Re "it is not a vote to rush to war":

Yes it was, whether she wanted it to be or not.
She should have been alert enough to know how the
vote would be used. Many of us were.

Posted at April 19, 2008 8:02 AM in response to Audio: Hillary Privately Blasted "The Activist Base Of The Democratic Party" For Caucus Defeats

I lost all respect for Carville's tactics when I saw 'Our Brand is Crisis', documenting the role of Carville's political consulting firm (Greenberg-Carville-Shrum) in the Bolivian presidential election in 2002. The
NYTimes review will tell you a bit about it, but they saw 'shrewdness', where I saw a disgusting descent into tarring the opponent and a refusal to address the issues. They explicitly advised their candidate to avoid talking about issues and to tar his opponent.

This is not how you make a democracy work.

Give Carville a comedy show perhaps; let him run campaigns, no way.

And 'I wouldn't piss on him if his heart was on fire' comes from Matewan, by John Sayles. At least that's where I first heard it, long before Carville was on the scene. Not that he doesn't show good taste using it, just don't think he made it up.

I'd contribute to DNC to support Dean's strategy, but DSCC needs to see that people don't like their tactics. Go with Act Blue.

Posted at April 17, 2008 6:01 PM in response to What The Hell Is James Carville Up To Now?

A mill worker could too afford Harvard. Harvard, and all such schools give out scholarships, work-study jobs, and loans to make it possible, That's how I went to college. My parents couldn't, and didn't, pay a cent. I paid what I could earn in the summer and during school, and got scholarships and (small, in those days) loans for the rest.

Posted at April 13, 2008 11:27 AM in response to On Being "Bitter": Race and Class Warfare in America

Yes, Eisenhower did warn about the military industrial complex quite presciently, but only on his way out the door.

And one of his first foreign policy decisions, to allow the overthrow of the Iranian government (which Truman had refused to support), has led to no end of trouble. In particular, in the eyes of the middle east, it made the US look like just another European colonial power, instead of the exemplar of liberty we had been to many before that.

Still, in retrospect Kennedy's saber rattling in the '60 election looks pretty cheap now. I think both parties have a lot to be sorry about. Better to move on.

Posted at April 12, 2008 4:48 AM in response to Pleas from an Obama Republican

That's 'suspicious', not 'suspect'. But on to more important matters.

Just gotta say ol' Bob Dole's 'Democrat party' was
the start of the schoolyard name calling, so far as I recall, and a lot of republicans jumped on that bandwagon. It used to rile me every time I heard it so I was rather amused by the 'repug' retort. I had tried to think up something clever like this myself.

But I agree: it is just childish schoolyard namecalling, and we now have the chance to do something far more important. I think resorting to name calling is an act of desperation that people resort to when they have given up hope.

Posted at April 12, 2008 4:37 AM in response to Pleas from an Obama Republican

Excellent sermon.

There are two issues with Wright. One is whether what he says is correct, the other is whether people will be able to comprehend it.

I think Wright is right, but he may be hard on the stomachs of those who have been living on pablum.

To me, he seemed to be a very caring, concerned person (in the two sermons I watched), saying things like: don't attack people out of a need for revenge.
That should be played over and over too.

Posted at April 8, 2008 5:36 PM in response to "Why Jeremiah is Wright"

He is organizing his campaign differently than Clinton and
building the party in the process. That is a significant
difference. I have done a lot of door knocking in the last three elections, after coming to the conclusion that the top down media oriented campaigns were killing democracy. The fact that Obama has gotten more people involved is a profound change. Now we have to do something with it.

Of course he's a politician, and we will have to hold his feet to the fire when he is elected, but a mobilized electorate is the only way we can get any sort of democracy back in this country, and he has succeeded in this where others have failed.

Posted at April 7, 2008 5:41 PM in response to Okay, I Was Wrong and I'm an Obamanoid Now.

Dean for VP? We could do a lot worse.

Posted at April 7, 2008 5:09 PM in response to Okay, I Was Wrong and I'm an Obamanoid Now.

Maybe it is time for her to retire if she is this out of it.

Posted at March 31, 2008 6:48 PM in response to Harman: I Didn't Know Surveillance Program Broke The Law

I lost all respect for Carville's tactics when I saw 'Our Brand is Crisis', documenting the role of Carville's political consulting firm (Greenberg-Carville-Shrum) in the Bolivian presidential election in 2002. The

NYTimes review

saw 'shrewdness', where I saw a disgusting descent into tarring the opponent and a refusal to address the issues. Sound familiar?

Posted at March 30, 2008 3:14 AM in response to Response To Carville's WaPo Justification of Judas Comment