PUPDATE, 9/22/05: This diary appeared under a different title originally. Since it appeared, Markos has graciously posted a straw poll here.
I want to laud Markos for hearing the voices of so many of us that are enthused about seeing Gore make a run in 2008.
Thanks, Kos!
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Original diary follows:
unfortunately, Kos skipped Al Gore from his monthly straw polls for the 2008 nominee once again, this month. Given that Gore has proven to enjoy strong netroots support in several polls that I have posted, and one that MSOC posted, I feel that omitting Gore from these polls is really quite unfair, and is in fact very un-democratic.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a Gore’2008 collage at this link. Hope you will enjoy visiting it.
- Gore has not categorically declined a run in 2008
- very few of the potential candidates (included in Kos’ straw poll) have stated openly that they are running.
Why not just include him and see how he fares? Isn’t the proof in the pudding in this case? If Gore polls fairly poorly (say does not finish in the top 4 or 5), folks like myself will not raise the issue thereafter, would we?
On the other hand, if he does poll strongly, then not including him is not very democratic, especially when most of us are here, dedicating a good bit of our time, to try and advance the progressive and liberal causes.
As there is a one-diary-per-day limit on daily Kos (since Katrina), and I had already posted a diary today, I requested MichaelPH over there to post a straw poll with Gore added to Kos’ list of candidates.
His poll is posted in this diary of his, titled: “September Straw Poll for 2008 2nd Edition”.
Whether you are a Gore supporter or would prefer someone else, I hope that you will agree with me that including Gore is the “Democratic thing” to do. If so, I’d appreciate if you could go over to the link above and participate in that poll (and, of course, vote for your favorite candidate :)).
But more importantly, I request you to recommend that diary, so that it gets some “face time” on the recommended list, and hence would draw a larger turnout, giving us a more meaningful result.
With 190 votes cast, Here is how the candidates are polling: Bayh 1%, Biden 1%, Clark 22%, Clinton 2%, Edwards 7%, Feingold 7%, Gore 51%, Kerry 1%, Richardson 0%, Vilsack 0%, Warner 1%, Other/No Freakin’ Clue 3%
Thanks for reading. And, if you agree with my viewpoint, and decide to recommend MichaelPH’s dKos diary, my thanks to you in advance.
regards
Neo
ps: I am posting a poll here, after eliminating Vilsack and Bayh as they are polling the worst in Kos’ poll.
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Addendum (9/22/05):
Results from todays Kos’ straw poll.
Edwards 533 votes – 8 %
Clark 1621 votes – 25 %
Gore 3010 votes – 47 %
Clinton 303 votes – 4 %
Feingold 557 votes – 8 %
Other 145 votes – 2 %
No Freakin’ Clue 144 votes – 2 %
6313 Total Votes
Despite it being called a “fantasy” poll (which Kos explains by the fact that Gore has not taken explicit steps towards a run in 2008, so far), I opine that it is a meaningful poll, since it convincingly measures the pulse of the dKos community as of today. Note: Kos took the top 4 vote getters from his original straw poll and added Gore to the mix for this poll. The results from a similar poll, with Dean instead of Gore being included are:
Feingold 822 votes – 9 %
Clark 2568 votes – 29 %
Dean 3226 votes – 37 %
Edwards 855 votes – 9 %
Clinton 528 votes – 6 %
Other 303 votes – 3 %
No Freakin’ Clue 267 votes – 3 %
8569 Total Votes
Thanks!