Category: Current Events

Richard Gephardt says John McCain is “someone a lot of Democrats could get interested in.” Be careful, that could backfire. What if the Republicans ran McCain instead of Bush. I bet a lot of Dems would be interested in him, over Kerry. [Scripting News]

Ok, am I the only one who would LOVE a McCain vs. Kerry matchup? See, I have no trouble having to pick between two candidates who I think would make excellent Presidents. To me, running McCain is the smartest thing the Republican Party can do. They have to see what a mess Bush has made of everything (even if they would never publicly admit it) or at least how divisive he has been.

As a left-leaning person who tends to vote for the more liberal candidate I certainly like Kerry more (especially in the whole pro-choice arena) but I view both men as honest people who believe in their country and who would try to do right by America. That’s win-win.

And then the election can be about vision for America.

Of course, I’m intrigued by a Kerry/McCain vs. Bush/Cheney matchup too…

Orcinus writes:

But even beyond the bias is the way this framing really corrupts and trivializes the national debate, so that we find ourselves constantly arguing about the “morality” or “character” of politicians, an issue that is by nature a product of spin and propagandizing. This has never been more clear than in the current election, when the “character” of a pampered fraternity party boy who couldn’t be bothered to serve out his term in the National Guard and who went on to fail miserably at every business venture he touched is successfully depicted as that of a sincere and patriotic regular guy, while that of a three-time Purple Heart winner who voluntarily left Yale to serve in Vietnam, and whose ensuing three decades of public service have been a model of principle and consistency, is somehow depicted as belonging to a spineless elitist.