nobody asked, but

[ironymaiden]

i have gotten to the point where i am really tired of Democratic primary season. the Democratic party is starving between two bales of hay. it has gone from exciting to grim for me, and i have a feeling that it's going to come down to the superdelegates and wrangling over Michigan and Florida.

and then there will be hard feelings. like there are already, where both sides seem to drill down to "if you support that candidate, you're stupid." i'm not stupid, and my friends aren't stupid for supporting another candidate.

i'll vote for any Democrat in the fall, because John McCain blew the last of his credibility with me when he voted against the Intelligence Authorization Act, which called for interrogation methods to follow the Army Field Manual (banning use of torture.) but he *did* have a chance with me, and please don't assume that everyone reading your blog thinks that every Republican politician eats babies.

if you want more independent voters like me to vote Democratic in November, DON'T CALL US STUPID OR ILL-INFORMED.

if you want to move me, tell me about voting records. tell me about the quality of their advisors, because i want to know about the kind of people they would choose for their cabinet and supreme court nominees. the rest is theater.

Comments

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

Well, what if they have mad l33t skillz in baby eating? Is that a factor or is baby eating theatre?

[ironymaiden]

if baby eating is the key to the health of the economy and world peace (well, stability, let's not go crazy here) their baby eating had better be the best. puppy tossing, on the other hand...

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

Baby eating is definitely an important part of world stability. Just ask any Republican. {ducks}

[mrdorbin.livejournal.com]

co. fucking. signed. (Also, I apologize if I come off overly cranky about the Republicans; definitely a bad habit of mine. But I always suspected McCain's hat:cattle ratio was higher than people wanted to believe.)

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the appeal of McCain was that, if one counts present-day Republican core issues (disregard for civil liberties, tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate welfare, etc.) as "cattle", McCain is admirably more "hat".

Removed from the obfuscatory metaphor, McCain strikes me as much more willing to vote on a bill according to its merits than on its conformance to the present-day Republican party line. His view of a bill's merits diverge quite a long way from my own, but I respect him for thinking more deeply than the balance between what the party wants and what the voters will tolerate.

He's even willing to reach across party lines on some issues, even at cost of occasional ostracism within his own party. I'd guess he also knows how to pronounce "nuclear", but I haven't thought to listen for that.

That said, he's no Barack Obama when it comes to developing consensus. Obama seems to have the amazing talent of being able to reach across party lines more than one way. Sometimes he can side with Republicans on an issue, with Democrats following him instead of ostracizing him. Other times he can reach across to persuade Republicans to join in on an issue supported mostly by Democrats, often relieving Republicans who vote with him of the usual backlash. He even sponsored a bill with Tom Coburn,* of all people.

Hillary Clinton seems like she's fighting the last war. She's really tough when the battle is a matter of facing down an extremist opponent in a highly polarized partisan battle. But this election year seems to be a rare case where the campaign has a chance of being mostly about competing political visions, rather than who has the strongest skills in fighting a partisan battle.

* I admit that Coburn seems to be much less loony as a Senator than he was as a Senate candidate. Perhaps he came to office feeling Spider-Man's motto, rather than Lord Acton's.

[mrdorbin.livejournal.com]

See, I think that's what he gets a lot of credit for, but I just don't see it in his behavior, particularly his votes on torture and his wobbly actions on campaign finance reform (which, yeah, he may be in the right on, but he's not exactly showing leadership), which are supposed to be his flagship issues. When the chips are down, he falls back to the party line.

Of course, he already disqualified himself with me when he supported the overturn of Roe v. Wade and refused to go on the record as believing that condoms reduce the spread of HIV (to be fair, that one was back in 2004 and I don't know if his position's evolved since then), but those are pretty core Republican positions, so I can't fault him except in the he-won't-get-my-vote way for those.

So yeah, I agree he's still vastly preferable to pretty much anyone else who was running on the Republican side, but his 'maverick' reputation has yet to play out in a way that really impresses me, though of course I'm not looking particularly hard given that I already know I couldn't vote for him.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Amen!

[gaelfarce.livejournal.com]

Indeed. That whole Florida and Michigan situation seems made to screw the voters.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

Michigan voters were disenfranchised by the party's decision to violate national party rules. Florida voters were disenfranchised by the state legislature's decision to violate national party rules. Those cases are an injustice to Michigan and Florida voters.

However, to seat delegates elected through a process contrary to party rules is an injustice to party voters in every other state.

Best case is a do-over. The national party has approved that option all along; it doesn't do injustice to other states' voters. And it gives those two states' voters a chance to send their delegates to the national convention.

I wish they'd just settle the logistics of the do-overs so they can happen. Everyone, please, agree on a process. And someone, please, step up with the cash to make it happen – even if it's offered as a loan with the understanding that the debate about who has to repay it hasn't been settled yet.

[craftyasparagus.livejournal.com]

Agreed!