Kerry in Charleston, SC

[politicasista]

report and pic here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1704237

[ProSense]

1. Globe: Kerry talks health care in South Carolina

Kerry talks health care in South Carolina

July 22, 2006

CHARLESTON, S.C. --About 250 people came out to hear what former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John Kerry had to say about health care disparities in America.

"The costs are too high, and the system is inefficient," Kerry said Saturday at a town hall meeting at the International Longshoreman's Association Local 1422. "It's effective health care, but it's not effective for everybody."

Kerry said he introduced a "Kids First" bill in the Senate last year to require the federal government to pay all Medicaid costs for children younger than 21 who live at or below the poverty level.

In return, state governments would expand coverage for children typically considered middle-class. States could save $10 billion each year if the federal government picked up health care for the poorest children, according to the proposal.

To pay for the increased coverage, the bill would repeal a portion of tax breaks enacted in 2001 for people earning more than $300,000 a year.

"I certainly think he is a candidate that realizes how serious this is," said Mary Sculley, a 73-year-old retired schoolteacher who drove from Mount Pleasant.

more...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/07/22/kerry_talks_health_care_in_south_carolina/

[TayTay]

2. Hey, didn't BLM go to see the event in Columbia

Check in and tell us how it went. (Were you able to go?)

[blm]

3. Went.

Got in early and waited in a private reception area for Amy to call. Met some really cool elderly women who went to the Charleston event and then to the Columbia event. Unfortunately Amy's phone wasn't connecting in the hall, so there was no personal meeting with JK. And I am not the type to muscle in when others are trying to get his attention.

When we joined the rally there were about 500 people there on an extremely hot late afternnon in a very muggy hall - but the enthusiasm was in uber-drive. ALL types of southerners, from long-haired veterans to crew-cut veterans, from urban youth to seer-suckered elderly ladies. They were excited and united behind the senator.

I am glad I went - it proved to me that all those "southern strategist" types who are going around saying JK never connected are LYING - they are LYING to assert a dominance on the party to make the party believe that ONLY southerners can win a presidential election. Kerry was HOT and COOL at the same time - worked in a few numbers like the fact that they managed to get 10 million more votes than Clinton at the height of his power in the Dem party during his 96 election.

I always felt that the southern strategists and the Clintonites were the ones putting out the lies since November 2004 - they all KNEW Kerry's numbers were astounding, and they also know NOW that electronic machine "glitches" robbed him of about 5 million more votes. So, they KNOW Kerry won by a large number, but fixing the electronic machines won't pay their mortgages or their kids' tuition. However, convincing Democrats that they NEED them to tweak their positions, policies, and speeches to attract more southern centrists WILL make for a better payday.

[whometense]

4. wow.

Thanks for that on-the-ground report. I could never imagine that there was a Mason-Dixon line for Kerry appeal, and I'm happy to know that there isn't.

So how is the Clinton dominance to be undone? I always thought Kerry would be a shoo-in in 2004 if he could split himself into twenty JKs and everyone in the country could have a chance to meet him.

[blm]

5. I have my suspicions that the Clintonites want Dems to perform poorly in

November so they can further hound Dean out and put their own people in control of the party. I thiink the Clintons are becoming to the Dem party what the Bushes became to the GOP - control freaks.

I think Dean and Kerry are more on the same page than ever before - both emphasize HONESTY from Dems, anti-corruption themes and election fraud and adherence to the 50 state strategy. At this point we have only a handful of nationally known Dems who will talk about election fraud openly - we need more to join them.

[Blaukraut]

9. you're probably right

I had my suspicions about the same thing in '04 - the Clintons did not want Kerry to win then, either. The more time passes, the more obvious their agenda becomes, and the less I like them.

[ProSense]

14. I'm starting to believe you're right!

Moderates: Dems Should Talk About Religion
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
2:34 PM PDT, July 23, 2006

DENVER -- Rather than being bashful, Democrats should openly talk about their religious beliefs and moral values, say moderates urging the party to court voters beyond the traditional Democratic base to win control of the GOP-run Congress this fall and the presidency in 2008.

"If we continue to have this perception in the Democratic Party that faith can't be discussed, we'll continue to lose elections based on wedge issues," said Terrance Carroll, a Colorado state representative.

Snip...

But moderates claim that invoking religion will help Democrats connect with churchgoing Americans -- including Republicans and independents -- who polls show are more apt to vote with the GOP.

Snip...

"Our goal is to broaden the Democratic Party," said Al From, the DLC's founder.

On religion, he and other moderates said Democrats must strike a careful balance -- talking about their faith without shifting positions on "values issues" to score political points.

"There is a downside if it's not authentic," Karen Hale, a state senator from Utah, said.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-democrats-religion,1,4851285.story

Are they trying to lose? Values is not the friggin issue! It was phony in 2004 and it's phony now!

[karynnj]

10. I wonder how the Clinton mystique will suffer if

Lamont wins after Clinton campaigns. There have been a few good threads (amidst some angry ones) where people have hypothesized that the point of Clinton's campaigning is to bring out the vote (rather than to convert the Lamont supporters) on the theory that Lieberman has more support than Lamont among the currently unmotivated.

