Navel gazing: So how does all this remembering Carter's presidency, the Vietnam war... help us now?

[Skidmore]

It hasn't helped us in the past. We haven't learned a god-damned thing from these exercises...not a god-damned thing. Tomorrow when we arise, there will be floods on the plains, snow in the mountains, and a southwestern type heatwave in the NE and in June no less. Fuel costs and the costs of all products are making it difficult for people to meet basic needs. Mountains of credit debt throughout the nation. Foreclosures are still occurring at record rates. Unemployment is rising. Wars are still waging and hunger and disease are found everywhere. World peace seems like eons away. The legacies of Carter, Reagan, pick a Bush, and Clinton (oh, yeah, don't forget Nixon especially if you happen to be Pat Buchanan) and defending or denigrating said legacies should be the very last thing we are concerned with at the moment. Let's get in the present. The here and now. The great state of "Is." Let's get a president elected on the current state of the nation and the world because the future just around the bend is not looking bright and promising if the current state of affairs is perpetuated. Engaging in tit for tat exchanges with McCain and his herd of dinosaurs of the perceived glories or dishonors of past administrations is counterproductive. Every SOB that brings up anything beyond the past 7 years should be cut of with a resounding "What has that to do with now?" We need problem solving that fits this century and to look forward. We have wars to end and an economy to turn around.

I am only concerned with one candidate now. The one that is still standing. Let's face forward and move on.

Now get with it. We have work to do.

[groovedaddy]

1. That's exactly why they're going back 20 - 30 years

The last 7 have sucked so bad, they're trying to change the subject.

[Skidmore]

2. The greatest tactic we can use is to redirect continually...

just like you do with an errant toddler. Redirect. Jerk them back into the here and now and ask how rehashing 30 years ago fixes what is wrong now.

[groovedaddy]

5. Abosutley. The Repubs WILL NOT take any responsibility for the last 7 years

It's all the Dems fault all the time.

[truedelphi]

3. I find comfort in the fact that the ONLY THING left for the RW is in trying

so desperately to Re-frame the past in ways that bolster their case.

But it is all a pack of lies.

My husband was saying yesterday that in the past few days, whenever he felt down, he'd remember "They didn't get thier way with whom the Demcoratic camndidate turned out to be."

And that's very true. They've been shilling hard for Hillary - in the vacuum of her finally conceding, Obama comes out with a statement that there will be no lobbyist money allowed in the money changing rooms.

They are more than worried, they are scared. This time the shit hitting the fan might put Bush and Cheney in jail, and toss the whole mess of those bratty Old Boys and Girls back out into the streets.

I mean, so what if they want to play around with Carter's image a little. You don't really think the Senate is going to remain in Republican control, do you??

[Skidmore]

4. I do think the Senate will have a Dem majority. Right now, though,

I'm a little frustrated in the Dems that are willing to get into these ideological pissing contests with Republicans over old stuff. It is wasted time and energy to refight these circular fights. I'm not invested in protecting any political legacy at this time. I am interested in creating a new agenda and new solutions using a new dialectic. It is time for the Republican brand to be tossed into the rubbish bin and for the Democratic Party's brand to be either totally remade for a new century or to suffer the same fate.

[truedelphi]

6. Yep, you are right. The Dems in power should let them say whatever they want to.

Several years ago, The Reader's Digest had this hit piece out on how Pres Kennedy hid his Addison's disease.

They really belaboured the point - this man was very very ill, and had his illness progressed then he could have died from it, and then where would we have been? (Never mind that since he was shot down and killed by our CIA, it hardly matters!)

Person after person wrote in to say "Thanks for the article. Any time I hear about Kennedy I remember how wonderful a man he was, and how great a President, and wasn't it fabulous that he got us through the Cuban missile crisis in one piece."

They haven't hit on Kennedy since!

[krkaufman]

7. It's about striking a chord with the Reagan Democrats ...

... and nothing else.

It's a wise political move, and the media is eating it up... since it gives them a chance to pound on a Democrat, Jimmy Carter -- regardless of the fact that Carter's energy policies might have put us in a position where 9/11 would never have happened.

[truedelphi]

8. That would be a good thing to point out to them n/t