Please, Russ Feingold, save us from our lack of solid choices. Run for god's sake.

Feingold can't win. I don't think Hillary can either, and she'd also be a disaster in addition to possibly meaning 28 fricking years of Bush and/or Clinton. I still think the Dems best bet is an Edwards/Obama ticket.

B!X, what the hell are you talking about? Hillary is the Dems' most popular EVER candidate. She and Obama are a walk-in. Edwards?! Edwards!??? He's like a BLOW-UP DOLL!

I love Hillary. But she's unelectable.

To conservatives in this country, even moderate ones, Hillary Clinton is the fucking boogeyman. The way we feel about Dick Cheney? That's exactly how they feel about Hillary. She represents everything they hate about the opposition and they will do everything in their power to make sure she never, ever gets near the oval office. She will lose. Badly.

Giving Hillary the nomination is like saying, "Eh, we didn't REALLY want the Presidency. We just needed to vent a little."

> Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t
> expect her to be hot… I would just
> feel more comfortable if she
> wasn’t reminding me of my 9th
> grade algebra teacher (whom we
> called “The Bear”).

Wm. Steven, when you reach maturity you will know that this is what mature women look like. HRC is 59. I actually think she's quite beautiful.

Grow up, little boy.

I think Kevin just made my day. God, I love him so much.

in addition to possibly meaning 28 fricking years of Bush and/or Clinton

Indeed, Bix. And let's not forget that Jeb may very well stand by and wait for "W fatigue" to fade before making his own move. How depressing.

Kevin and Hillary sittin' in a tree… G-U-M-M-I-N-G!

Wm. Steven wrote:
> Kevin and Hillary sittin' in a tree...

Wm. Steven, your best response is a cliche, a well-worn line from a nursery rhyme?

My dear boy, you are being paid thousands of dollars a year by one of Portland's premier manufacturers of quality journalism...and the best you can come up with is a little cliche? I mean, really, is this honestly the best you can do? Because it cannot be making your employer happy. It cannot be making your editor happy. Frankly, Wm. Steven, it cannot even be making your readers happy, and we all know what lowered standards they have.

Please, Wm. Steven, please stop phoning it in -- for you own sake, if for no one else's -- and start trying to *try*.

Oh yes: hasn't anyone told you that if you must reply in the comments to your own post...then you're already lost. Those, unfortunately, are the rules of blogging.

Kevin, you two-bit turd-fuck; Fuck off.

Matt, I take umbrage with the fact you have labelled me a "two-bit turd fuck." In fact, I am a geriatric limp dick who only jumps on to this blog to interrupt true discourse. Please make a note for your records.

"Edwards?! Edwards!??? He's like a BLOW-UP DOLL!" I couldn't have said it better myself. A blow up doll is something you try to like because you're desperate, but will never really enjoy. (Not that I have any actual experience with blow up dolls mind you...but it does make me wonder about Matt Davis)

I'm with Kevin (not to be confused with ME...UsualKevin) as far as picking on Hillary for the unflattering photograph. It's sexist bullshit plain and simple. Guys her age are called "distinguished" while women are considered hags.

As far as making up my mind between Hillary and Barak I'm waiting to hear more. It's too early so for now it's 50/50. BTW who cares if conservatives hate Hillary? I think she's cool.

Thanks for putting us back on track, UsualKevin (though the other Kevin is really giving you a bad name). FOR THE RECORD, I didn't say Hillary was a hag, I just said she's scary, which she is, and unpersonable, which she is. Therefore I think she's unelectable.

Looking at a "net favorability score" is meaningless. Everyone's heard of Hillary, her name ID is close to 100%. Before the dems won in November, she routinely had lower positives and higher negatives. Then, suddenly, the Dems win, and more importantly, they LOOK AND ACT LIKE WINNERS. Suddenly, Hillary's positives skyrocket. See how fact it can change?

What worries me is that Obama has no campaign battle tested-ness. He beat Alan Frickin Keyes (Mr. 4%), for crimony's sake. I really have no idea what his policy positions are beyond a "warm smile." His ability to raise money is also in question (sadly, it's a necessity in modern politics, but its an important measure of support)

Some progressives bemoan the superficiality of the political system, but then we get posts like this that call Hillary ugly and don't discuss actual policy at all.

"Looking and acting like winners" isn't going to win anyone anything. The Democrats have failed us time and time again, which is why I'm going independent.

Democrats always vote independent when there's any danger they might win something.

Of course, the Kevin just above is not me. I could never be so unoriginal.

Matt Davis wrote:
> Kevin, you two-bit turd-fuck; Fuck off.

I take the fact that you must resort to crude profanity as complete surrender. Are you, too, getting paid thousands of dollars a year to post here?

Your employers must be very disappointed. Perhaps I shall write them.

Laura, care to share examples of said failure of Democrats AND how going independent will make things better?

