WaPo today runs an
interesting story on Republicans running against Bush in the NH primary. These guys are the longest of long shots. Some of them are Christianofascists, some are nut case conspiracists, but some of them actually talk sense:
Judged by effort, the most serious Republican candidates are Bosa and John Rigazio, a Rochester, N.H., businessman who owns several variety stores that sell "cigarettes, alcohol, potato chips, juices, those kinds of things," says Claire Nugent, a cashier who moonlights as his spokeswoman....
Rigazio held a town meeting at the Rochester Opera House recently that drew 80 people on a blizzard night. But mostly he's known for running ads in two major local papers, open letters costing him an estimated total of $200,000, each running 800 words and full of emphatic capital letters.
"To those of us who listen to the MEDIA tell us that the RECESSION IS OVER and the JOBS are a LAGGING ECONOMIC INDICATOR but JOBS will soon PICK UP as the ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRESSES, I have to wonder HOW DUMB the media (who spread our government's FALSE FIGURES to us) think the public is."
I couldn't have said this better myself.
What's interesting about the article is that there appears to be a great deal of unhappiness with Bush:
Underlying all these efforts is a certain seething irritation with President Bush. David Gosselin, former chairman of the state Republican Party, ran ads and started a Web site this fall calling for a Republican to challenge President Bush in the primary. He has substantive disagreements with the president, about the war in Iraq, his treatment of big business. But mostly it comes down to "character," an issue that crystallized for him when he caught a ceremony on C-SPAN of an aircraft carrier being named for President George H.W. Bush. "Arrogant," Gosselin says. "I have something against this princeling succession. I'm just sick of sons of rich kids running the country, and it's about time someone challenged them," although he adds that the current crop of challengers is not "credible."
What would it take to convince Mr. Gosselin and people like him that a Democratic challenger is a worthy opponent to Bush? If they sit out, that's good for the Dems. If they vote for the Dems, that's even better. We need to convince these voters that the Democrats are a far better alternative to Bush.