Next Years Election question. How will we win in '04?

[Norbert]

What is it going to take to win in 2004?

As I stated in another thread Governor-Elect Ernie Fletcher(R)Ky won by a substantial margin largly because of a huge amount of support from the Republican Governors Association (RGA). It's also a well known fact that this past race for Mississippi Governor was the most expensive in state history likely because of the RGA lobbying group.

Republicans and their ilk spend and spend big. If they wanted to paint Mahatma Ghandi as a war monger they throw money to paint him that way and the mush brained voting public will believe accordingly. The worst part of this is, it has a very high success rate.

My question is can we get Clark or Dean or Gephardt or Kerry (Frankly I don't care which as long as whistleass is out) in the White House when shrub has already picked up a ton of money in the past several months? Can an everyman like Paul Wellstone, with more good ideas than cash flow, get to be senator in today political climate? Will voters be like lambs being led to the slaughter every election because of pacs, lobbying groups and smear campaigns?

[CWebster]

1. And they are unquestionably united

Whereas our party leadership often seeks to ostracize, and many of our contenders for nominee seek to gain advantage by introducing divisive tactices, i.e. Sharpton pulling the race card, Edwards introducing regional conflict, Kerry seeking to cast competitors negatively in a misguided effort to elevate himself--only to supply tactics to the opposition.

[Justice]

9. Hmmmm, Disagree

Republicans are united because they are in the white house - just like Democrats were in 96. When Bush was running in the primary he was pretty rotten to McCain.

It is appropriate and correct to discuss issues and raise questions. Some of questioned Clark, some question Dean. It is fair and appropriate - whether you or I like it.

[JailBush]

2. It looks grim.

I think your last sentence says it all.

I've been politically involved for several years, focusing mostly on education reform and local issues. But I've spent the last three years working my butt off fighting Bush - largely by focusing on local issues. I created an anti-Bush website and ran for public office for the third time, making Bush a campaign issue. But only a few people cared.

Focusing on local reform is ultimately the ONLY way we can win. Even if Bush steals the White House again, strong local government can help protect us from the Repugs. So why doesn't anyone give a damn about local elections?

School boards are at the bottom of the heap. Education is the great equalizer - Democrats are just as guilty oas Republicans. The kicker is that education is the enemy's Achilles heel. It's about so much more than education.

But everything just keeps going downhill, and the public remains just as ignorant, stupid and apathetic as it was yesteryear.

Those big campaign war chests prove it. Bush could spend ten billion dollars on his next campaign, and I'd still vote for someone else. But there are obviously a lot of people whose votes can be bought. The key is to somehow reach out to those people and educate them.

That means an end to business as usual. I think we should fight fire with fire. In that spirit, I LOVE smear campaigns - as long as they're essentially truthful and target Republicans. Phony civility is killing us.

People need to speak out in many diverse voices and wage novel campaigns. Speaking of which, have you ever noticed that virtually every campaign website in America SUCKS?

Seriously, if I was a fifth grade teacher, and one of my students wrote the kind of crap that is posted on campaign websites - Democrats included - I wouldn't give them a passing grade. Why can't candidates come up with more than three intelligent issues and write more than three paragraphs about each one, including more than rhetoric?

We blew Campaign 2002. We blew Campaign 2003. But I still think local politics is the answer to Campaign 2004. If there were 10,000 candidates for city councils and school boards who were bashing Bush and educating the public, it would obviously have a major impact on the presidential campaign.

Every school board candidate in America should be screaming bloody murder about Bush's Leave No Child Alive Act. Every candidate for any office should fight corporate corruption by making "freedomware" - open-source software - an issue and bashing Microsoft.

The solutions are so OBVIOUS. There just aren't any people out there willing to fight the system. Are there any adults in America?

[MessiahRp]

7. Maybe we should

lie to every voter we see and tell them how we're going to pander to every need, even down in the South and when we get elected we can unveil this FAR LEFT liberal philosophy that the voters had no idea existed in our candidate and we can try to push through heavily liberal judicial nominees, get a liberal network on massive Cable/Dish clearance to walk step in key with our views, pull out of Iraq, reverse the tax cuts, reverse the ban on Partial Birth Abortion, Eliminate the Patriot Act, create a serious jobs program, bring back welfare for the poverty level Americans that are struggling, bring back funding for Head Start and Education, restore environmental standards and sign Kyoto, fuck the oil companies over and develop alternative sources for home and vehicle energy usage, create new heavy penalty corporate crime legislation...

