I am also conflicted this year. Early on I hoped General Clark would jump in, but he seems to prefer working on the sidelines. I threw my early support to John Edwards, withdrew it after the blogger fiasco, and I have since gone back to supporting him. My wife, who voted twice for George Bush, is enamored by Obama, but I am yet to be convinced although he will be in our neighborhood in a couple of weeks and I am considering making the trek to hear him speak.
Hillary may still be lead candidate, but I am not convinced that she can sustain her lead over the long haul to the nomination. Whatever happens should be interesting.
f.
Posted by fdeaton at June 20, 2007 05:51 PMIt's all posturing, smoke and mirrors. I would never vote for Hillary, any other DINO, or a republi-con, but I'll wait to see what other options are on the table.
Posted by phidipides at June 20, 2007 06:28 PMHe'll run. He can run the most expensive campaign in US history, and still have a personal fortune large enough to run the State of Maine for a year.
The High-Broderite Brotherhood will make him an above-politics, non-partisan, goo-goo offer he can't refuse, not unless he wants to be vilified in every boite from Water Mill to Montauk.
Posted by Davis X. Machina at June 20, 2007 06:45 PMThis is exactly what all non-candidate candidates say: I am happy where I am. I am not a candidate (yet.) I haven’t thought about it. Albert Gore, Jr. is saying exactly the same thing. But neither one of these guys will close the door on it… cuz, if they have the chance, they want to run. If I was a betting man, I would bet the house and the farm that Mayor Mike was on the receiving end of a passel of frantic phone calls last night from Rudy Guliani and his henchmen.
Posted by ONeal Compton at June 20, 2007 06:57 PMHe's probably getting as many from various Wall Streeters begging "My God, save us from this ghoulish imbecile Rudy, thus Brylcreem stiff Romney, the walking corpse twins McCain and Thompson and the rest of the Ghastlythug Tinys."
Posted by Chris Rich at June 20, 2007 07:33 PMSteve, still stuck on ALGORE. You must expect him to be the savior of the Democrat's Party. He isn't, he wasn't, and will never be. He may end up as the Democrat's candidate at a brokered convention, but he will not win even then. He's done, expired like McCain and a bunch of others. They can run all they want, but that dog wont hunt.
If Hillary Clinton comes out of the primaries as your candidate, she loses. She's positioned to be your candidate. Leading money person, leading in the polls, and the highest negatives too. Democrats can't seem to help themselves. She's just there, too big to put out on the curb.
I guess she dropped the 'R' so it wouldn' be associated with the Republican Party. Now, she wants to be a Clinton.
Posted by peter at June 20, 2007 09:02 PMMaybe this is what you're afraid of. Both Guliani and Bloomberg have won in the Democrat's bastion of NYC. That's a lot of years(15) out of the mayor's seat. They can take Democrat's votes and win with them. Put HC on the ballot as the Democrat's candidate and what's the alternative? Guliani's sickness prevented the testing of this in 2000 and she won handily. This time will be different. Seeing NY and CA with an 'R' or 'I', red or green will be something to behold. New Jersey, Michigan, and Florida too. Momentum, super Tuesday in February momentum. All set up for Rudi and Hillary. The powers not there to divert it.
Well maybe, but you people will have to be happy, very happy with W to keep Bloomberg off the ballot. Right now the numbers add up for his run and you people are driving the numbers. Are you ready to be happy? That happy? I don't think you can be that happy.
Posted by peter at June 20, 2007 09:36 PMI'm just going to have to make a choice for better or worse and support one of them now instead of waiting for something better.
Why is there any urgency to choose a candidate now?
Wouldn't the continued refusal to do so, by a significant number of Democratic voters, encourage others to enter the race?
Posted by James E. Powell at June 20, 2007 10:10 PM"Thank you, may I have another." There's way too many in right now. You want more? Dilute it any way you want, HC still comes to the top. You've got to name the person and draft that person into the race. Don't get your hopes up for that former VP. He's not going to run. He's too lazy to put up with the daily grind of a campaign. Isn't he deserving of the rest after his heroic struggle in Florida and his single handed global warming campaign.
"Take Back America 2007"
Wonder what it will be next year?
Posted by peter at June 21, 2007 04:19 AMEven though this thread is obviously under assault by peter (DICK?), I have to comment on Gore. Unfortunately, he has many millions of reasons NOT to run. His current lifestyle, Oscars, Nobels and a new best-seller, plus a wife who seems less than enamored of the life in the "trail", would argue for him to continue on his current course. I do not discount this in his calculations.
Hopefully, I also believe he feels a deep sense of injustice at the way the media skewered him and how his election was stolen. Even more important, I believe he must feel some sense of responsibility for undoing some of the damage that's been done to our politics, our economy and the world.
It would be a very poor decision to jump into the race at this point in time. It's just too friggin EARLY!
He may not run at all. He will certainly want to wait to see how the "front runners" do in gaining support and attacking each other. The liberal media, "especially the New York Times" should not be given 15 months to hone their attacks, distortions and talking points. If Gore wins the Nobel, Obama continues to suffer beginner's "foot in mouth" disease and the ever-frisky media start to use some of their best "intelligence" against Hillary early, he might find the situation promising. Many other scenarios could provide temptation, I just don't know what he will decide. The good thing is, we really don't have to decide right now. Let's see how the situation evolves.It's just too friggin EARLY!
Posted by DeminNewJ at June 21, 2007 04:56 AMNo optimistic Democrats here are there? No one building bridges to anywhere. All this negativity. Gee FDR, Kennedy, and Big Bill all optimistic. These candidates today, all pessimistic. (Where Pess right now?) No wonder Republicans win general elections.
Posted by peter at June 21, 2007 09:57 AMBloomberg's calculation isn't that complex. If
Gore runs, Bloomie doesn't. If it's Rudy vs. Hillary, he's in. Obama or Edwards, too soon for Bloomie to make a decision.