November 2004

There were 57 posts published in November 2004 (this is page 7 of 10).

Say “No” To Hillary

Josh Marshall has a good post on why the Democrats should not nominate Hillary Clinton for president in 2008. He cites two reasons: first, because it’s not good for America to continue having presidential and/or party power concentrated in two families (Clintons and Bushes); and second because Hillary would have a difficult time winning.
I don’t have anything against Senator Clinton’s ideology or her as a person. But I think it would a disaster waiting to happen if the Democrats nominate her. If John Kerry can’t be competitive across the south and west, there’s no way Hillary’s going to sell in red state America. Unfortunately, image and personality seem be as important factors for a successful presidential candidate these days as message and policy. And Hillary has been demonized for way too long for her to overcome the negative currency attached to her name.

Framing The Debate

Michael Erard has a piece on how political consultants–Frank Luntz and George Lakoff in particular–work to frame political debates in specific terms in order to give their side an advantage.
This is an area where Republicans have had great success. They’re able to boil complex issues into a few simple phrases which even Joe Blow of the AM radio think tank can digest and regurgitate at will.
You could even see this contrast during the presidential debates. John Kerry came loaded with facts and statistics to support his arguments. On the other hand, Bush relied heavily on his simple talking points. Now to me, it appeared as if Kerry had a much better command of the issues. But apparently to many voters, Bush succeeded simply by repeating enough magic buzz words.

Popular President

I did a comparison with the vote total Bush received Tuesday and that of past presidents.
Bush got 16 million more votes than LBJ (1964), 36 million more votes than FDR (1932), and 57 million more votes than Lincoln (1860). There’s no popular vote total for the 1789 election, but if had been Bush undoubtedly would have received even more votes than George Washington.
Wow, George W. Bush is the most popular president ever!

Embracing The Re-Elected President

I think the Republicans established a notable precedent of gracious bipartisanship following Clinton’s 1996 re-election.
Of course it will be a bit difficult for Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings when they don’t control either house of Congress.