Clinton was wrong on both pieces of advise he gave Kerry, concentrate on Dem issues, not national Security and the gay issues. I wonder if he had a say on the Alito filibuster or whether to take a stronger Iraq stand. (I seriously doubt that Reid alone had more credibity than Kerry and Kennedy.) Looking at 2004 and beyond, Kerry has been on target, while Clinton really hasn't been.

In 2004, the party could not drive people to its candidates. I really wonder if they will be able to in 2008. (There is some thought they had mentally conceded 2004 as unwinnable in 2003. 2008 looks like a Democratic year so they will fight for it.)

[ProSense]

11. I'll be more of the same stuff

blm mentioned:

July 23, 2006
The Democrats (Re)Discover Class

DENVER, CO – There are two common features to every gathering of the Democratic Leadership Council. One is the canonization of Bill Clinton, the DLC’s biggest status symbol. The second is –- a hopper full of new ways to get Democrats elected outside the Northeast.

Snip...

Here’s what weird about that: for all the bloviating about the DLC’s corporate funding, the mushy, tasteless centrism that occasionally defines their policy suggestions, the liberals and the DLCers – call them Democratic progressives – agree on something.

In order to win elections, Democrats need to somehow regain the trust of the American Middle Class.

more...

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/07/the_democrats_r.html

Progressives?

[ProSense]

15. Names And Faces At The DLC

Snip..

** Joe Klein, the dean of the DLC press corps, seems to know every elected official by name and was determined to steer the younger, newer ones into private conversations.

** Tamara Luzzatto, a minister's daughter who is chief of staff to Sen. Hillary Clinton, attended a DLC breakout session called "Connecting with People of Faith." Clinton's legislative director, Laurie Rubiner, also took in early breakout sessions.

** New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is back in the good graces of the DLC; he's among the most recognizable public officials here and is regularly greeted by backslaps and handshakes.

** Where is ex-Sen. John Edwards? He wasn't invited, but don’t read too much into that. “If we had turned this into a presidential beauty contest, we wouldn’t have been able to get anything else done," says DLC founder Al From.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/07/names_and_faces.html#more

[karynnj]

16. What is really strange on this is that it shows

that hotline understands what some DUers find impossible to understand. They question where is Edwards, who as an ex-Senator can't be in the DLC not being there and ignore that John Kerry, who still is a Senator, thus COULD be DLC is not there and wasn'tlast year either.

[ProSense]

6. Awesome! Thanks for the report!

Love the description of the attendees! Yeah, time to take the pundits with a grain of salt!

[TayTay]

7. BLM: the 'Kerry people' are on-board with the 50 State Strategy

I saw them present this enthusiastically back in March at the Massachusetts Democratic Campaign Institute (DCI) in Worcester. Setti Warren spoke about it. Tracey Lewis, who has moved over to the Massachusetts Victory '06 (Mass Dem Party) presented it to attendees. Ayanna Pressley, Sen. Kerry's political director for Massachusetts spoke about this. (How much more on-board can you get? If the staffers on the ground and in planning all get it, then I think you can safely assume that the boss gets it as well.)

Please review these two threads: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=74383&mesg_id=74386

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=74434&mesg_id=74434

This is a 'what I learned on my summer vacation running for President of the United States' thing. They know. They are implementing this in Massachusetts currently. (Yeah, Massachusetts, right. Who cares, it's a Dem state. No, it isn't. It's a machine run, top-down, 'do as you're told' state.) This is different. (Remind me to tell you about the intense curiosity among long-time Dems about the Deval Patrick campaign, which is 'people-driven.' It is roiling Mass politics from the outside in.)

I am keenly interested in seeing how this plays out here because the resistance is enormous. It's like trying to turn a huge truck 'on a dime.' The Kerry people are completely, totally, absolutely, utterly, on-board with this 50 State Strategy. The Clinton people and the DLC want to impose a top-down, machine driven structure on the Dem Party for the forseeable future. This is the fight. Coming soon to a non-machine driven state that might actually implement it easier than Mass. Honest.

[blm]

8. He brought that up yesterday - he is completely with Dean on that strategy

for the entire Dem party. Kerry was VERY enthusiastic about it and spoke of it pointedly to the crowd.

[globalvillage]

12. This is great, blm.

Too bad you didn't get to talk to the Senator :-( .
No one else could have managed the number of votes he did with the pitiful support of the Dem leadership.
Some welcome good news after such a horrible week.
Thanks!

[Island Blue]

13. I'm glad you got to go blm!

500 is an excellent crowd for a mid-summer event IMO. I'm sure the crowd would have been larger if it wasn't summer and classes had been in session at USC. Thanks for your perspective on the "southern strategy" too - I suspect you are 100% correct.

I've been searching The State newspaper's website for a story on JK's Columbia visit, but there's nada. (Although there is one on is Charleston visit.)

If the South Carolina primary is moved to a week after New Hampshire as proposed, I plan to spend as much time as possible down there. (Assuming of course, that JK runs. :))