The 2008 Presidential Elections

[GnosticWarrior]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Mike Gravel is scheduled to be a guest on the Steven Colbert Show this evening on Comedy Central network.

Hopefully he get's the Colbert Bump! If you missed it like me, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KMb_...related&search=

[Miulang]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Hopefully he get's the Colbert Bump! If you missed it like me, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KMb_...related&search=

I saw him live. He kinda reminds me a little of Bob Dole. Bob Dole can be very very funny when he wants to be.

The guy who might end up being the spoiler like him on the Republican side is Fred Thompson...and he hasn't even officially declared his candidacy! (I also think Ron Paul from Texas has some good ideas).

Miulang

[GnosticWarrior]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

I saw him live. He kinda reminds me a little of Bob Dole. Bob Dole can be very very funny when he wants to be.

The guy who might end up being the spoiler like him on the Republican side is Fred Thompson...and he hasn't even officially declared his candidacy! (I also think Ron Paul from Texas has some good ideas).

Miulang

I haven't checked out the other guys. I like rebels and straight shooters. Mike Gravel appears to be one. Too bad Oprah is endorsing Obama. I like him too, but he's not as straight up as Gravel. Would be nice to see the first Black President though!

[SusieMisajon]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

All moot....Bush will refuse to step down, mark my words.

[Vanguard]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

All moot....Bush will refuse to step down, mark my words.

He wont have to. Sylar will simply shapeshift into Obama or McCain.

[glossyp]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

All moot....Bush will refuse to step down, mark my words.

There's a bet I'd take. A friendly wager perhaps? Personally, I think he can't wait to get out of office and back to the ranch.

OT, but about presidential elections nonetheless. France's contest is increasingly interesting. What are your thoughts?

[Miulang]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Just saw the last half of the Republican Presidential debates on MSNBC. They were not nearly as much fun as the Democratic one. And because there were 10 candidates, there was even less time for each of them to give their opinions than the Democratic candidates had last week.

McCain and Romney came out looking pretty good and confident of the top tier candidates. Dunno what happened with Giuliani; he was terrible! And he especially waffled on questions about stem cells and a woman's right to choose. I figure if he can't come out and emphatically state his beliefs then there's no way I could consider him because he's not being honest, he's just trying to win votes. There were some candidates who said they definitely were against abortion and stem cells, and I can at least respect those guys, even if I don't happen to agree with them. And Ron Paul was being his consistent Libertarian self.

I really don't think one of the true dark horses was on stage, though. Fred Thompson has done it all, and there's a committee to draft him to run. If he does choose to run, the announcement will happen within the next couple of months.

Miulang

[SusieMisajon]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

There's a bet I'd take. A friendly wager perhaps? Personally, I think he can't wait to get out of office and back to the ranch.

OT, but about presidential elections nonetheless. France's contest is increasingly interesting. What are your thoughts?

The French ones have us all on the edge of our seats, biting our fingernails.

[TuNnL]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

McCain and Romney came out looking pretty good and confident of the top tier candidates. Dunno what happened with Giuliani; he was terrible! And he especially waffled on questions about stem cells and a woman's right to choose. I figure if he can't come out and emphatically state his beliefs then there's no way I could consider him because he's not being honest, he's just trying to win votes. There were some candidates who said they definitely were against abortion and stem cells, and I can at least respect those guys, even if I don't happen to agree with them. And Ron Paul was being his consistent Libertarian self.

I thought Ron Paul came out the winner in this debate. McCain was just too angry and grumpy... in that respect he resembled Mike Gravel. It only makes him looks worse since it causes him to stutter. As far as Romney, he did a little bit of waffling himself on abortion. That’s troubling for a candidate who will only draw attention to himself with his Mormon background with Mormon campaign financing, no less. I agree that Giuliani’s constant references to Ronald Reagan did get a bit irritating, but the debate did after all take place in the Reagan Presidential Library. I think Paul’s message had the most mass-appeal, since he represented the most fundamental shift in international policy.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

All moot....Bush will refuse to step down, mark my words.

Or veto any attempt for a national election...hmmm what a concept

[SusieMisajon]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Or veto any attempt for a national election...hmmm what a concept

Nah....he'll invent another 'terrorist' attack.

