IMO, Obama is just too damned smart to run in '08. Despite his obvious gifts, his lack of experience would do him in - though a VP nod is a possibility and would be a good career move.
Of the contenders, Mark Warner gets my vote - a smart, charismatic, politically bold centrist Dem from a red state.
Yes. As I said earlier, you had to see him deliver it to appreciate how crazed he looked. Of course, that’s an entirely subjective observation. One man’s crazed look, is another’s passioinate cry for justice and the American way.
I’ve got to agree on this. It’s just got almost impossible to be elected from the Senate. The opposition has become to wily in twisting the voting record. It’s better to be a mediocre Governor and incompetent businessman than a decent Senator. I’d like to see Obama get out of the Senate as soon as he can, either as a VP or Cabinet appointment. Of course the second one means someone else would have to win.
Being the son of a former president doesn’t hurt either. Even if that president failed in his own re-election bid, apparently. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to be the wife a former president either. HRC, without the “C” would’ve never made it to the Senate as she did.
I agree, but I would hope that a clever person, like Obama, would learn how to out-wily the wily. It wasn’t the Republicans who invented “I voted for the war before I voted against it”. That was how Kerry himself described his votes. He was an idiot.
Stay on the offensive. Switch the topic from flip-flopping to dishonesty when they say you voted against armor for the soldiers. Tell people that your dishonest opponent didn’t care about the armor; he cared about the pork that was attached to it. Turn it back on him. Get in front of the press and ask, “Why was my opponent blackmailing soldiers into funding his pet project just so they could have armor?” That sort of thing.
Yeah, that’ll be an interesting race. Steele is a strong candidate but both O’Malley and Duncan (O’Malley more, I’d guess) have very strong bases. If one of the two could solidify Baltimore, Baltimore County, and the DC suburbs then Steele will get slapped hard.
Maryland is not unlike Illinois in that regard. Western Maryland and the Eastern shore just can’t compete with the Baltimore/Washington/Annapolis axis.
Which was exactly my point, and which I’m sure you understood even though you’re pretending you don’t. But let me spell it out… in the context of a political party’s platform it should scare the crap out of a libertarian.
As I’ve said before, my ideal Democratic candidate is the same person as my ideal Republican candidate: Rudy Guiliani. On the actual issues his stances are closer to the Democratic Party. He ought to have jumped ship years ago. Put on a ticket with a strong governor such as Richardson or Bresden, he’d be unstoppable.
I don’t get the whole “needs to be a southerner” thing. We’re not all coldly indifferent or insane in the North. As democrats and governors go, I like John Baldacci fairly well; he’s a good neighbor (unlike his predecessor Angus King), has a good track record on education, and so on.
But as I’ve noted in the past, I like Lieberman even and would definitely vote for him - especially if Jeb runs in 2008.