None of them will pull out until after at least Iowa has voted, and even then they will hang in there. What have they got to lose until after New Hampshire? They are all waiting for Dean to pull some major blunder.
As a Dean fan from way back, I don’t doubt there will be some major blunder, as far as the media goes. My bet is that whatever perceived blunder Dean makes, the others will look like fools as they jump on it.
Dean has already shown he doesn’t give a damn what the other candidates think. He has the support of people who know that in the heat of battle, verbal errors can be made. It is hard to conceal wrath, and wrath is what I want with a candidate against Bush.
Dean’s not THAT different from Bill, even if he’s not Bill’s candidate of choice. Check how he balanced the budget in Vermont
That’s one of the weird things about Dean’s campaign. As his opponents have pointed out numerous times, his current rhetoric is very different from the way he governed his state, and different from his rhetoric in the past.
I certainly hadn’t seen a poll in quite some time, and the last I heard Dean had made a tactical decision a couple months back to just ignore Iowa because of the tremendous amount of time and expense and extensive grass roots organizing required to win it (due to the odd caucas format.) If he’s suddenly gained a huge lead there, despite not running any ads there as of two weeks ago, then I must say I’m surprised.
I only read one publication that might be described as “right-wing”, and I don’t think they’ve said anything at all about the merits of the candidates this go-round, as they’re expecting Bush to blow out any of them.
As a libertarian, there’s some things I actually like about Dean and I don’t think he’d be a total disaster as a president. I’d mostly be concerned that he gets us out of Iraq only to put us right back in the pocket of the international community as the global police force at their beck and call, leading us into more stupid Clinton-esque foreign conflicts on the excuses of “altruism”. I’d like to hope Dean has an military isolationist streak, but it’s hard to tell if his opposition to the war is ideological or merely opposition to anything Bush does. If he pulled us out of Iraq and then picked a fight in Liberia, I’d be pretty disheartened.
I’m a libertarian too, and I like some things about Dean, but other things really concern me. It’s going to be a tough decision in November.
Clark and Lieberman were the ones who pulled out of Iowa, Dean has been campaigning heavily there for a long time. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard it said that Dean’s campaign is the only truly national campaign on the Democratic side. All the other candidates are concentrating in certain battlegrounds while Dean has been everywhere.
As an aside then, do you think there are any Democrats that would be at least tolerable for libertarians? In an age when Republican government is spending more money on everything than ever before, and creating giant new entitlements, has it reached the point where the Democrats respect for civil liberties is a distinguishment worth noting for libertarians?
I’ve voted GOP in the past, but they’ve gone so far astray from the principles of limited government it seems like a devil’s bargain anymore. But as much as I’d like to see PATRIOT act repealed and drug laws reformed, and so on, I really don’t see any Democrat having the guts to do that when in office with America so predominantly conservative on security and social issues these days.
**As an aside then, do you think there are any Democrats that would be at least tolerable for libertarians? In an age when Republican government is spending more money on everything than ever before, and creating giant new entitlements, has it reached the point where the Democrats respect for civil liberties is a distinguishment worth noting for libertarians?
**
Depends on the Democrat, but yes, there are a few. Barney Frank comes to mind as the best example, but he’s probably not ever going to leave the House. Wesley Clark is the worst kind of Democrat. Supports the Patriot Act, supports big government. That’s what I call authoritarian. Dean seems to have a record of fiscal conservatism(for a Democrat) plus a respect for civil liberties, so he might be good.
I’ve voted GOP in the past, but they’ve gone so far astray from the principles of limited government it seems like a devil’s bargain anymore. But as much as I’d like to see PATRIOT act repealed and drug laws reformed, and so on, I really don’t see any Democrat having the guts to do that when in office with America so predominantly conservative on security and social issues these days
Yeah, the GOP under Bush has really turned its back on us. I don’t think we should punish them in Congress, since the GOP from 1994-2000 had an outstanding record of keeping spending falling as a percentage of GDP, although of course they could have done better. I think the key is to put a Democrat in office, to stiffen the backbones of the Republicans. They are just rolling over for Bush, giving him everything he wants.
I’m not worried about Dean raising taxes, because there is no way in hell the GOP is going to pass a tax increase. As for the Patriot Act, not ALL of it is bad, and the American people won’t respond negatively to getting rid of the bad parts. Americans weren’t clamoring for a Patriot Act, they just got one because the government had to look like they were doing something. The federal government always passes dumb laws right after a tragedy without thinking it through.