And just totally reverse the last 4 years of Bush like he did to the prior 8 years of Clinton.

I mean it worked for them, why not fuck them right back over?

Rp

[HFishbine]

11. Sadly

People don't vote in local elections. Last night we had an incumbent mayor returned to office in a "landslide" where 20% of eligible voters turned out.

[dofus]

3. Will we be able to trust the vote results?

Will there be exit polling?

Will any opposition to "re-electing" Bush be framed as disloyalty, perhaps treason?

[quaker bill]

4. Shrubbie* is still popular with the majority in many places

But his numbers are falling in most of them.

It takes a lot of dollars to make a stream of body bags look good. That is why he is raising cash as fast as he can.

The races we lost were in the conservative south where Shrubbie's* numbers still look best. None of these races were cast as directly as our guys against the misadministration, except Street in Philly.

That one turned out fine.

Dems won a lot of races yesterday. We shouldn't be so down about this.

[rasputin1952]

5. I think that the key to winning the next election is really quite simple..

We need to get the vote out of the 30-40% range and move it up to 95-100%. For the life of me, I cannot understand why people do not get out and vote. Most of the people in this country have been hurt by the current administration, yet most of the country will not get off their collective dead butts and DO something about it.

Of course, this leads to the second major debate of the voter turnout problem; most of those that complain, are the ones that refuse to take the few minutes it takes to cast a ballot. The collective laziness of the American voter leads us into a situation where less than 50% of the voters in America make the most important decisions? We are our own worst enemies!

I do not, of course, speak of those here at DU, I can rest assured that 100% of those at this site that are able to, will vote next Nov.
However, I do believe, we should be working at the Grass Roots level to ensure that people get out to vote, and we should also be active in ensuring that polling places be free of tactics that infringe on the rights and privacy of the voter. When I worked at the polls in AZ, there were no cameras allowed in the polling places; there were no people pressing the voters outside of the polling places to challenge who they would vote for, electioneering was banned for 100 feet around the polling place. These are tactics used by the GOP, and they need to be challenged at every turn. If someone, other than the press came in into a polling place where I worked at, and began to film people, they would have been arrested immediately. To ensure that people are not badgered, it was imperative to have members from both major parties as poll workers. I never saw a problem in any polling place where I worked, and turnout was pretty darn good!

It all comes down to case #1, getting out the vote. #2 is the case with BBV and a paper trail, and that is becoming a national issue.

:kick:

[Norbert]

6. Voter turnout was 38% in Cincinnati.

and we had one of the warmest and most pleasant election days most people can remember.:shrug: I thought it would have been been closer to 50%. How disappointing. One wonders what the voter turnout would have been like if the weather would have been nasty.

BTW the city of Cincinnati remains a Democratic and Charterite stronghold for city council, as expected.

[rasputin1952]

8. 38%, that is really a shame...

but I am glad that most of them were Dems!

62% of the voting population couldn't be bothered?

This is really a travesty.

:kick:

[NicRic]

10. Unite ,rematch 2000 election !

Many are still mad about what happen in 2000 election .I say , lets throw a curve ball at the repugs ,and at the same time show some backbone . No,2004 should not be all about the 2000 election ,however it should be part of it ! Al Gore in the last speeches he's given ,has been saying exactly what we want to hear ,and are not getting from the crowded feild of contenders. I know I will get flamed for saying so , Draft AL Gore. A GORE/CLARK ticket will excite many , and except for them successfully stealing the election again ,there is no way bush could beat a ticket like this .A devided convention ,that becomes united with the one person polling highest against bush ! On second thought ,we would'nt want to do this ,we might win ! Common, what the heck ,bring back Gore ,memories of Clinton/Gore economy, and the topping on the cake .The look on bushes face when Gore is being sworn in as President ,priceless !!!