Edwards Passes on Important Question

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 12, 2007 · 7:22 PM PST

2007/11/12 · 19:22

Now let me start this off by saying that there's no love lost between Hillary and me, and that Hillary is most definitely not my top choice among the current candidates. But when the moderator asks this important question...

"Would you support Senator Clinton if she were the Democratic nominee?"

...that ought to be a no-brainer.

Barack had the perfect answer:

"I am a Democrat, and I would support the Democratic nominee," he said. With a smile, he added, "I intend it to be me."

Biden's worked well too:

"Of course. What’s the [alternative] choice, Rudy Giuliani?"

John Edwards, on the other hand, punted:

"I’m not willing to talk about that at this point," he said, waiting silently until the next question was asked.

Poll

214 votes Show Results

Will you support the Democratic nominee, whoever that turns out to be?

214 votes Vote Now!

Will you support the Democratic nominee, whoever that turns out to be?

Yes

115 votes

34 votes

I'm not sure yet

65 votes

Poems for Veterans Day

niremetal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 11, 2007 · 5:46 PM PST

2007/11/11 · 17:46

For all American soldiers who have perished on foreign battlefields - may they never be forgotten:

"Drummer Hodge" by Thomas Hardy:

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew –
Fresh from his Wessex home –
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
His stars eternally.

Update: Other users have attached some equally wonderful poems below, although the Hardy poem always struck the strongest chord with me.

The Big Democratic Tent

niremetal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 08, 2006 · 7:30 PM PST

2006/11/08 · 19:30

The election results are in and I, like every other progressive in the nation, am ecstatic with the results. No longer will the Republicans be able to push through unaffordable tax cuts for the rich while underfunding educational programs. No longer will Bush be able to slam through conservative judges without a real fight. Perhaps most importantly, no longer will Bush be able to safely bask in the knowledge that Congress will never send him a popular and progressive laws that doesn't fit in with his conservative agenda.

This is a victory we all should savor. The Democrats have spent a long time out of power in Congress, and we have earned a chance to savor this victory before getting to the important (and hard) work of getting America back on track.

So why oh why are there rumblings of an interparty struggle between progressives and moderates in the party over who is "responsible" for yesterday's gains? Read More

FL-Gov and FL-22: Davis within striking distance, and Klein ahead!

niremetal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 05, 2006 · 3:23 PM PST

2006/11/05 · 15:23

New SurveyUSA poll shows that Charlie Crist's once-mighty lead over Jim Davis has dwindled to a mere two points. Click here to see the poll results.

This is a race many Democrats wrote off from the word go, but this race has looked increasingly winnable in recent weeks. Jim Davis has run a great campaign, and the Foley scandal seems to have hit the FL GOP pretty hard. Another recent poll showed Ron Klein leading GOP Rep. Clay Shaw by double digits in one of the country's key House races.

Even better, GOPers are even more discouraged because they have 500-ton anchor Katherine "Go Hide the Votes" Harris running at the top of their ticket. Keep an eye on this race - it looks like another upset in the making, and further proof of the impact of the 50-state strategy. GOTV!

TN-Sen: Ignore Kos and Pay Attention to Reality

niremetal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday November 03, 2006 · 11:57 AM PST

2006/11/03 · 11:57

I know it's a big roll of the dice for me to take on the head honcho of this site in my first week of diary writing, but I have to get this off my chest. I have never been so steamed by a post on a blogsite as I was when I saw Kos run up the white flag in TN and toss Ford under the bus...and then put up a post pumping up CT-Sen 30 minutes later. Let's take a look at the polls, shall we?

The RCP poll average has Lamont down 11 points and Ford down just 6.5.

There have been 8 polls showing Ford within 5 points or even ahead of Corker in just the past two weeks - including three in the past week. Lamont hasn't been within 8 points in any poll released since late September, besides two Zogby Interactive polls (and we know how accurate those are).

There hasn't been a poll showing Lamont tied or ahead of Lieberman since before the primary.

Granted, none of that actually means that Lamont will lose. But why is it that Kos is so willing to throw Ford under the bus based on three polls but isn't willing to toss Lamont under based on dozens? The answer is that Kos's real reason has nothing to do with polls. Read More

TN-Sen: Fight it to the Finish

niremetal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 02, 2006 · 2:27 PM PST

2006/11/02 · 14:27

Harold Ford can definitely still win this race.

I know that's contrary to polls and conventional wisdom at this point. TN is a red state. Harold Ford is a black Democrat. He's behind in polls, down in money, and short on time. Perhaps most importantly, polls in the past have often overstated the support level for African-American candidates. I can't argue with any of that. But this race is definitely not out of reach.

This election is, perhaps more than anywhere else, one where the ground game on 11/7 can make a huge difference. Ford's base is the African-American community of Memphis, which routinely fails to turn out on E-Days, particularly in midterms. If Ford has the resources to get those voters to the polls and - more importantly - make sure there are poll monitors in place to make sure these voters don't get disenfranchised, Ford has a very real chance to win this. Read More

First Diary: MAJOR electoral reform proposal (for your leisure)

niremetal

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 31, 2006 · 3:57 PM PST

2006/10/31 · 15:57

So Election Day is getting close, and although it is vital that we keep our eyes on the prize, I thought it might be a fun little intellectual exercise to propose a major hypothetical change to our election system, and see what all of you think of it. Bear with me on this, because it takes awhile to explain (or you can just skip down to read the actual proposal).

Many people here at dKos have expressed a desire to see an end to the two-party duopoly. A variety of very good reasons were given for this, most being some variation of either "the current system does not adequately express the views of many Americans" or "it leads to a low turnover rate and breeds corruption." While I won't evaluate the validity of such claims here, they obviously aren't inherently unreasonable.

Unfortunately, our basic electoral system pretty much precludes the possibility of a multi-party system lasting for an extended period of time. But perhaps it doesn't have to be that way. Read More

RSS