'08 - Who do you want?

ELENATION · January 4, 2008

And Ted Kennedy proposes his last toast right before Hillary gets in his car .....while Bill Clinton "prays" that they make it home safe while he stays mingling with the female crowd........ and should a tragedy happen during that ride...., Bill will swear under oath that he did not have any wrong intentions by sending Hillary home with Ted.... He will then testify that he saw Ted having just apple juice on ice all night long.... and he won't mind swering under oath because as usual, he would be saying the "truth"

gadgetlady · January 7, 2008

Electoral Compass USA

This is a very easy-to-take quiz which tells you who you align most closely with.

green · January 8, 2008

Yes, Green, you are most likely correct.
I have to say I saw Barack Obama on Jon Stewart on Tivo last night with my DH. I voted for him here on the poll. I guess I should be embarrassed that a fake news program on the comedy channel is a source of political info but then again we discuss our digestive tracts on this site. . .

Jon Stewart has a pretty intelligent show, I think. And unlike the pundits on the serious shows, he is not a gasbag. :tired I also believe that when you are examining politics you need a little humour; it helps stop a grrl from getting angry or crying. :heh:

green · January 8, 2008

Electoral Compass USA
This is a very easy-to-take quiz which tells you who you align most closely with.

I took your quiz and it seems that my candidate would be Obama if I were allowed to vote.

DerickM · January 8, 2008

ifi t comes down to hukabee and obama I will vote for obama. But I will not feel good about it.

gadgetlady · January 8, 2008

I took your quiz and it seems that my candidate would be Obama if I were allowed to vote.

LOL! Ah, green, I'm not surprised. My closest match was Fred Thompson. My furthest away was Obama.

transformer · January 8, 2008

Electoral Compass USA
This is a very easy-to-take quiz which tells you who you align most closely with.

Very neat tool! Poor Barack Obama was the furthest away from me on the little chart. Interesting!!! Thanks for sharing the link!

green · January 8, 2008

LOL! Ah, green, I'm not surprised. My closest match was Fred Thompson. My furthest away was Obama.

I loved Fred Thompson on Law&Order which is one of my favourite shows. I miss him. :think

As for Obama, it seems he has green values. Maybe Oprah should be his running mate. And Dr. Phil for Secretary of Foreign Affairs or whatever Condi's position is called; he would know how to get those heads of state talking to each other. :heh: Schwartzenegger for Attorney General, perhaps....:eek:

anonemouse · January 8, 2008

ifi t comes down to hukabee and obama I will vote for obama. But I will not feel good about it.

We'll convert you yet!

BJean · January 8, 2008

I just quickly scanned the thread for the first time (I been outta touch) and was not surprised at all the usual crap directed at Democrats. If you'll notice, people who dislike the Republican candidates usually have a reasonable reason (like lack of hair) but the people who dislike Democrats spend a lot of time bantering about the morally weak displays by certain Demos (who, by the way, aren't running).

I have no problem with anyone disliking Hillary, for whatever reason. But to see that women are against her BECAUSE she's a woman is truly frightening. Is everyone here too young to remember a wonderfully brilliant woman leader in Israel many years ago named Golda Meir? And Bhutto who was assassinated wasn't assassinated because she was a woman. It was because she had power and a loyal following.

If I had to vote for someone right here on this thread, I'd vote for the people who seem to be the most intelligent - green and marjon9, no contest.

(And no, I'm not planning to vote for Barak Obama, although if he's the Democratic nominee, I'll have to think pretty hard about it. And green, I'm with phylliser - Edwards is the cutest Demo guy running.)

If Mitt Romney (cutest Republican) or that Huckabee clown from Hope, Arkansas wins, I'm heading for Canada too! Btw, Gulliane isn't a serious candidate, is he?? :help:

I guess rating any of the candidates on their looks is at least as silly as disliking Hillary Clinton because she's a woman. :faint:My bad.

green · January 10, 2008

One of our two national newspapers has a woman reporter down in the States covering the primaries. She is not a reporter whom I like, she tends to insert too much of herself into her reportage, but she has been commenting that Hilary is being cruelly savaged by many wits because she is a woman. One wit made jokes about the size of her thighs. She noted that none of the male candidates were made the butts of humour because of baldness or other aspects of their appearance.

She also felt that Hilary was caught in a constant catch 22, again because she is a woman: if she displayed no emotion she was an unfeeling bitch and if she did then she was too emotional to take on the duties of the White House; and if she kept Bill by her side she was too dependent on him and if she didn't this was because she was going to divorce him. This journalist concluded that gender was a bigger drawback in politics than colour.

green · January 10, 2008

Thanx for your vote, BJean. I would love to run with Marjon9. If elected, the first thing I would do is ban the colour beige. Yep, no more beige.

BJean · January 10, 2008

Yeah, I agree with you about beige. But I'm not sure about Ecru. What about Ecru?? I'm feeling confused. What about shades of grey?

Your somewhat biased female reporter is completely correct about gender bias in this country. What is surprising to me is that most of the discrimination against women in politics in this country is done by other women. Why don't women trust women? Is it steeped in some biological urge to beat out other women for the best men?

