The upcoming US presidential election

All those wannabe-hip California transplants screwed up our caucus- Kerry won the SRoW*

* Kucinich beat Edwards and Clark, so our rep stands. To the machine!

Yep, seems like a done deal now. At this point the others should throw in the towel. Otherwise Kerry will have to waste funds fighting them that could be spent later against dubya.

So what are Kerry's policies? Apart from not being George W Bush that is.

Matthew

Matthew,

Kerry talks a lot about reducing the power of special interests and making healthcare affordable. You can review all his other views here.

PS- The caucus was an interesting experience- very informal, run by volunteers, full of debate, and really just barebones democracy. In my precinct, Dean won, Edwards was second, Kerry third, and Clark didn't receive one delegate.

Not being Dubya covers a lot of things that should be covered, MR.

Herm,

I've now found a policy of Bush's that I think is decent- that fighting sex trafficking and slavery. Not sure you saw the NY Times' recent coverage on this horrendous trade, but it was an eye-opener for me.

'There's something not right about Kerry though. I think it might be the hair.
He just doesn't seem, er, presidential for some reason.'

On the plus side he has done a lot of work (published indeed) on Bush's failures in office and beforehand. He has a strong service as a war veteran, his initials are JFK, and of course he is married to a woman reputed to be worth $500m. Additionally his house in Boston is worth $6.6m whereas Bush's Texas ranch is worth about $800k. That would swing the US equivalent of the Daily Mail reader.

However - Bush is going to win for one reason. They know where Osama Bin Laden is and they're going to spring him just before the election.

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Originally posted by Chris Metcalfe:

However - Bush is going to win for one reason. They know where Osama Bin Laden is and they're going to spring him just before the election.

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I wouldn't vote for him either way. After all, without OBL, do we really need Bush around anyway?

Judd

Talking of which...anyone know what happened to Saddam after he was caught??
Has he been abductedby aliens?

Us declared him a "prisoner of war" about a month ago, which promises him Geneva protections. heard yesterday that Red Cross still has not seen him (Geneva requires red cross access, but it does not say within what timefraim - I'm guess W is milking it for as long as he can). Also yesterday I heard that the Iraqi governing counsel would like the US to end Geneva protection and hand him over to them for trial.

My guess is that the US is stalling on the Red Cross to prevent him access to the media (via a red cross intermediary). I have no idea what a red cross person may or may not say about a visit.

Judd

Heard tonight that Howard is out.
Update from the locals please.

Yup, Dean is out and promised he will endorse whoever's nominated. I can imagine all the ass-kissing going on to grab the VP pole position.

This just landed in my inbox minutes ago... both Edwards and Kerry are ahead of Bush by double digits in the "hypothetical election" CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll (54% to 44% and 55% to 43%, respectively). I imagine if they re-polled, the deltas would be greater, given Bush today admitted that job creation will fall short of his 2004 new jobs number (which was 2.6 million; 150,000/mo are needed to keep pace the growing workforce; 366,000 have been added since August FWIW).

[This message was edited by Ludwig on THURSDAY 19 February 2004 at 01:11.]

Polls, shmolls. Fox et al. have yet to take aim on the Democratic nominee. There's a long way to go.

Dubya's really desparate

I've been enjoying watching him further Kerry's cause the last few weeks. First, he unveils his first campaign ad in poor taste. Then he starts attacking the challenger earlier than any previous incumbent. Then the threat surrounding disclosure of the Medicare drug bill's costs. And the threatening of publicly-held broadcasters not to provide money to left-leaning organizations. There's also the CIA's admitting to unmonitored "wildly inconsistent" reporting on Iraq. Oh, and the megabucks spending already starting in swing states because Kerry's even with him despite nobody knowing who he is (yet). Finally, this horrible attack in Spain occured without one blip of chatter detected at war on terror headquarters.

To add to all this, I'm pleased that Howard Stern is corraling his loyal pro-war, patriotic following (10-15 million) to vote Kerry.

To the great surprise of nobody, Kerry has clinched his nomination.

What about his war chest (to use the U.S. colloquial) now? Is he picking up money? From whom?

Dan,

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Polls, shmolls. Fox et al. have yet to take aim on the Democratic nominee. There's a long way to go.

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Looks like Fox et al. have fired their first major volley.

As you can see, 9/11 is clearly Kerry's fault.

Joe

The policies stated on Kerry's web site a frighteningly appealing - frightening because I don't dare believe the average American would vote for them. I predict a huge win for Bush.

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Originally posted by JeremyD:
The policies stated on Kerry's web site a frighteningly appealing - frightening because I don't dare believe the average American would vote for them. I predict a huge win for Bush.

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What positions are these?

On a more personal note, Kerry is in favor of permitting autonomous practice rights to mid-level medical practioners. The morbidity and mortality data suggests nurse practitioners, for instance, are about as good as MD's and cost less (within a certain defined scope of practice). So, from a market perspective, makes sense. Tends to put me out of a job though. So, I am conflicted.

Judd


Judd

Typical

According to a new report, President Bush's official campaign is selling clothing made in Burma - a country whose goods Bush banned for sale in the U.S. because of their awful human rights, narcotics and sex trafficking record. According to Newsday, "the merchandise sold on www.georgewbushstore.com includes a $49.95 fleece pullover, embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo and bearing a label stating it was made in Burma, now Myanmar."

According to Philip James in teh Guardian Bush is "Running Scared"

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Originally posted by Justin:

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Originally posted by JeremyD:
The policies stated on Kerry's web site a frighteningly appealing - frightening because I don't dare believe the average American would vote for them. I predict a huge win for Bush.

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What positions are these?

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Health and education, for a start. I hope I'm mistaken...

Here are my predictions for the 2004 Presidential election:
1. It will be nasty--as in, it will be in the running for the nastiest ever, and that is saying something.
2. Bush will win due to superior organization and financing. Popular vote will be close, the vote that matters won't be nearly as close as it was last time.
3. People will never get tired of the old joke: What was the vote in the 2000 election? Answer: 5 to 4.

Best,

Bob

What a difference a few days make. Kerry's back from vacation and coming on strong, IMO. Today's "cap on spending" economics talk may hit just the right buttons with unhappy fiscal conservatives. He's hitting hard on deflating the latest seemingly positive job numbers. And Kerry's speech today made the politically savy move with his "honoring our couragous soldiers" stuff -- he knows he doesn't have to hammer on the war since the disaster is obvious.

He'll probably pick Edwards for the southern swing states, but he may actually be able to pick a lesser known (esp. a minority or woman) and make it work to his advantage.

Meanwhile, the Bush admin. is spread very thin right now -- 9/11 investigations, presidential campaign, increasingly harsh criticisms from within their own party, and of course a rapidly disintegrating situation in Iraq. As a result I look for them to start making tactical campaign mistakes.

I actually think now think that Kerry will win, assuming he makes no major mistakes himself, of course. In fact, I don't think a Kerry landslide is out of the question.

I really want Americans to finally realize that Bush isn't keeping us safe from terrorists with his underwhelming, reactive programs and that he's all bullshit. All it would take, for example, is people to compare security measures experienced while boarding a flight at SFO to security measures experienced while boarding Caltrain or BART the past 31 months.

I also believe the 9/11 commission is going to torch Bush and company in their final report (despite the administration pointing at Tenet).

PS- Lots of recent stories about John McCain being Kerry's VP choice. Hard to believe IMO.