I'm all ears...

Well, there's the little "war in Iraq" thing, which most Democrats were all too happy to support… does that count?

"Of course, the Kevin just above is not me. I could never be so unoriginal."

I find myself agreeing a lot with Matt Davis these days. Kevin, you two-bit turd-fuck; Fuck off.

Laura, "most Democrats"?

According to the House vote, 126 Dems voted no on the resolution. Only 81 voted yes.

Next?

Laura, you also neglected to mention how voting independent will help make things better. Still waiting...thanks.

Hillary is in the lead now but it is way too early! Too much time for the candidates to screw up just like back in 2004 when Howard Dean made a fool of himself prior to elections.

I imagine Kevin being very much like Tim Robbins character in High Fidelity mixed with a good dose of Dwight Shrute.

Laura: Hillary says she wouldn't have supported the war if she knew what she knew now. Kerry says he wishes he hadn't supported the war, and that he's going to spend the next two years trying to get the US out. Tell me how the Democrats are adopting a pro-Iraq position?

Yes, Edwards is JUST like a blow-up doll. If you bite his tit, he will fart and fly out the window.

if i had a stronger stomach, i would visit right-wing blogs to see if they attack their candidates like we attack ours.

in just one post and 26 comments, we've managed to call a variety of democrats:
ugly
weak
unelectable
a disaster
empty
unelectable
the fucking boogeyman
toothless
empty
unenjoyable
scary
unpersonable
unelectable
inexperienced
broke
failures
tit-flatulent

Jami: don't forget "a blow-up doll."

Hillary Lieberman er, I mean Clinton simply does not embody the real change I believe most Americans are hoping for.Plus the comment comparing her to the Dem's version of Cheney is spot on. If this party puts its weight behind this candidate it will accomplish one thing: it will galvanize the opposition surer than a Flag-burning self-aborting gay fetus that wants to run a campaign based on corporate tax reform.

Yeah, I believe "they" said the same about "Speaker Pelosi" galvanizing the opposition. Now that it's actually happened, Republicans are still running scared of the disaster tied around their neck called Iraq. Large majorities like the Dems, like Congress, like their priorities and hate the Bush admin/GOP. Shows you how much "they" know.

Do not be afraid, fellow Dems, it's OK, you can use power effectively and not worry about what the other side does or says!

The next President, will, regrettably, be Republican, because the Democrats are programmed to lose.
MO
The Democratic base is mainly in some large high-density areas like NYC, Chicago, Seattle, LA, etc. Unfortunately, most Americans do not live in those cities.

It's easy to think here in Portland that the rest of the country isn't like us, but it isn't.

In Lawrence, KS, and places like that Hillary is hated and her talent for saying bluntly what is really on her mind had her making a disparaging comment about "cookie baker moms that will ensure she'll never be electable. AND THEN, even in the high population areas, there's her gung-ho support of the Iraq debacle.

Barak Obama is far too green and is far too much of an unknown quantity to bank on at this time. We don't know what skeletons lurk in his closet, and while he obviously isn't a cokehead, his indiscretion of trying it will give those who don't like his ethnicity or his name a satisfying excuse for voting
Republican.

And then there's Obama's name. Setting aside the irrelevant but radioactive middle name of "Hussein," take a look at a complete list of Presidents of the United States (look at the list and then read the question that follows it):

George Washington

John Adams

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

James Monroe

John Quincy Adams

Andrew Jackson

Martin Van Buren

William Henry Harrison

John Tyler

James K. Polk

Zachary Taylor

Millard Fillmore

Franklin Pierce

James Buchanan

Abraham Lincoln

Andrew Johnson

Ulysses S. Grant

Rutherford B. Hayes

James A. Garfield

Chester A. Arthur

Grover Cleveland

Benjamin Harrison

Grover Cleveland

William McKinley

Theodore Roosevelt

William H. Taft

Woodrow Wilson

Warren G. Harding

Calvin Coolidge

Herbert Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry S. Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

John F. Kennedy

Lyndon B. Johnson

Richard M. Nixon

Gerald R. Ford

Ronald Reagan

George Bush

William J. Clinton

George W. Bush

Here's the question: How many surnames on this list aren't British or Celtic in origin? The only exception is Dwight D. Eisenhower with a German name. If he's an exception at all, it's because he was a national hero after WWII. There aren't even any French, Italian, or Spanish surnames!

You can brush this surname thing aside, but in the back of your mind, to you really think it's a coincidence?

Unfortunately, the next President will be Republican unless the Dems can come up with better (meaning more electable) choices than Hillary or Barak.

(As a humorous side note, the name issue was discussed on the Rick Emerson talk show, 970AM 11am-3pm, and it was decided that Barak would have a better chance if he repositioned himself as Irish by changing his last name to O'Bama.)