don't reach out across the ailse(and they won't for at least 2 yrs, why should they they don't need us) they will much things up so bad, we will sweep the whitehouse and both houses.

Just my thought, we need to hand tough. It is going to be a rought four years, but they will muck things up so bad no repub could get elected.

Ken

PS. Sorry I wan't able to check my Spelling.

And how could Kerry win all the final Florida polls and even the exit polling on election day and still get trounced as he did?  It's why I don't trust those damn machines.

Start supporting good organizations that really kick some ass like Operation Truth (www.optruth.org) Move on and others.

This is Idea #1 -  All other ideas need to be considered in light of how they fit into Idea #1.

This is the most powerful ideology on the face of the earth.  It is why my great-great grandparents took steerage from the Pale of Settlement to Ellis Island.  It's why countless Irish and Italians came here in the 19th century.  It's why countless Hispanics and Asians are coming here today.  It is a uniting message.  It is a moral message.

National Security and Homeland Defense is all about the physical defense of the American Dream.  Part of it is valuing the service of the American military and not sending it on fool's errands or poorly conceived missions with no strategy for success.

Education is the cornerstone of the American Dream.  Every child of every race in every neighborhood must have access to a safe school where he/she can gain the knowledge and skills to succeed.  Teachers become teachers because they want to facilitate this Dream.  We need to engage with the Teachers' Unions so that they see our demands for excellence as reenforcing their message.

Law and order is a precondition for the
American Dream.  When a mother cannot allow her children to play outside because violent drug thugs have taken over the playgrounds and courtyards, she is watching the Dream die a small death each day.  When good people fear to walk the streets at night, they are prisoners in their own homes.  When suburbanites fear the cities, they divorce their Dreams from the Dreams of the inner city.  We are one nation and we must be united.

Raising the minimum wage is the lifeblood of the American Dream.  Work must be a pathway to a better life.  We should always be making this argument.  The Republicans take the "minimum wage is evil" argument as an article of faith.  THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE AND REJECT REPUBLICAN ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT. If the minimum wage has not been raised in a year, it's time to raise it again.

Unions are a pathway to the American Dream.  One person on his/her own, can do his/her job.  That person cannot take on the full time job of interacting with the powers that be, negotiating wages, safe working conditions, job security and learning about new skills that must be absorbed.  The union movement represents the American worker.  Let's take the success of the Las Vegas hotel workers union as a model to be spread across the country.  Progressive politicians should direct training and community college access to union outreach.  It works and it creates community.

Protection of the environment is about handing a world to the next generation that is cleaner than what we have been handed.  Use the Boy Scout mantra that we should leave our campsite cleaner than we found it.  We need to encompass hunters within the environmental movement.  When we cast them aside, they vote against us.  We need to make brownfields a salient issue for the working class.  GOP "law and economics" types should not be allowed to make the argument that a tumor in a poor person is less (economically) harmful than a tumor in a rich person without paying the electoral price.  Where the GOP has gone off into ideology, we must hold them to account.

We are the party of the American Dream.  We need to communicate that message simply and sincerely.  It was the genius of Bill Clinton.  

They don't care if your son dies in a foreign land so they can drive their SUV.
They don't care if your parents loose their home after they retire as long as they can have the S.S. money to buy the next Internet IPO.
They don't care if you get sick and die because you can't afford to buy medicine.
They don't care if America has to default on it's debt so they can have an extra $20 a month to buy the HBO package with their cable.

And Karl Rove know's how to handle the Ignorant.
You don't talk about issues, or try to reason with them, you play to their emotions.  Make them fear, make them want, and make them believe your opponent has no character and can't be trusted.

We now need a scorched earth policy.  The ignorant must suffer before they're ready to come around.  Let S.S. die, let their sons and daughters get drafted, let their jobs move overseas.  Only after the Bush depression will they fight the brainwashing efforts that the Repugs have so deliberately mastered.

It's not the candidates, it's not the issues, it's not the makeup of the Dem party.  We live in a society where far too many people have a value system that stretches the line from the Taliban to Attila the Hun.

What's the NY-25?  Whatever will cause the man to disappear, I'm for that.

As for Karl Rove, evil people, and extreme ignorance, don't forget we have to find a language to communicate with and persuade all those "ignorants" and we'd better start creating it now. 23 1/2 months until mid-terms, folks.

clark/obama 2008

I also agree about law and order.  For years we Dems were weak on crime, but I think voters are pretty comfortable with us on crime now.

