2008 Primaries Thread

Has anyone read anything about the possibility of a right-wing third-party candidate emerging, possibly one based on anti-immigrant sentiment (e.g., Lou Dobbs)?

That might be one very effective way of undercutting McCain's GOP support (I'm not sure what impact it would have on the Democratic base, if any).

-- Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, February 6, 2008 10:15 PM

I hear tell that Ron Paul is saving up all that money for a third-party run.

Michael White OTM, like ANYONE is really prepared to inherit the steaming and hictoric pile of shit that will be dumped on the next president on "Day One"

Paul/Dobbs '08

The main issue in this election is, or should be, Iraq, and HRC is complicit in that fiasco.

A large part of why I prefer Obama to Hillary lies in the fact that he's an Ivy League-educated, relatively laid-back, liberal-leaning black man. Like me.

I hear tell that Ron Paul is saving up all that money for a third-party run.

But he isn't hardline anti-immigrant (openly), is he? I thought -- ostensibly, at least -- he was libertarian and isolationist.

I don't think Paul will run. He got away with it before because he was a non-entity (the party left him and his district alone). If he Naders them this time, they'll pour money into a primary challenge in two years.

A large part of why I prefer Obama to Hillary lies in the fact that he's an Ivy League-educated, relatively laid-back, liberal-leaning black man. Like me.

Easy there, college guy.

lol

The "Clinton wins Missouri" story wasn't the only oopsie for the Associated Press on Tuesday night. Within an hour of making that mistake, the AP reported that Led Zeppelin was going to headline the Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival, which will be held June 13-15 in Manchester, Tenn. Seventeen minutes later, that story was retracted.

wow, i just realized i'll be coming back to the us, unemployed, 2 months before the election. if i could somehow get money to live on, i could volunteer for the campaign. i'll probably get a job instead though.

daniel - i wasn't directing that toward you, i haven't been following ilx that closely. it was more of a general comment. i have trouble figuring out how gender affects my reactions to hillary myself, which i only realized recently.

A large part of why I prefer Obama to Hillary lies in the fact that he's an Ivy League-educated, relatively laid-back, liberal-leaning black man. Like me.

"This is our moment! We are the agents of change! Yes we can! Where the titties at?"

Lez Zeppelin takes Americans Abroad

MBV to headline 'Mile High' Democratic Convention

Hmm.

Hillary widens lead in Gallup tracker:

http://media.gallup.com/poll/graphs/020608DailyUpdateGraph2.gif

And remember -- she's NOT the establishment candidate anymore, lol, everyone on the same page, plz.

I do understand that plenty of perfectly reasonable arguments against her have been made on this thread and elsewhere..

You know, I can totally see the effect this primary has had on me and I'm pretty outspoken about politics, but the sheer avalanche of criticism from the media and on every politics site gets exhausting, especially when some of it is personal and vicious - and it is - much more so than for the other candidates. After a while the impulse is to just tune out, let the conversation go on without you, and vote for her anyway. But if that's how the atmosphere is, I think it could be a lot harder to stand up at a caucus than in the privacy of a voting booth, now.

wau, xp

lol at you guys needing to explain again to daria why you hate/don't hate hillary.

A large part of why I prefer Obama to Hillary lies in the fact that he's an Ivy League-educated, relatively laid-back, liberal-leaning black man. Like me.

"This is our moment! We are the agents of change! Yes we can! Where the titties at?"

-- Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, February 6, 2008 10:26 PM

t/s lol vs. O_o

A large part of why I prefer Obama to Hillary lies in the fact that he's an Ivy League-educated, relatively laid-back, liberal-leaning black man. Like me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:James_Toofer_Spurlock_from_30_Rock.jpg

Ah, fuck it.

http://l.yimg.com/img.tv.yahoo.com/tv/us/img/site/27/89/0000042789_20070911163124.jpg

ouch that poll! people like a winner, i guess

it's okay because hillary doesn't pay attention to polls

errr, that's a worrying poll.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Unlike_Mark_Penn.html

Imho, all of these candidates have limited vision and excessive corporate connections and until this country realizes that it's democracy is reeling towards plutocracy at a dizzying pace and puts real, meaningful, maybe amend-the-Constitution limits on the money in politics, that's what we're going to get, but I have a certain sympathy for the Clinton/Blair argument that keeping your hands perfectly clean while your opponent is ammassing a warchest is equivalent to saying, "No, I don't need any armor. Armor is what has made the sport of jousting as dull and unmanly as it is to-gahhhhhhh, ugggghh!" Politics, perhaps in a democracy as much as any society, is a reflection of that society as a whole and let's not flinch to much at the reflection our candidated are casting upon the people. Let's not be so appalled and ashamed that we become impotent in the process. I don't mean to say we should cut any corner or condone any skullduggery but I don't want to end so squeamish and prissy that I end up, however distantly, in the demise of a woman's right to choose (i.e., privacy rights), or the de facto end of habeas corpus, or a zillion other things that the Repubs will never fully account for on their own.

yeah but the news going into last night was that hillary "won" super tuesday, but now its a lot closer.

xxxxp

I couldn't vote in the primary, but I lean towards Obama because his speeches, books, and bearing suggest levelheadednes. Not for a second do I think he's a pacifist, though. Quite the contrary: something in his determination suggests that he could handle a conflict that takes years of continued US military might.

Plus, let's remember our history: you don't get to be a "great" president without a major conflict, and if there's one thing -- the only thing -- that Obama's got in common with JFK, it' san angling for greatness.

My mom called me to say that she cried while voting for Hills yesterday.

aw

ice cold, hoos

naw dude for srs!

Not for a second do I think he's a pacifist, though.

actually, the most batshit thing i recall him saying thus far was suggesting the use of american troops in pakistan's nw frontier whether musharraf/whomever liked it or not

HOOS is a champion of the aw thread.

it was bombing, not troops iirc

x-post

and frankly given Pakistan's totally fucked up regime and public pronouncements that they have no interest in getting Bin Laden, I think that's totally justified policy (probably not too smar to say so on the stump tho)

you are an internet hard man

Shakey, did you read the piece on Bhutto in The New Yorker a couple of issues back?

nah I don't read the New Yorker

(altho I was never really a Bhutto-booster if that's what you're getting at)

actually, the most batshit thing i recall him saying thus far was suggesting the use of american troops in pakistan's nw frontier whether musharraf/whomever liked it or not

Or this could have been the oft-used Dem tactic of hitting from the right (i.e. Kennedy blaming Eisenhower-Nixon for a "missile gap," Mondale suggesting during the debates that Reagan was soft on communism).

rather similar to McCain suggesting we could have troops in Iraq for a 100 years.

Gallup Poll Daily tracking will not begin to reflect the impact of Tuesday's voting on national Democratic preferences until tomorrow.

Shakey, check it out, for real.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/28/080128fa_fact_coll

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_primaries.html

Real Clear Politics polling averages show Hillary's national lead shrinking to 2.7 points.

Hillary's eating tacos! - http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Cant_wait_for_Texas.html

A smart political scientist at Chicago gives some thoughts on Obama's "metapolitics" that I think say clearly what some of Obama's supporters on this thread have been getting at:

http://sgrp.typepad.com/sgrp/2008/01/politicsmetapol.html

I have to admit that although I'm fine with either candidate, there's something a bit depressing about the idea of a Clinton/McCain race, the idea that what's seems like such an important election might be between two candidates that their respective parties just can't get that excited about.

("fine with either" meaning Clinton/Obama, obv)

I'm finding it interesting how often people are conflating Bill and Hillary (Billary) and it makes me wonder what kind of influence he has in her campaign and in what ways she is substantially different from him?