I’m curious to see if this site, like dKos, is also overwhelmingly Dean, with a dash of Clark. I’d love to have people come out publicly for their candidate in the comments as well as taking the poll, but if you don’t want to please do at least make a poll choice so it will be have a more complete sample behind it. Oh, and feel free to post a comment with an early preference for ’08 if you like!
I’ll start (obviously). I started out a Gephardt man. Then I was seduced by the “Draft Clark” fever. I got fed up with Clark over his abortion statement and opposition to the $87B for Iraq, so briefly went back to Gephardt until I found out he had voted to ban flag burning. That led me to Kerry, who had opposed the amendment but had a strong-sounding rejoinder when asked about it. Then, as Iowa approached, I found out that Kerry was going around trying to outflank Bush to the right on Israel and I couldn’t countenance that, so Edwards became my default choice, and the man who got my primary vote–but a choice I got more and more happy with, and still think he’s the best nominee in ’08.
Yeah, that was pretty damned inconsistent, I grant you. But I was sure all along that I would never support Kucinich, Moseley-Braun, Sharpton, Dean, Lieberman, or Graham. For some of those “nonstarters” it was ideological issues, for others simply an issue of “electability”.
I like Kucinch and think he’s a lot tougher than people think he is. I believe people thought that because he wanted an Office for Peace that would make him wishy/washy on defense and I don’t think that would be the case. Although I didn’t think he had a chance in hell of getting any real traction in becoming a contender. Then again when I found out he was against abortion that kinda spoiled things for me, and then he flip-floped on that and said he was pro-choice.
I would have liked to see John Edwards get the nomination because it seemed like he was one of the only candidates that was really talking about race issues. That being said I was perfectly happy to have Kerry get the nomination.
And then Kerry wholeheartedly after I did full research of his history, etc.
But I really felt from the beginning and all the way through that Dean had the better chance of winning in a fair election.
He had the internet behind him first and could have really expanded it, I think.
well those are the key words aren’t they-‘fair election’. I would have been happy with Dean also. Then again the chimps banana would be a better president the bush.
Like chocolate ink, I would have been perfectly satisfied to have Dean in the Oval Office. However, I firmly believe he would have done much worse in the contest against Bush than Kerry did. But this kind of hypothetical can, of course, never be proven either way (but it can sure be discussed! LOL)
Alan
Maverick Leftist
the reason I think he could have won was that he was anit-war mostly and I think we needed a clear alternative to Bush.
I didn’t much like any of them, besides Kucinich (who I never thought would or could win, though). Then Dean, then Kerry when he became the nominee.
It seems like I should have liked Edwards, and been an enthusiastic backer of his because a lot of his beliefs, but for some reason I never warmed up to him.
I loved Dean’s dynamics and agreed with him quite frequently, but after doing a lot of research, I found myself drawn to Kerry and I stuck with him throughout.
Did anyone see the dvd called I think ‘going upriver’? about Kerry and his being in Vietnam and what he did when he got home? After I saw that I really fell in love with the guy. A most honorable man with great intellectual capacity. And look what we ended up-a halfwit.
Yes, I saw most of it, Chocolate, and like you, I fell in complete love with Kerry after viewing it. I already loved him before, but it got a lot stronger. 😉
My husband insisted that the main reason I liked Kerry so much is because he reminds me of my dad – he even looks like him in ways. I think that he was partly right. I felt very comfortable with him, listening to or watching him speak, much the way I would have felt with someone I knew and cared about. I was firstly interested in his politics and beliefs, of course, but I felt a personal draw to him as well.
I must say I cried at times watching ‘going upriver’ as it brought back that feeling of so much division in country then and also as I said how honorable Kerry was/is and how much he did for the Vietnam Vets….He’s done more for Vietnam Vets than Bush has ever done or even thought of doing.
Same here, with the reaction to Going Upriver, and it bringing back those times. Growing up in Hollywood/LA in the shadow of the Viet Nam war was one very confusing time, I’ll tell ya.
It’s still amazing to me how many on the right were so willing to denigrate not only Kerry’s military service, but that of anyone opposed to Bush. And get away with it.
That was really one of the most despicable aspects of the whole campaign. Trying to destroy Kerry’s record(while ignoring their own fearless leaders chickenshit record)..including the mockery of the purple band-aides at their convention. I really still don’t understand why all veterans including republicans weren’t outraged by the whole purple bandage deal.
I started with Kerry and never changed.
Iowa must have been to you like a basketball fan, watching his favourite team come back from a thirty point second-half deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter. <g>
Alan
Maverick Leftist
Wesley Clark.