I disagree on teachers' unions.  I think we should support school vouchers at least for poor inner-city children.  I don't want vouchers to be handed out so middle class kids can get out of public education, but we owe it to those less fotunate to give them a better opportunity to succeed.  To the extent the teachers have resisted vouchers in all forms, they need to be pushed aside.

We also need to get serious on foreign policy issues.  Until the very end, we Dems didn't take those issues as seriously as most Americans.  I think we've made big steps, but we have to continue to argue that Iraq made us less safe without appearing that we aren't committing to destroying Islamic fundamnetalistm in all its forms.  The fact is it is liberals who should be in front of the fight against societies that subjugate women and stifle religious and political dissent.  

We should become the balanced budget party.  The Reps have given away their claims to be the fiscally disciplined parties.  Let's roll back the tax cut, but instead of spending on new programs, let's pay off the debt.  We should have won big on this issue, but we didn't because Kerry decided to tell people he would use most of the savings from the tax cut on a health plan.  I'm not against the health plan, but our first focus should be the deficit.

We need to quit being pussies on gay rights.  Kerry totally wussed out on the issue.  The result was that he still didn't get support from folks who are against gay rights, but he also alienated people who support gay rights with his cowardly position.  Dems should support equal rights, including marriage, for all Amercians.

We need to distance ourselves from the Hollywood/Michael Moore crowd.  Those people alienate and scare most people.  Kerry tried to look moderate, but it's hard to sell that when a guy who did a manipulative, misleading piece of shit like F9/11 is your biggest fan.  We don't need schlop like that to get fired up.  The truth of the Bush presidency should have been plenty.

We need to contest EVERY STATE, even if we can't always win.  Bush had 200 EV's before a vote was cast.  That's embarrassing.

well, maybe not.

I think we need a charismatic, white, male, moderate, christian veteran from a red state.  Supreme Commander Clark is still probably the best choice.  Who ever it is, I hope we can decide as a party on a presumptive candidate early, and work aggressively to prevent the GOP spin machine from defining whoever it is.  

We are already learning the GOP's tricks : )!  So how cynical I am?

We Dems already saw Clark this past primary season and rejected him.  Nonetheless, I'm sure there's someone out there that can win for us.

Also, I don't think Hilliary is so bad.  I think she can get her negatives down enough to win, and she's a saavy politician.

Edwards is overrated, a lightweight.  

We embraced 527s, Michael Moore  to skirt the campaign fianance laws and these people sucked up our money and then failed miserably. Adding up the $ these 527s spent  we had a tremendous $ advantage and still lost by almost 4 million votes. Soros spent like a drunken sailor in OH and it just hurt us.

We think we are intellectually superior and can't explain our own postions, Hell whent hey released the Militray IQ test of Kerry and Bush Bushe wa shigher and Kerry mutters is was because he went out drinkng the night before instead of just letting it go or saying that IQ is not the measure of a man.

Then we were stupid enough to think that if we brought out rock and roll stars and other celebrities that it would help.

Get the nut cases out-purge them- let them reform the Whig Party or the Democratic party will go the way of the Whigs

Motto: Go for the real thing

Maybe Trippi should be the one to run the DNC, the Democratic party is stuck in the 60's with it's social ideas. We need fresh and new ideas.

This problem goes far beyond finding an appropriate candidate, although I appreciate Chris's identification of Terry as a good one.

Walsh is Chairman of the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, so he brings tons of pork home to an Upstate NY area with a dying economy.  Who in his right mind is going to give up that kind of representation for any freshman member, no matter how much you may agree with his views?

Working in a Senator's office has sickened me when I see how these pockets of power affect the ability of Americans to reach the right people and affect change in the issue areas they care about.  If you live in New York and are concerned about Social Security, you might call Senator Clinton or Senator Schumer.  They'll tell you that they're not on the Senate Finance Committee and therefore are not exactly being consulted on Social Security reform.  Try calling someone on the Finance Committee, and they'll tell you you're not their constituent and that you should call Hillary or Chuck.

I understand that members of Congress need to represent local interests, but the committee structure SHOULD demand that committee members acknowledge a national constituency when dealing with committee-related issues.

But that's not the case today.  Jim Walsh disproportionately looks out for Syracuse when giving out appropriations money.  If Syracuse loses Walsh, they lose the only pull they have in federal government, and whoever replaces him as chairman will surely ignore Upstate NY.  

With this kind of system, why would we ever oust a member with seniority?  

And how the HELL did Tom Daschle lose?