Remember when John Kerry was the Democratic choice for President? Remember when the Dems were set up for a "close loss" in 2004?
Well, I do. I remember very clearly feeling confident about the elections. And then again I also remember turning on the television to find out that Ohio was very red early on and that a lot of counties were very randomly taking a very long time to post their counts.
It wasn't an accident, nothing is in American politics. And the puppeteer behind the curtains is starting to pull strings again.
An interesting story at the LA Times caught my attention and put into words better than I could a primary strategy for the Republicans come election season.
Peter Wallsten goes on to talk about, paraphrasing the article, how Karl Rove set up the Democrats for a loss in 2004 by steering clear of Edwards and nominating Kerry.
The new tactic may be a little more complex than that. The article title itself states that this time the right is aiming at steering away from Obama and Edwards towards Clinton. I can't think of any better way to set up the Democrats for another failure in 2008.
When I read the article I honestly got chills. I felt like this is a serious weakness to the much needed Democratic victory in 2008.
I'll be very forward with this; I'm not a registered Democrat. I don't vote in primaries, or haven't yet at least. I do, however, vote for President. One thing I know about the last two elections is that they were quite rigged.
I think the boat will get rocking as soon as 2008 gets here. Things will get messy and time will not slow down. We have never had a female President before and nobody knows how the votes will turn out. Just like the above video points out, polls can be off from the official counts and while it's suspicious it's often overlooked or dismissed by the higher-ups.
On that last point, anything that gets through the House of Reps can be instantly turned down by the selectively selected USAs, who need no introduction, and the AG.
I think it's very possible that with all the weaknesses already in the election process that the right can easily highjack the election while the rest of us stand there with our hands in the air and that what the hell look on our faces.
It worked in 2004, it can work again. Not to mention the unprecedented Hillary Clinton as the most controversial candidate the country has ever seen. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about equality to the max. I think Hillary had good ideas when Bill was in office and I think she'd make a helluva President. I do like Edwards a lot too, and I hope Al will run.
Aside from my tangent trying to avoid assumptions of my bigotry, seriously, I think that the Democrats could easily get blindsided by the enormous responsibilities and liabilities of the 2008 Presidential election.
There's just so much going on, there's the war that is such a serious concern. It honestly seems like the government is using our military as a stonewall for political strategies. There's the side effects of the war. Then there's the actual domestic issues that the government is just absolutely dancing around. Where the hell is habeas corpus and why the hell haven't any of the Presidential nominees or Representatives demanded restoration?
What about Bush's new secret weapon? This election needs to be taken a bit more seriously by our Congress and the electorate. Maybe take out electronic voting altogether?
I'm definitely curious, and a little anxious, for the next year and a half. It's gonna be a bumpy ride I imagine, but I think it's clear that it's time to start getting shit done and being very clear and firm in our assertions to the way our elections for our officials proceed.