My mother-in-law lives in Iowa City and is planning on going to the caucuses--but she's undecided about her vote.
Knowing that I'm the family political junkie, she's asking me for information about the various candidates, because she's just getting a very superficial view from media coverage despite (or perhaps because of) being in the middle of the storm.
As a Dean supporter, it's tempting to just tell her to vote for Dean, and leave it at that, but I'm not good at the hard sale and I'd like to give her a chance to make up her own mind.
So, here's your chance. Give me substantive, pithy, one-paragraph or so pitches for your candidate, and I'll pass them on.
Here's some of what she said to me about the candidates:
"Kuccinich (probably spelled wrong) is very pro universal health care and anti-war but it comes across as hasty and short-sided when he talks about pulling out of Iraq immediately. I mean, what do we do if the UN won't cooperate? And, why should they? My friend from Chapel Hill NC considers Edwards to be an ambulance-chasing opportunist who just wants to remain uncontroversial and be selected as vice-President. And, she has not forgiven him for giving up his senate seat which she says will almost certainly go to a republican. Dean sounds good in lots of ways but, like Bush, he has little experience in the federal government. I'd prefer someone who knows how to manipulate congress into compromise! Plus, some of his statements ("If I'm not the candidate, millions of voters will simply stay home.") have really turned me off. If he can't rally his current supporters to support the democratic candidate, what influence can he have on congress? I read an article about John Kerry in the New Yorker several weeks ago that gave me second thoughts. I liked the sound of Carol Mosley Braun but she dropped out! And, I am frustrated by how the news media seems to cover the candidates in direct proportion to the money they have raised, as if the candidates are having to buy time on NPR!"