I just missed the Great Candidate Wars of '03-'04. I do not know what kind of talking points people used against Edwards, or Kerry, or Dean, or Gephardt for that matter. However, if they were anything like this year's wars, I have an idea.
If candidate supporters are to be believed, none of our nominees are experienced enough, or smart enough, or genuine enough, or pure enough. They are all sleaze buckets who cannot win in the general election. They all flipped on the war, or voted for bad trade agreements, or talk about Social Security like the Repubs, or have seen UFO's, or talk to fucking much (Biden, I'm looking at you). Then there's Gravel and Richardson.
All of these are fair points one can use to decide who one will vote for, or conversely, not vote for. We have levied accusations such as these (well, maybe not the UFO thing) against candidates, both better and worse, for a long time.
Still, there is one talking point among the diaries that I have thought about a lot. People levy it at Clinton supporters, particularly female Clinton supporters. "If you vote for HIllary because she's a woman, you're not a feminist." I have to say, that's a load of bunk.
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