God, I hate proving people right. You were right, Slacker, I was a Deaniac. I first read about him a couple months before the primary races started to heat up, and I was delighted that he was the governor of Vermont, the only state in the Union to show any balls in the gay marriage war. If he was able to sign that bill and support it, he was good enough for me. I also was pleased with the fact that he was essentially a non-politician, a practicing physician who had taken a little bit of a detour into Vermont politics. Other than that, his positions on the issues (generally meaningless buzzwords, I know) were generally in line with the rest of the general Democratic platform, which I (for the most part) align myself with. So, I was a full-fledged Deaniac. Somehow, in my heart I knew that since I was supporting him, he had a snowball’s chance in Hell of even becoming the nominee, much less being elected, but that didn’t matter. When January of ’04 rolled around, I spent $450 on a plane ticket and went down to Iowa as part of the campaign’s “Perfect Storm” ground game, knocking on doors in East Davenport, putting up with a rather, um, grouchy Dean staffer at the Davenport office, and I even got to go to a Dean rally at West Davenport HS (side note: that was a really surreal experience. Howard Dean, MD, former governor of Vermont, presidential candidate, IN THE FLESH, along with his very sweet wife and Senator Tom Harkin (presidential aspirations, Senator? I hope so…)).
That weekend, I remember sitting in my aunt and uncle’s living room in Rock Island, IL, and just absolutely wanting to cry. First of all, Dean had come in third in the primary, which I knew was bad news. Then, The Scream Heard ‘Round the Country. Dean’s goose was cooked. A couple months before, the RWCM bigwigs got together at RWCM World Domination Headquarters and decided to create a Cinderella story, a Vermont doctor surging ahead from also-ran to real contender. Joe Trippi had become a celebrity in his own right, and life was good. The night of the primary, the night of The Scream, the RWCM Bigwigs got together and decided to squash Dean like a bug, a move for which I will never forgive them.
I was really troubled by the fact that John Edwards was a former trial lawyer (tort reform is the one slice of the Republican agenda I agree with…we’ll debate that later, I’m sure), and John Kerry just didn’t have enough substance for me. He was just the next in a long line of longtime Senators who thought they deserved to be president, and that wasn’t good enough. He needed to stand for something, and he didn’t. The others were, as far as I was concerned, inconsequential.
And so, here I sit in front of the computer, waiting for the midterm elections to be over so that we can start this 2008 madness. Will it be Clark? Will it be (gack) Hillary? Barack Obama, perhaps? Will the Arnold Amendment pass, clearing the way for my beloved Jennifer Granholm? Time will tell…
I blame the media all the way on that…and then they did shows talking about their own playing of it ad nauseum but of course not really blaming themselves. To say nothing of the fact that they all more or less doctored their playing of it by filtering out everyone in the crowd so it sounded like Dean just was shouting for the hell of it.
“I was delighted that he was the governor of Vermont, the only state in the Union to show any balls in the gay marriage war. If he was able to sign that bill and support it, he was good enough for me.”
Just so you know, the legislature and governor were required to act by the Vermont Supreme Court. As I understand it, Gov. Dean signed the bill in the middle of the night, with no cameras present. For him to take credit for it later when talking to gay groups took some chutzpah.
“That weekend, I remember sitting in my aunt and uncle’s living room in Rock Island, IL, and just absolutely wanting to cry. First of all, Dean had come in third in the primary, which I knew was bad news. Then, The Scream Heard ‘Round the Country. Dean’s goose was cooked.”
But it was really cooked because of the (distant) third place finish. All the talk of it being because of the Scream is misguided IMO (maybe even wishful thinking).
“I was really troubled by the fact that John Edwards was a former trial lawyer (tort reform is the one slice of the Republican agenda I agree with…we’ll debate that later, I’m sure)”
Hey, let’s debate it now! <g> I absolutely respect your right to have a “maverick” opinion, for obvious reasons. But I am no maverick on this one–I’m against so-called tort reform. Why are you for it?
“Will it be Clark? Will it be (gack) Hillary? Barack Obama, perhaps? Will the Arnold Amendment pass, clearing the way for my beloved Jennifer Granholm? Time will tell…”
I’m with ya on the “gack” for Hillary! That would be a disaster. So would Obama, much as I like the guy. Hard enough for a Democrat to become the first black president, much less one who has a “funny name” as he says (that unfortunately is so close to “Osama”), and who is likely to have one of the more liberal ADA ratings (nothing wrong with that per se; it’s just tough in terms of electability when it’s packaged with all the other stuff). On Granholm, I’m honestly unclear as to why everyone is so enamoured with her. I don’t think she’s awful, just not impressive.
Oh, and though I want Edwards to be the nominee, I’m getting very impressed with Montana’s governor, Brian Schweitzer. He might be a good pick for veep.
Alan
Maverick Leftist
well, let’s see, he lost, or the truth of the matter, stolen from.
I liked Edwards, and Dean, I think that would have made a more positive ticket, Kerry, I thought was good, but everyone knows the Saga of that, and it really did’nt matter much who it was going to be, the media and the Thugs were going to bash them, with the standard, lies, forged documents, etc.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the public will wake up, and see what has happened, and vote on a positive note the next round, but I’m afraid that all I will get, is bruises from keeping them too tight.
Your poll forgot Anyone But Bush, which is where I was back in early ’04.