I am taking Molly Ivins up on her challenge. I am on a recruitment search. Every one of us should be. Let's find that perfect person to run for president. And get him or her out in front of the people
starting now and continuing on a daily basis until Novemeber 2008!
I make reference to her new Common Dreams article: Enough of the DC Dems, found here: http://www.commondreams.org/... , and wonderfully diaried here on kos, here by a cuddly CObear, http://www.dailykos.com/...
The challenge: Find the right candidate and Organize the Shit out of Our Side. And the netroots can do it. The right candidate would have money flowing into his or her campaign the likes of which would make Ponce De Leon think he had found the Fountain of Youth!
More patriotic fun below the flip:
The rest of the quotes below are Molly's:
As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to run on thirty-nine of them. Here are three they should stick to:
- Iraq is making terrorism worse; it's a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.
- Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.
- Single-payer health insurance.
Clip
What happens now is not up to the has-beens in Washington who run this party. It is up to us. So let's get off our butts and start building a progressive movement that can block the nomination of Hillary Clinton or any other candidate who supposedly has "all the money sewed up.
I am tired of having the party nomination decided before the first primary vote is cast, tired of having the party beholden to the same old Establishment money.
And here is the money quote:
We can raise our own money on the Internet, and we know it. Howard Dean raised $42 million, largely on the web, with a late start when he was running for President, and that ain't chicken feed. If we double it, it gives us the lock on the nomination. So let's go find a good candidate early and organize the shit out of our side.
Okay, this is an action diary.
I want names, names, names! Famous or not. Well-known or not.
I am looking for names of courageous Americans with heart. People who have ethics and charisma, as Molly noted.
And I want their addresses (not posted here, silly... just forwarded to me).
I want their addresses because I am personally going to write them a letter. If we want to collectively start a campaign for a REAL American Idol, we can. Wouldn't it be amazing?
Who are these idiots talking about Warner of Virginia? Being anodyne is not sufficient qualification for being President. And if there's nobody in Washington and we can't find a Democratic governor, let's run Bill Moyers, or Oprah, or some university president with ethics and charisma.
My first thought is: Robert Redford. There's my one contribution. What's yours?
Let's find our solution. Let's find the light and compass to journey out of the mess that is this nation.