Why is Tom Daschle getting so much attention?

by enthusiast, Tue Aug 19, 2008 at 05:15:44 PM EDT

Daschle was a pure, unadulterated disaster as Senate Majority Leader.  Under Daschle, the Dems gradually lost their majority.  Previous majority leaders were men we could all admire.  Daschle was an ineffective wimp, in the eyes of many, Dems as well as Indys and Republicans.  

Whenever I would see Daschle on TV, I would cringe.  He has the wimpiest sounding voice, and has no backbone.  I was ashamed to be represented by someone with his (lack of) stature.  Him and Gephardt were the two most ineffective Democratic leaders in several generations.

So now, when I see Obama's campaign flailing around and losing ground steadily in the polls, and now, when I see no backbone in the campaign, I start to realize that this might be Tom Daschle's wimpiness coming back to destroy our electoral chances once again.

Tags: Daschle, obama (all tags)

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25 Comments

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he was the first senate leader in a long time

to lose his seat, to fucking John Thune. He is nothing but a loser. Its just that he's amongst the Democrats jealous of the Clintons, mainly made up of those Democrats who wanted to be successful who never got to be like John Kerry and Bill Bradley. Clinton-haters are treated like Gods in todays media.

by Lakrosse 2008-08-19 05:25PM | 0 recs
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Re: he was the first senate leader in a long time

George Mitchell was Daschle's predecessor. I like Daschle personally, but I didn't see him as a strong leader.

(Mitchell lost re-election in 1994)

by molly bloom 2008-08-20 06:29AM | 0 recs
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Re: Why is Tom Daschle getting so much attention?

Daschle was a really decent and honest man but frankly he was kind of a weak Senate Majority Leader.  

John Thune is the opposite and the biggest empty suit i have even seen.

david

by giusd 2008-08-19 05:28PM | 0 recs
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sounds like Thune is a corrupt blowhard?

a bloviating ignoramus?

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 05:41PM | 0 recs
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Re: sounds like Thune is a corrupt blowhard?

Same as Saxby, yet no one spits venom at Cleeland for losing around the same time? Daschle wasn't that effective because he took the fall for Democratic failures in some ways, he took the fall for his own failure of leadership in others. I do like the "Democrats" in here that feel the need to attack almost everyone in the Democratic party, it's an interesting phenomenon.

by Dog Chains 2008-08-19 05:48PM | 0 recs
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Bloviating repugs.

The Republicans in the Senate and House are almost all bloviating bastardly buffoons.

Obama is a political genius, and he made Hillary look a bit like an amateur.

In general, I don't have much respect for the blue dog crowd, which seems to make up almost half of the Dems in the Senate.  Collectively, the Dems have been tremendously ineffective.

Tom Daschle's response to Republican shenanigans was always that "he believed in good government."

That's what we're doing again - making the same blasted mistake.  We believe in good government, so we're the good boys, and meanwhile the bad  guys are stealing our lunch and our girlfriends, knocking down our mailboxes with baseball bats.

oh yes, we believe in good government.

Casper Milquetoast - Tom Daschle (soulmates)

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 05:57PM | 0 recs
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Re: Gephardt Rocks

You're definitely spot on about Daschle. I can feel electoral votes slipping away when I hear his name. Gephardt is a truly decent man. He was taken down by Pugs, not Clinton however. When you are that sincere and committed to real progress for American workers, Pugs rip you to shreads. I don't think Americans understand a man of his loyalty or generosity anymore. He got punked by Bush/Cheney, however, for actually believing they cared about America. Remember how much respect and support the world had for us afater 9/11. It took the Pugs no time to exploit that for their own selfish reasons. They even punked Powell.

by Jeter 2008-08-19 05:32PM | 0 recs
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Gephardt BIG supporter of Iraq War !

and Gephardt was the most ineffective Speaker I have seen, going back to the 1960s.

He basically gave Bush permission, appearing with him on TV at a crucial moment, to support the Iraq invasion.

Oh, he said Bush should try to get permission from the U.N., but everybody could see that it was just a kind of political loincloth.

Bush ignored the U.N., and Gephardt totally gave him permission, covered his backside.

Gephardt was just a horrible leader - he lost House members in every election for many years in a row.  It was no surprise that he came in about 8th when he ran for President, even in Iowa, which is right next to his home state of MO.

Nancy Pelosi is 10 times better than Gephardt was on his good days.  At least she has cojones!

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 05:40PM | 0 recs
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She has no cojones

literally, or figuratively

by sepulvedaj3 2008-08-20 07:11AM | 0 recs
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Because he was one of Obama's early supporters

by ann0nymous 2008-08-19 05:37PM | 0 recs
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Because he's hoping Obama will chose him as

VP - I couldn't believe that he thought he had a chance of winning the nomination and thought about running after losing the senate twice!

by suzieg 2008-08-20 01:24AM | 0 recs
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Re: Why is Tom Daschle getting so much attention?

