These are dark days indeed for the Democratic Party.
 

This might be even worse than the Regan years. We desperately need a new Bill Clinton, albeit one who can keep his dick in his pants. Who is our candidate in '04? Gore? Hillary? Gephardt? Or will a fresh face arise from amongst the Democratic governors? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

Also, Terry McAuliffe = suckiest DNC Chairman ever.

This looks like a job for stupendous man!

yeah. Gore simply isn't going to cut it. Good hustle, though, buddy. We need someone with his intellect but with a tad bit more personality. Just a hair.. that would blow Bush out of the water.

Killtheyouth: Don't you think the public actually wants a moderate liberal, though? That's what all the polls have indicated... that we're veering towards this standard of moderacy. It's sad, but having the liberal version of a John McCain would be better than Bush. I'd be willing to compromise if the dude (or woman, that would be nice) stood a chance.

I've always wondered why noone mentions Richard Daley as a potential candidate for a national office. He's one of the most powerful, respected, and popular mayors in the country. If he could run the nation half as well as he runs Chicago (which I think he can), things would be very good for all of us. Maybe people still confuse him with his father.

what's wrong with those?

There's nothing wrong with centrism.
My only problem with it is when it veers too far right.

Too far left is stupid too; it eliminates the element of responsibility.

Tax cuts: have traditionally been used to alleviate the 'burdens' of the rich.

Welfare reforms: Never do a damned bit of good. They cut it off instead of tying up the loopholes.

http://democrats.com/images/ps756-sm1.jpg

:(

Perhaps so. Centrism theoretically should be the lines of grey between the black and white: e.g. we should have some universal health care, but we shouldn't let convicted serial rapists get law degrees while serving life sentence terms in comfortable confinement.

This is a problem I see with American politics: Nobody wants to forsee a middle ground between the two.
I, for one, support many left and right policies, but overall detest the right attitude and the extent to which they drive home their concepts.

Most Americans are moderates. The Dems should be working to retake the middle ground that the GOP has managed to co-opt from them, quite a feat considering how very conservative they have become as of late. Liberal candidates only succeed in the primaries and in Europe. This is not France.

and in Canada, where they have had the role since 1992. Granted, they're more conservative than liberal at this point.

man, I so wanna watch Empire right now . . .

why does noone say how it hurts people with average incomes more (most of the population) to raise taxes than it helps the richest one percent to lower taxes? it seems like too much focus is on the poorest and richest that live here instead of the common joe

I swear to god when CNN announced that the Republicans had taken over the Senate I could actually hear Darth Vadar's theme in my head. It was chilling.

A true liberal will never win the presidency. Winning always lies in getting the "swing vote"/"undecided vote". Which is why politicians always move to the middle/become more moderate when running for election.

Re: These are dark days indeed for the Democratic Party.
 

Short list of names:
John Edwards
John Kerry
Dick Gephardt
Al Gore

Hillary will never be able to be a presidential candidate right off the bat...she's going to have to be vice president first. Tom Daschle's name has also been thrown around, but he has been too much against the president and really isn't viewed as moderate. Edwards and Kerry have both been played up by the Dems as the next Kennedy.

Re: Re: These are dark days indeed for the Democratic Party.
 

It's all about this man. He's young, handsome, charismatic, intelligent, and rich.

He's my choice.

Beg, pray and Hope that Colin Powell will run

:)

What was that quote I read yesterday:

"We have a country that, by and large, is to the left of the Democrats, and a government that is to the right of most of the conservative European governments. Strange times indeed."

I'm not terribly impressed, but as far as I'm concerned the game is up for the Dems, at least for now. But they didn't really deserve to win this year; I mean, did they even make a decent effort? I loathe the Republicans as much as the next person, but the Democrats did everything but wave the white flag.

The upside to all this is that after Bush royally fucks the US over, no conservative will be able to get a seat anywhere. But that's going to be many years down the line. The rubberband will eventually swing the other way, though. I'm convinced of that.

Until then, well...better start blasting the Imperial March, b/c things are going to have to get worse before they get better.

Agreed. The Democrats were a bunch of pussies in the last election starting with DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe who has got to go. When they folded on the Iraq issue, seemingly overnight, I was furious and ashamed to be a Democrat. The election was already over right then and there.

There's some good points in here about the problems in the Democratic party. I know it to be of a Marxist agenda that is well documented and something I've experienced on a professional level. Before you roll your eyes and flame, let me display my point of view first. I'll do it by saying if John Kerry runs on a single issue he brought up, I would be inclined to vote for him, and it would be the first Dem I've voted for since Dukakis in '88.

I think it was the Chris Matthews show where Kerry said he'd put on his platform to allow the Military to recruit on College campi. This practice was removed during LBJ's term, if I recall correctly.

It's not that Im a big warhawk, Im not, that's not the point. The point is the Democratic party has allowed to fester an ugly and unnecessary Anti-Nationalistic dogma. This dogma has seeped into the education system over the last 30 years and Kerry is right to see it as a wrongheaded notion in its totality. I believe his stance on this issue is his way of getting the Democrats back to the grass roots level it has lost sight of many moons ago.

But, Im sure the Religious Left (Yes, there is one, and its likely your Professor is part of it, though he/she is far too leet to ever cop to it), Im sure the Left would be very frightened by Kerry if he were to push this idea to fruition. But I'd bet you a Diezel Amp that a lot of swing voters would feel comfortable voting Democrat if they saw one stand up to the frustrated Marxist that have driven the Party to the lowly depths its currently in.

Like I said earlier Blue Star, I see the Dem party at the end of a 3 decade cycle where the counter-culture elitist are now running scared because of their own paranoia, ironically enough. They need to be nudged to the side the way the Rep's eventually tossed Newt Gingrich out. But I have my doubts about all this happening in 2 years, but 2008 seems more likely.