I think a better slogan would be, "We Can Do Better." That opens up to showing what ideas the Dems have that are better for America than what Bush has in store for us.

"We can do better" -- yes, I was going to suggest that also.

I read the NYTimes article Michael - I agree that it's a fine line - especially because he needs Washington DC votes to get any legislation passed. But ...

"The problem is what he's doing is working," Mr. Kerrey said. "If he'd followed my advice at the beginning of the campaign, he'd probably be in sixth place."

I'm not convinced yet that it's unwise to nominate a pit bull. I think the people in Washington DC need a wake up call whether they're the good guys or the bad guys. It seems to me that you're advocating a typical, safe, handled politician -- if that's the only strategy that will win - then I don't care who is nominated - nor will I help - nor will I have any hope for things changing.

as for "allowing petty bickering to divide us during this election" - I can't imagine anyone who posts to this not voting for whomever the Democrats nominate.

Hartmann writes an essay that complements what Michael is writing about. -- Jock

This article is copyright by Thom Hartmann, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached and the title is unchanged.

Published on Friday, October 24, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Republicans - Please Take Back Your Party
by Thom Hartmann
 

Today's so-called Republicans have established a mind-numbing record at polluting the environment; bloating government; appointing crony partisans; pushing the nation into debt to fund tax cuts for the rich; legislatively catering to the world's largest corporations; opposing women's rights; kneecapping states, local communities, and schools; eviscerating constitutional protections of liberty at home; and devastating our nation's reputation abroad.

They try to re-write history - the biography of Thomas Jefferson on the www.whitehouse.gov website has been re-written to turn him into a man who had "assumed leadership of the Republicans," while the reality was that Jefferson's party was the Democratic-Republicans and still exists today, called the Democratic Party. (The Republican Party is much more recent, having come into national existence in 1856.)

Corporate shills like former Enron lobbyist and current GOP chairman Ed Gillespie would have us think the Republican party was born in service to corporations. But Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, was also the first president to actively use the power of government in support of striking workers.

In Lincoln's era, the idea of strikes was so novel the word "strike" was put in quotation marks in newspapers, but Lincoln was often on their side. "Labor," Lincoln wrote, "is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

Republicans would do well to revisit the Republican Party's campaign platform of 1872, before the era of corporate personhood, as it may hold the seeds of their redemption.
--- snip

From blogForAmerica ...

A new NewsWeek Poll ...

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031025/nysa015_1.html

Taking into account the poll's margin of error of +/- 3%, only Dean and Clark are capable of defeating Bush, according to the poll's hypothetical matchup:

Dean 43 Bush 49
Clark 43 Bush 49
Lieberman 43 Bush 50
Kerry 42 Bush 50
Gephardt 42 Bush 51

I was pointed to your post by Rayne at Rayne Today. As she pointed out, your post is saying the same thing from the center perspective that <href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002379/2003/10/27.html#a72">I said today</a> from the left perspective. This morning I've had the C-SPAN rebroadcast of the Dem debate on, and it is alternately inspiring and sickeningly divisive. We must, as they say, keep our eye on the prize, and build a coalition of everyone whose interests are not served by the Bush administration, from the left to the broad center. I am proud to have you by my side fighting the good fight.

Michael, glad I could provide some comic relief:

I had very high hopes for Governor Dean, but his actions in recent weeks have given me cause for concern.

See, this is what I mean about you being coy, man. What actions in recent weeks? You're very short on specifics, here. From where I sit, Dean hasn't done anything different in the past two weeks than he's been doing for the past two months. Perhaps it's something he's not doing/done, in which case please put that out there too so we can talk about it.

PI -- We must find a way that our conversation is the beginning of a broader effort. To cite an undoubtedly politically incorrect quote, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

From the feedback I have been getting I am absolutely convinced that there are millions of Americans who feel as we do. And, who are tired of the divisiveness, the cynicism and the rancor.

I intend to continue to write here, but we must find a way to take our message to the broader audience that agrees with us.

You made my night.

"What actions in recent weeks?"

I'm a Deaniac so don't flame me - and I'm not saying that any other candidate is doing any better than Dean but here are three things (they are minor - but he needs to grow out of them in order to greatly exand his base - and I believe that he will)

1). His closing speech in the last debate - if he's going to go with the "you have the power" motif (which is cool), he's going to have to be fair about it and do it on behalf of all the candidates or he's not going to get much traction beyond his current base.

"You have the power to change this country not us." We have a great slate of candidates here - pick one - join his or her campaign and tell your relatives and friends and neighbors and let's get this country moving in the right direction before this president dismantles, job by job, the greatest economic engine in the world."

That is leadership - he's uniting the party and will move on to unite the country.

2). I'm concerned about the Washington DC outsider motif - (a) Dean's going to need senate and house votes to get any legislation passed (b) to make such a motif work nation wide, he needs the rhetorical and rabble rousing skills of Al Sharpton (c) if he persists in using the motif - he can't just call attention to the Democratic legislators for gridlock - it has to be more general.

3). One his best parts in the last debate was when he answered "every one up here supports our troops - whereas this president does not ..." (he could have given even more examples than what he did but I understand that he was under-the-weather). He needs to dole out more credit and unite the party now - not in the middle of next March. He's the front runner, the nominination looks achievable even with a 2nd place finish in Iowa - he needs to defend the party against Bush at this point a stay in Bush's face like he has from the beginning.

