Thursday, May 31, 2007

DEMOCRATS HAVE MORE FUN? WELL IF NEW HAMPSHIRE IS ANY INDICATION, THE REPUBLICANS MIGHT AS WELL JUST SAVE THEMSELVES THE MONEY AND TROUBLE

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OK, the New Hampshire GOP has suffered some setbacks recently. Lots of them were caught stealing elections (for Sununu especially) and are rotting in prison now. Their corrupt and anti-democratic shrinking little party lost both chambers of the state legislature, both the state's congressional seats, and the Democrat got 72% of the vote in the gubernatorial race. Since then, the state has gotten even bluer. But even with that said, things are not looking well for the 10 (or 11 now?) little white dwarves running for president.

According to today's Boston Globe "Democratic presidential candidates are drawing bigger crowds, more donors, and more energy from the New Hampshire electorate than Republican hopefuls are, a sign to officials in both parties of a lack of enthusiasm for the current GOP field and a tired state Republican Party still reeling from a historic defeat in November." No one is going to their stultifyingly dull events and no one much cares what any of the Bush rubber stamps have to say. It seems all but over for the GOP and their Iraq psychosis.
But Democratic campaigns are reporting unprecedented turnouts at events at this stage of the campaign, as party activists seek to build on the gains they made last year.

Obama drew a crowd of more than 5,000 for a rally at Dartmouth College on Monday, a day after 1,200 people attended a standing-room-only meeting in a high school gym in Littleton, according to local news accounts.

"I could feel in '06 a tremendous momentum building," said US Representative Paul Hodes, Democrat of New Hampshire. "Now, there's a sense of historic opportunity" that is bringing hordes of people to Democratic events, he said.

Instead of struggling to attract voters to their events, both Clinton and Obama have had to actively limit attendance for certain meet-and-greet sessions, spokesmen for the two campaigns said.

The Democratic supporters appear to be more motivated than their GOP counterparts, judging from crowd turnouts and polling.

Even a Republican hack like defeated Congressman Charlie Bass admits that "the enthusiasm is definitely on the Democrats' side, still."

McCain, who wanted to razzle dazzle the whole world by making his campaign announcement in New Hampshire, where he's the most popular of the 11 unpopular Bush rubber stamps, instead of his home state, managed to draw only 350 people, most of whom were staffers and people passing by who were curious about the small crowd.

Maybe Sam Brownback's absurd explanation of why religionist superstition trumps science in his backward world view will make a difference-- at least in the bowels of the Old Confederacy. But, like Bownback's questioning of evolution and McCain agreeing with O'Reilly that old white men need to control things, the Republican Party-- and its pathetic lineup of would-be presidents-- is utterly out of step with the American people. Right-wing extremist judicial activists on the Supreme Court narrowly reiterated the Republican position that corporations' rights supersede Justice for individuals, a view shared by about even less Americans than the 15% who admire Dick Cheney.

It remains to be seen if Democrats understand who to make the public understand that there is a positive alternative to everything they distrust and dislike about Republicans. Of course with leaders like Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer and the K Street Democrats barking like Republicans, voters can't be blamed for getting confused and throwing up (their hands).


OH, AND SPEAKING OF NEW HAMPSHIRE... THEY'RE OFFICIALLY FOR EQUALITY THERE NOW

Pam over at Pam's House Blend pointed out that that Democrat who won the 72% of his state's gubernatorial vote last year, John Lynch, just signed a civil unions bill. That means New Hampshire now legally recognizes marriage-like relationships between same-sex couples. The other states that recognize the humanity of gay men and women are California, Vermont, Maine, Washington, Connecticut and New Jersey. Next up, I believe: New York and Massachusetts. Funny how it's always the states who opposed slavery who are out front on this while the slave states are the ones pushing the hardest to discriminate against gays and lesbians (not to mention anyone else who doesn't adhere to their narrow stereotypes of acceptability).

And while forward-thinking Americans-- which, fortunately, means most Americans-- are trying to handle this evolution in a reasonable manner, the backward and mentally ill prefer... closets like Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Larry Craig (R-ID), lives lived in shame, molesting children like Mark Foley (R-FL). Today Cara DeGette did a really funny and insightful story about the upcoming book by Mike Jones, the gay prostitute who outed Republican religionist operative "Rev." Ted Haggard. Progressives deal with our gay and lesbian fellow citizens the way John Lynch did today, with compassion and brotherhood. Reactionaries turn out mentally ill people like Haggard, McConnell and Foley.

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6 Comments:

At 12:47 PM, Blogger Milt Shook said...

It's this simple, and it's not confined to New Hampshire;

The republican Party was so greedy to win elections and certify power, they forgot the cardinal rule of governance; the governed expect you to govern. They worked so hard to get into power (and barely -- they never had a huge majority), but when they got it, they squandered it.

As much as their corruption, their incredible incompetence is spelling their doom. The wingnuts are done, and the GOP may be done for a generation. Bummer, huh?

 
At 1:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder when some real republicans are going to start running, all I see are RINO's.

 
At 7:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That piece of shit Reagan is dead. Let's hope that piece of shit Republican Party follows him soon.

 
At 12:34 PM, Blogger Milt Shook said...

I think the current incarnation is dead. The GOP will lose elections for the next few cycles, but they will have to do what the Democrats did back in the late 60s, when they had a choice between doing the right thing (supporting civil rights) or winning elections, and they did the right thing. (Perhaps the last time?)

Look for them to be reincarnated with out the scumbags on the extreme right, eventually... but that will take years... In the meantime, Progressives need to take over the Democratic Party, and run the DLC idiots out of the party once and for all.

That's one of the reasons Hillary is, at best fourth among my choices for president. Frankly, I'd like to see an Edwards/Obama or Obama/Dodd ticket.

 
At 1:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Years ago, I would have agreed with you. But I witnessed how little time it took for the scumpublican party to recover from the disaster that was Nixon.

I thought surely people would begin to realize the basic criminality of conservatives in general and republicans in particular. Didn't happen. Instead, several talking heads told us that "Nixon has suffered enough", followed a few years later by "Nixon is an elder statesman". Only seven years after Nixon was gone, we got stuck with even worse - Reagan.

(Which, btw, I blame on Ford and his pardon, which prevented a thorough investigation of republican criminality.)

So, no, I don't expect the repubs to lose several elections. I predict that, unless there is quickly a thorough airing-out of more recent republican crimes (which I don't expect, given the cravenness of the Democrats), they will remain competitive, even in the 2008 presidential election. I'm not joking.


Regarding that election, I feel closest to Gravel and Kucinich. But for a serious (and COMPETENT!) candidate who can win, I like Richardson. He and Edwards would make a fine team.

Obama is an empty suit. Clinton campaigned for Lieberman. Screw them both.

Of the repubs, I would never vote for any of them, not in a million years.

 
At 8:29 PM, Blogger 2Truthy said...

milt shook,

The time is now for the Progressives to get behind Edwards and quit chatter about certain undeclared candidates who are draining public relations away from a unified Democratic message. Edwards (Edwards/Kucinich ideal) is the only candidate who is making a strong play for the middle class and the DLCers (Obama and Hillary)are worried. For some reason, a fringe on the left are also ignoring Edwards in hopes of the former vice president running.

 

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