Sunday, November 12, 2006

Who's running for President, or not

Mark Warner pulled out before the election now my early favorite Russ Feingold takes a pass.

Yet, while I've certainly enjoyed the repeated comments or buttons saying, "Run Russ Run", or "Russ in '08", I often felt that if a piece of Wisconsin swiss cheese had taken the same positions I've taken, it would have elicited the same standing ovations. This is because the hunger for progressive change we feel is obviously not about me but about the desire for a genuinely different Democratic Party that is ready to begin to reverse the 25 years of growing extremism we have endured.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa took the initial step in his long-shot bid for the White House Thursday, establishing a presidential campaign committee and seeking an early jump on 2008.

Tom Vilsack doesn't excite me or anybody else but you never can tell. The big news is the obvious.

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday he is taking the initial steps for a White House bid in 2008, setting up a committee that allows a potential candidate to raise money and travel the country to gauge support.



The Republicans always have been very orderly about the nomination and it's McCain's turn. He has to win over or at least neutralize the religious conservatives and he's trying. He has to be the fiscal conservative's guy as he has always been out front on wasteful spending. On national security it's hard to find a bigger hawk.

In the end I think it comes down to Dubya. If he backs some one for the nomination they will win it. The thing I fear is that McCain makes a deal with the devil and puts Jeb on the ticket.

McCain-Powell is the best one for the Republicans.


10 comments:

LVDem said...

Bill, party chair is about mobilizing resources. Raising money is only a small part of that. The RNC did a terrible job in targeting it's resources this year, allowing races like Curt Weldon and Don Sherwood to remain on their list for too long. The other resource the parties need to mobilize are voters. The GOP didn'd do a good job of that.

When you run down the check list of resources to mobilize, the DNC did a better job than the RNC:
-money (RNC)
-targeted districts (DNC)
-volunteers (I'll claim DNC, but at worst, it's a draw)
-voter turn out (DNC)

HOward Dean's once mocked 50 state strategy gave Dems wins in places that wouldn't otherwise have been considered. Yeah, the Bush admin was responsible for creating an environment that set that up, but high quality candidates and effective workers are still needed. This is the first time in a long time that the DNC was a strong part in making that happen. I don't credit Howard Dean-I credit the hard working folks that he hired/recruited.

Anonymous said...

Gort, McCain is no shoe-in by any means. He may have a popular following in the country, but that doesn't mean he can make it through the Republican primary. There are plenty of Republicans, like myself, that really don't like McCain. He's an opportunist, don't even get me started on Incumbent Protection, i.e. Campaign Finance Reform, and whole host of other issues.

pissed off patricia said...

I'm not sure McCain has all he once had. He may flame out pretty fast. Bush's backing of candidates wasn't the winning number in this last election and now his approval ratings are down to 31%. If I were a repub running in 08, I wouldn't want bush or any of his kin near me.

Doctor Rick said...

Rudy.


You have been hearing it here first.

Anonymous said...

rick i love you bit we have been hearing Rudy since Sept 12 2001

Anonymous said...

If you don't want thing to be all bad and messy, you best vote for rhyme master Jessie.

Anonymous said...

If Giuliani chooses to run he will win the Rep nomination hands down. McCain had his chance.

Doctor Rick said...

Here's another thing that's funny: Republicans taking advice nomination advice from Dems.

Gort said...

We're happy to help you guys out.

LVDem said...

bill you missed my point about Sherwood and Weldon. They were done long before the GOP removed them from their list of priorities. The mistake was in continuing to pump money and man power into those races. Imagine if GOP money had been diverted from Weldon to Fitzpatrick... those mistakes are costly.