When I was in a male dominated work force (Office of Attorney General), I found that women did not trust or even like each other across the board. They didn't even respect the women who were quite accomplished, intelligent and high profile. It is very sad. Most men that I have encountered take women in business very seriously - because they know first hand how well women can compete and succeed.

In speaking with friends and acquaintences about Hillary Clinton the politician, many men tend to believe she is a formidable candidate while many women think she's abrasive and harsh and that there's no way she can win.

I believe that Hillary has paid her dues to the political forces that run things in this country and that if the voting machines are tampered with again, she could win. It would not surprise me, however, if Barack Obama wins the nomination and I am not sure how a political race like that would turn out. The racial discrimination in this country is not an insignificant factor either. But then again, Oprah has a lot of power. I'm just not sure if her power flows over into the political arena.

All in all, most of us are sick of the race already. The way this thing will probably go is down and dirty and we may all be so sick of it, people might stay away from the polls. After all, we should be keenly aware of the Republican's ability to play that game and win.

green · January 11, 2008

BJean, I am always interested in your coments concerning la vie americaine and I am awful pleased to see that you are now actively participating on LBT again. I find your help in deconstructing the American Gestalt invaluable, and I also appreciate the occasional smack-downs which you give me whenever you feel that I sound like an overly smug outsider.

My brother the American hopes to vote for a Democratic ticket which has Hillary for Pres and Obama as her running mate. He would like to see her in office for 8 years while Obama does his apprenticeship.

It is, however, true that women are often suspicious, jealous, and resentful of each other. It would be most useful for all of us to understand how and why this arises for it is divisive and destructive. Certainly Hillary Clinton does bring experience to the table, and she is, I am certain of this, a candidate who is morally engaged.

With respect to Barack Obama, I believe that while this man has many charms his chief charm is that he will be a fresh and thus a relatively uncorrupted voice for Americans. I suspect that many Americans are feeling exhausted, resentful, and bitter towards the political establishment on both sides of the fence. I also feel that the younger generation would like to have a leader to whom they can relate, one who will make America feel relevant to them. A quasi-black leader will go a long way to repairing those feelings of racial damage which seem to be endemic in your country. Blacks and other minorities will no longer have any excuse to opt out of legitimate society. And the foreign press does favour Obama. His election would certainly go a long way in improving America's street cred in the global arena. Indeed, Obama as a hawk would be able to get away with acts that one of yer old white guys as a dove could not. This is why I favour Obama even though he does not have the same degree of experience that Hillary does have.

marjon9 · January 11, 2008

Hi BJean and green, thanks ladies for your nice comments.

Like green, I have also been considering a political career. Do you think it's too late for me to throw my hat into the ring for this presidential election? I think I'd fit in well with this year's theme of openmindedness and breaking down barriers. We'd have a white woman, a black man, and me, a fat atheist. I think I'd fit right in. My slogan could be "It's time for change. Anyone have some to spare?"

I do find this race to be quite exciting. It's the most interesting one in a long while. And the crop of candidates seems much better than the last few go arounds, at least to my liking. Even some of the Republicans border on the tolerable. While I disagree with most of McCain's positions, I do think he is someone you might be glad to have around when facing a real crisis.

For me, though, the choice is between Hillary and Obama. I like Edwards, but I don't think he has a chance. I really do think that one of these two, Hillary or Obama, will be the next president. This is truly an amazing thing to contemplate. If either one is elected, this will represent a profound and fundamental change that will be life-altering for this country, and maybe beyond.

In a sense it is too bad that both of these candidates have to be running at the same time. One of them will have to lose, and we will all therefore miss out on the great benefit it would be to see that one elected. Aside from whatever great job they could do as president, just the symbolism of the election of one of these two would be enough to change this country. I think it is that important.

For example, it would mean so much to all the women of this country to see Hillary elected. All of a sudden no dream would be too big. I believe we would see glass ceilings come crashing down in every walk of life in a matter of just a few years. I think it would be that profound. I agree with BJean that sometimes women are unsupportive with each other, but I think that part of this may be because spaces at the top for women are so few that there just isn't enough room for a team to get there. It's a solo endeavor. Men can afford to be supportive because, within reason, there's room for everybody at the top in a man's world. Women don't have that luxury. The election of Hillary could go a long way to moving us forward in opportunities for women.

However, at some point in an election a person has to make a choice, and for me, I now believe that the best result overall at this time, since both Hillary and Obama can't be elected, is to see Obama win.

Can you imagine what it would mean to every black person in America to see Obama elected? One of the things that would make it so powerful is that this would not just be an individual achievement. Martin Luther King has already done everything that needs to be done to demonstrate black individual achievement. The thing that would be different here is that every black person in America would know that Obama was elected in part because a majority of white people voted for him as well. We saw how powerful this was when we learned that Iowa, a relatively conservative state with a 95% white population, voted for Obama. This was so powerful and so healing. If this happened on a national level I think that this would have the effect of encouraging the process of uniting us into one family and healing the past in a way that could hardly be achieved any other way.

And I also agree with green that electing Obama would give us the best chance of healing the horrible damage Bush and Cheney did to the standing of the United States in the international community. We need Obama for this reason as much as any other.

But, I have a luxury here because if my second choice wins, Hillary, the benefits will be just about as meaningful as far as I'm concerned. So, it's a good year.