Probably because Daschle's staff have a lot of power in Obama's campaign. A recent article in the American Prospect has the run-down. I've met both Daschle and Gephardt a couple times, and my impression and their reputation is that they are very decent people. Daschle is very sharp within the Democratic party, but no, I wouldn't rate him highly on his ability to out-strategize Republicans.

But this is what happens when you turn your campaign over to a bunch of DC insiders, you get an ineffective DC insider campaign. Good at Democratic primary strategy, not so great at general election strategy.

by souvarine 2008-08-19 05:41PM | 0 recs
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You have confirmed my worst nightmares!

but thanks for the dose of reality.

so it is the Daschle group who is running this thing into the ground...

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 05:43PM | 0 recs
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Re: You have confirmed my worst nightmares!

It amazes me that people are this dissilussioned with a campaign that hasn't even officially started yet. let's give them until a few weeks after the convention before taping up the windows and doors preparing for the hurricane?

by Dog Chains 2008-08-19 05:50PM | 0 recs
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Some people can spot a trend,

and some can't.

It's like in the stock market, you have to see the trend and change your allocations before anyone else sees the trend, or YOU TAKE A BATH.

Some can read the handwriting on the wall, and others have their heads in the sand.

Listen, by mid-September, when McCain is ahead by 5%, it will be too late.

It's almost too late now.  If we don't change the momentum soon, we're toast.

McCain has changed the dynamic of the campaign, and I don't give a damn about the "ground game" or the "youth cell phone vote" or "enthusiasm" or anything else.  

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 06:00PM | 0 recs
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Re: Some people can spot a trend,

Then you're just playing by the old playbook. Listen, the votes Obama needs to get are from the 50% of the people who don't vote, which are majorly comprised of the youth vote, the cell phone vote and the like and the ground game is the only rational way to get those. Following polls in August is like a dog chasing his tail around, it just tires you out. There are no trends, he was up by 3-5% in most of these polls in April and May and he still is, go to polling report and read or Rasmussen and read, it's quite easy to disprove your hypothesis, but I've learned there is more cherry picking here than discussing actual thought out positions.

by Dog Chains 2008-08-19 06:18PM | 0 recs
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you're not following the data closely enough.

He's not up by 4% any more.  He might be up nationally by 2% or 3%, but has been dropping steadily.

It's the TREND, and it's also the State polls.

Obama is now projected at less than 270 Electoral Votes, I'm sad to say.

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 06:35PM | 0 recs
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Re: you're not following the data closely enough.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/  3.0% average

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c ontent/politics/election_20082/2008_pres idential_election/general_election_match _up_history

was up plus 4% to start the page, up 3% to finish yesterday.

http://www.pollingreport.com/wh08gen.htm . The first poll has seen Obama stay relatively steady with McCain gaining some unsures while the rest starting with the Gallup poll show the same situation they did in March.

by Dog Chains 2008-08-19 06:43PM | 0 recs
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you're not looking at the STATE polls,

and the national trend is down steadily.

But the trend is most obvious in States like Indiana and Colorado and Virginia and Nevada, and quite a few other States.

Take a look at fivethirtyeight.com.

Basically, we don't have 270 EVs any more - just 264 with CO wavering and trending in the wrong direction in the last 3 polls, which have McCain ahead.

by enthusiast 2008-08-19 06:48PM | 0 recs
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Re: you're not looking at the STATE polls,

and he's trending a little low in states that no other Democratic has taken in 50 years for the most part, and it's August, you're seeing a trend that is just not as important as you see it, at least in my opinion. Actually, I like this scenerio better, with his grond game, this will keep his core voters (like youth voters who tend to think things are over quicker) from getting complacent. But the sky is not falling because he is in virtually in dead heats in 4 formerly solid red states.

by Dog Chains 2008-08-19 06:57PM | 0 recs
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Re: you're not following the data closely enough.

He's up 2.5% on Pollster, and 3% on RCP.

by Jerome Armstrong 2008-08-19 07:24PM | 0 recs
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But his wife Linda made a FORTUNE lobbying
with the cachet of being Mrs. Majority Leader.  That's what he was really after.  That's what they're after now (it's good to be a lobbyist married to the WH chief of staff!)
He got the press, she got the $$$, and our party got the shaft.  And then, he got even with the Clintons for getting to the White House before him.
by kosnomore 2008-08-19 06:31PM | 0 recs
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that would be kind of ironic...

yep thats right, and he got the job through... Bob Dole?

by sepulvedaj3 2008-08-20 07:16AM | 0 recs
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Correction, Daschle lost the Senate TWICE!!!

He's a wimp a la Harry Reid! Where's the democratic Newt Gingrich?

by suzieg 2008-08-20 01:20AM | 0 recs
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Re: Correction, Daschle lost the Senate TWICE!!!

suzieg, you are rapidly becoming my favorite commenter!

by QTG 2008-08-20 04:33AM | 0 recs

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