[TuNnL]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Well, it looks like the majority of respondents to an MSNBC poll agree that Ron Paul dominated the California debate. Most believe he stood out from the pack more than the others, showed the most leadership qualities, was the most convincing and had the best one-liner.

McCain, on the other hand, was voted as having the most rehearsed answers. And Giuliani, not surprisingly, was chosen as avoiding the questions the most.

[Miulang]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Well, it looks like the majority of respondents to an MSNBC poll agree that Ron Paul dominated the California debate. Most believe he stood out from the pack more than the others, showed the most leadership qualities, was the most convincing and had the best one-liner.

McCain, on the other hand, was voted as having the most rehearsed answers. And Giuliani, not surprisingly, was chosen as avoiding the questions the most.

What this shows (both on the Democratic and Republican sides) is that many of the voters in this country are sick and tired of "politics as usual" and are looking for people who don't toe their parties' lines but are honest and passionate about their beliefs, like Gravel and Paul. There may be hope for this country yet...even if outliers like Gravel, Kucinich and Paul (and possibly Fred Thompson) don't get nominated or elected, hopefully their parties will listen to what these guys are saying and take note of what the voters are saying in response to the debates and change their ways. Doubtful, but one can always hope!

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Some interesting soundbites from a phone interview Gravel gave with the editors of Truthdig yesterday:

Truth for America is that we think that we’re so much better than anyone else in the world, and we’re not. We’re no better than anybody else in the world. The truth is, we squander our wealth on the military-industrial complex for a defense that is totally inadequate. The truth is that 30 percent of our children do not graduate from high school. The truth is that one-fifth of the nation is functionally illiterate and in Washington, D.C., it’s 36 percent. I could go on. The truth is, there’s only two industrialized nations in the world that do not have healthcare for all their people. One is the United States, and the other is South Africa.

And on the next steps he would take to get out of Iraq if he became President:

What should be next is to get out, and one of the things that we should do is—. There’s a civil war going on, and so when you hear Hillary and the others say, “Well, we’re going to get out,” they’re not getting out; they’re talking about just pulling back the combat troops. That still leaves 100,000 American soldiers there and 50,000 mercenaries and then all those war profiteers that are over there ripping it off at the expense of the Iraqis. So we’re going to leave all those people there and “Sure, we’re going to end the war.” You can’t end the war. Our presence is causing the war, our very presence. So if we leave any troops there at all, the insurgents will continue the war and they’ll continue killing other people. So their plan is a non-starter.

My plan would be very simple: We pull our troops out. As we’re pulling our troops out—that takes about 60 days—we turn around and get the puppet government ... and I want to say it, the word is probably ... the puppet government that we’ve set up ... we get them to draft 3 million young Iraqis. These young Iraqis are unemployed. Who do you think is part of the insurgency or these militias? It’s these young people that have no way of making a living and so they do this “insurgency” with banditry—the whole nine yards. What we do is draft them, put them in uniforms. OK? No civilian clothes. No arms. No arms. Begin to disarm them and turn around and give them the tools to rebuild their country with their own hands. And get the damned American war profiteers out of the country. Let them build their country, let them have some pride.

We had a program like this in the ’30s. It was called the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC. That’s what we need to do with Iraq and then get out, and use diplomacy, let them form their own government. It’s their country. Politicians in Washington feel we’re going to cut the country up in this way, that we’re going to get them to do this with their oil. ... It’s their oil! Let them do what they want with it. Who are we to go tell them what to do? Can you imagine if we had a million and a half, a million five hundred troops in the United States—and that’s about the proportions now population-wise. If we had a million and a half troops in the United States that had the power to go anywhere with their weapons and to kick in any door and to shoot anybody when they panic, what do you think would happen in the United States of America?

What a concept. Allow the young, unemployed Iraqis to rebuild their own country by giving them all jobs. Duh.

Miulang

[GnosticWarrior]

Re: The 2008 Presidential Elections

Ron Paul sounds like the only voice of reason in the Republican party. The only one brave enough to speak the truth. If you missed it, watch him in the second Republican Debate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8h2oLpzB4I

I'd like to see Ron Paul or Mike Gravel win the presidency. Let's hope the majority of Americans are tired of the same old bs from both parties.