cheetah

And I bet if you took a poll of Californians on that topic (ture/false), they would say that statement was false. It was never even really made clear and Davis is still blamed for the energy crisis.

elwoodblues

You see Bush veering Right. In some areas, very Far Right. It's tempting to try to counteract that, somehow, by veering Left yourself. Don't. Presidential races are won in the middle; they can only be lost in the wings.

Provided Nader doesn't push himself forward suicidally, or even endorses the Democratic candidate, the Left will vote Democrat, especially after 3 1/2 years of Bush. The swing will be in the middle, where people who voted for Bush the moderate (such as myself), having been disenchanted, will be looking for someone else to vote for. This may be enough to counteract the enormous amount of money Bush will be spending on his reelection campaign.

Playing to the left, though, would only be shooting the candidate in the foot. Then Bush, who doesn't have to worry about swinging Right to earn the nomination, can campaign to the middle freely and without competition. That'll be kind of difficult, given his record the last few years, but he can do it. Never underestimate a politician's consumate ability to redefine his ideological history.

callmejay

The Dems need to find simple messages. If you start talking about the top 1% and the top 10% and 50% of the tax burden, and yada yada yada people's eyes are going to glaze over. I can picture a few great tv spots:

Clip of W telling a lie.
Clip of the truth.
Clip of W telling a lie.
Clip of the truth.
Clip of W telling a lie.
Clip of the truth.

Corwin

Geez.... can you imagine the budget needed for that?

Jimmy Higgins

You'd need a documentary to do all the lies and broken promises. Of course, they already have the best sound bite straight from the lips of Bush. "Education is not my top priority."

wildernesse

I agree. It's so hard to care when you're convinced of this.

--tibac

Arken

That didn't work in 2000.

ImGod

Pool all the Democratic campaign funds and buy a media mega-conglamorate with the help of private business interest (secured by future access inside the beltway). Then fire anyone right of center and put James Carvelle in charge of all content.

Have all of the "journalists" in your media outlet harp on everything Republican to pull the feeble American thought process to the left (center right will probably do since that's where the Democrats really are).

Have a tabloid or tabloid like TV stations under your control with $1million bounties for any dirt people can dig up on the Republicans. Start investigations for valid or invalid reasons (it doesn't really matter), slander people, lie, cheat, steal, blackmail, intimidate, etc.

Do whatever it takes to win. The Democrats need to stoop low enough to become more successful at the new American politics. Grass root campaigns just leave you holding dirt.

Zar

ImGod probably has the only viable solution, I'm sad to say. This ought to speak volumes on the nature of society, especially in America at this time.

People seem to respond depressingly well to lots of nastiness and to being cynically, invasively and aggressively programmed.

Tom Sawyer

What we need to do is label anyone who says anything that disagrees with left wing ideology as a traitor who hates America. That's worked really well for the right and we need to start cashing in on that.

Also, anyone who thinks that our soldiers should be dying to protect us from third-world despots who pose no threat to us whatsoever doesn't support our troops and is spitting on the graves of all the soldiers who've died in important wars.

Sure, there's all the lies about the WMD, ties to corrupt oil executives, reducing taxes onthe rich at the expense of the poor, dumping the economy into the toilet, trying to roll back civil liberties, and all the other stuff that doesn't matter. But those things don't win elections. We need to lie and deceive and make unfounded accustations like asking Dubya to reconcile his Christian faith with the long-term homosexual relationship he's been having with Pat Robertson. Throw them off balance, so they'll be caught off guard when we rig the election and get our guy installed as president through a corrupt Supreme Court.

That's how you win elections. Or don't let Americans vote. They've shown that they don't know how to handle it.