I talked to a couple of Democrats, Independents and Republicans after the debate who are either in Dean's camp or are interested. They all said that he's the best of the bunch (Edwards came a distant second). The above is a composite of our assesment.

I let Trippi know via the blog feedback tools - I'll watch to see if they're reading the posts and if they agree.

The Haudenosaunee (Six Nation or Iroquois) Confederation:
Background and Political Correctness

JMU Editor

Background

The Confederation of the Haudenosaunee (more commonly known by the French name, Iroquois, or by the English, Six Nations) was a remarkable political achievement. This confederation, developed prior to any European contact, turned five (later six) small Native American nations into a political and military power on the North American continent, holding a balance between French and English interests.

This was a genuine confederation, not simply an ad hoc alliance. They had a formal Constitution and successfully coordinated their wars, foreign policy and trade policy. The long success of the Iroquois Confederation is in marked contrast to the short, unhappy run of the U.S. Articles of Confederation. For purposes of internal communication, the Six Nations developed a system of relay runners. The runners ran in pairs and ran day and night, navigating by the stars at night. This system was as good or better than anything the colonists had for the first hundred years. By concerted action, the Six Nations acquired an empire:

"At its maximum in 1680, their empire extended west from the north shore of Chesapeake Bay through Kentucky to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; then north following the Illinois River to the south end of Lake Michigan; east across all of lower Michigan, southern Ontario and adjacent parts of southwestern Quebec; and finally south through northern New England west of the Connecticut River through the Hudson and upper Delaware Valleys across Pennsylvania back to the Chesapeake. With two exceptions - the Mingo occupation of the upper Ohio Valley and the Caughnawaga migration to the upper St. Lawrence - the Iroquois did not, for the most part, physically occupy this vast area but remained in their upstate New York villages.

[Lee Sultzman, "Iroquois History," in Indian Histories. See also: Paul Redmond Drew, "Sir William Johnson - Indian Superintendent." The Early American Review, Fall 1996.]

Source: http://www.jmu.edu/madison/Iroquois.htm

Worth considering as a model for a unified Democratic effort?

Jock

Michael Cudahy represents the margin of victory, he does not just write about it. I also am a former Republican and continuing conservative and person of faith (I believe in a balanced budget, in making America strong through education and public health to plant seeds for the future, and in a strong *smart* national defense that is actually appropriate to the global threat, and in moral capitalism).

Dean is the best of the lot but he has a ninth draft staff and too small a staff a that. I am very concerned that Dean's staff has too many interns and not enough adults. I am very concerned that Dean's staff is too closely tied to those who served Clinton, and too eager to see in them the voice of experience. Clinton was a passive President on foreign policy and national security, the opposite extreme of Cheney-Bush, who are neo-Nazi aggressives that are doing very bad things in our name. Dean has to take the middle course.

On domestic policy Dean has to come out strong on the specific harm the rising deficit is going to cause every single generation for the next seven generations, and he has to focus on the basics, as Matt Miller does in 2% solution: universal education and universal public health are what *enable* productivity that will in turn provide for our retirees!!!!

My bottom line: I think the Dean team desperately needs three things: a) a senior ombsbudsman to whom the Republicans and conservatives and cultural creatives (55 million strong) can turn to to get in front of Dean; 2) an immediate pumping of up an outreach staff with no fewer than 20 full-time people led by a full-time wizard with total access to the great authors and associational leaders across America; and 3) a 24/7 "watch team" organized by White House staff function, perhaps staffed by retired Marine officers and Staff Non-Commissioned Officeers, and led by a Colonel that knows how to manage an administrative and operational staff.

Dark horse time is over. Dean is facing the ultimate challenge in the next 90 days, and I fear that if people like Michael Cudahy, Paul Ray (cultural creatives), Matt Miller (2% Solution) and I are not fully integrated--with all of you--into the campaign, then it is lost.

I heard Dr. Dean speak in Boulder a few days ago. While my enthusiasm for him increased he disapointed me with his energy policy; he wants to go the ehtanol route. While this may be expedient for the Iowa primary it is actualy the wrong direction for a national energy poicy. Our energy policy should be based on scientific considerations.
http://home.comcast.net/~bcdiehl contains a brief discussion of these principals (click on "Reality and the Politics of Energy") The page also offers a perspective on why we so badly need a change at the top, which Dr. dean seems to offering us

How many people are for Clark up there? I'm from Oklahoma, and we're really pro-Clark down here. A lot of Southerners will not vote for Dean. If he's nominated, I will vote for him (ABB), but realistically, I don't think Dean can win the general election, and I am so scared of what will happen if he's nominated and can't carry the country.

Last week I decided that General Clark would be the candidate I would support. In the debate he gave thoughtful answers to reasonabele questions and sounded presidential. He is not a short answer quip
like we have become familiar with in the short answer usurper. He will not be giving the same
stump speech like a robot ... He can reach out to all groups. He has the warmth of Edwards, the military record like Kerry, he is facile like Dean
and friendly like Mosely-Braun ,his hand shake is warm and firm. He has a sense of humor as well
as a sense of loss for service men and their families. Someone else said it for me Sat. as she helped me put my walker in my car " I feel I can TRUST him".