Why Kerry, Clark, Edwards are the best candidates

[quinnox]

It's simple, they can win! These are the most electable candidates. Gephardt is not as electable as these three, although he has his strengths. Lieberman is too much of a turnoff for the predominantly liberal voters who will be voting in the primaries. Dean is the weakest candidate of the top six, his chronic flip-flopping and too-often gaffes would be a huge liability.

Kerry and Clark can wipe AWOL Bush around the debate stage with their military credentials, the only strength Bush can run on (wartime president), while Edwards would simply make dumbo Bush look like a doofus, all the while piling on the southern charm that Bush simply can't match.

[OneBlueSky]

1. I might agree with you on Kerry and Clark . . .

but I think Edwards comes across as just too young . . . people want a certain maturity that Edwards doesn't quite project, imo . . . nice guy, though . . .

[Bombtrack]

4. You really think that if he was nominated people wouldn't know his age?

The fact that he looks as good as he does compared to Bush who is only 5 years older will make for a prime talking point that working hard and living clean for your whole life is better for you than living off of your rich parents and partying.

[Bombtrack]

2. Agree completely but this is going to get flamed

I think Gephardt might actually be as weak as Dean though. They both want to raise middle class taxes. But Gephardt comes off as much of an aweful political hack as Dean does an arrogant blowhard

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Edwards has three years in public service

While I like him, this is hardly the amount of experience Americans are going to accept given the mess the world is in.

I like Kerry but his campaign thus far has been tepid, although he can wax the FLOOR with George Bush in a debate.

Clark is the best of the three you mention in terms of broad appeal.

Dean has stirred commotion and has done a fabulous job of RECREATING grass roots support and to be frank...the only WAY we are going to win is to get people that DON'T VOTE TO VOTE. We already know how existing votes will be divided. It is time to involve ALL AMERICANS back in the process.

[Bombtrack]

6. Edwards has 5 years and it will be six

The thousands of people Dean has attracted aren't going to balance out the huge ratio of independants that wouldn't vote for him that would vote for another democrat.

You will not find one professional strategist, pollster, or professor of political science worth there title that won't confirm the fact that the most important group of voters in national elections are WHITE, COLLEGE EDUCATED, MIDDLE CLASS, SUBURBAN ADULTS from there 30's - 50's who regard themselves as INDEPENDANTS(aslo known as soccer moms and dads for people who misuse the term)

Dean does not come close to being the most broadly appealing

The number of anti-Iraq war voters who would vote for Bush are hugely outnumbered by the number of non anti-war voters(whether pro or on the fence) who would vote for a democrat. Period. Probably by a 50 to one margin.

He is certainly the Mondale on Taxes, pretty much the McGovern on foreign policy, and like Dukakis it's accepted that he's a socially very liberal governor from a very left wing state

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. Sorry MY BAD on the two year thing

BTW, I am not in Dean's or anyone's camp yet and realize the statistics you are quoting.

I still think Edwards will be held to a higer standard than Bush where experience is concerned.

I also think I read his own senate seat is at risk.

Don't get me wrong..I LIKE him.

[PurityOfEssence]

12. But ya gotta dig the "Kerry Gone Wild" line...

Edwards has been a trial lawyer for years; that's GREAT training for negotiating, diplomacy and problem-solving. It also teaches one the finesse of human relations and acuity of personality assessment. Edwards is a deft and polished human being: he listens well and he knows how to communicate to people. There's a respect one feels from him that one is not being talked down to (unlike Dean's pronouncements) that is precisely the kind of noblesse oblige that we as a country need to present to the rest of the world that we've so sorely abused.

Kerry, although stiff, is measured and complex in his thinking, while still sticking to a spine of ethical decency. It comes across. There's a feeling of an honorable "daddy" here that's something people long for. Remember, too, that he's class-traitor of FDRish proportions: his liberal and economically honorable credentials are unquestionable. This is huge, and this should be rewarded.

I'm liking Clark more and more, although he's still way too conservative (vouchers come to mind) and much of his philosophical spine is still undisclosed. I think he's a "good person", and he's hitting Junior on foreign policy, corruption and incompetence issues with a laser-like specificity that rings true. Much as I dislike his campaign staff, the tenor of many of his followers and the "white knight" wishful thinking or democratic self-loathing that's an element behind his campaign, I am truly starting to like HIM.

Dean can win. Make no mistake about it, so that shouldn't be an argument. My problems are that he's too conservative, too much of an Autocrat and too much of a macho tough-guy imperious pontificator. His smears of the other candidates have been nauseating, and in typical testosterone fashion, he can't seem to admit mistakes. (He has done so on some occasions, so he deserves some breaks, too.) The bottom line is that I really don't like him as a person, and I hear LOTS of that from other people. That's a problem. That's a big problem: most people vote for personality, and nobody likes to be talked down to.

Whatever. We'll see. I just wish the Edwards haters could be nullified a tad so the message could at least get through.

Personality and integrity are HUGE for the average voter.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Dean weak? Is that why he polls so well? nt

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. not in the heads to heads with Bush

Dean has been the weakest in national polls.

[Bombtrack]

9. In a democratic primary!

He capitalized on the anti-war movement at it's height. The democrat primary voters who's interest is deeply rooted in electability are split between 4 or 5 candidates. Dean's interest is rooted above all in the obsession of certain citizens with being right about there objection to war.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Dean has wide appeal among narrow groups

of predominantly young and liberal people who love his anti-war and "I want my country back" rhetoric while being willing to overlook his true centrist agenda (fiscal conservative and not as strong on civil rights and liberties as he'd have you believe -- see his record in Vermont.)

His appeal is and will continue to be considerably less outside the hardcore "Deaniacs." Arrogance plays better with Republicans than it does with Democrats.

[sangh0]

11. 18% is not "so well"

It stinks, and when (and if) any of the others drop out you can bet their supporters are going to go to a candidate who did NOT call the Dem Congress members "cockroaches"

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. I really like Edwards. I think he has brought his game up.

It will be interesting to see if any of these candidates end up on a ticket together.

[mrgorth]

13. Sorry for trying.(nt)

.

[Ripley]

14. Why did Kerry use Grecian Formula in the next to last debate?

And then went back to gray in the Rock the Vote debate?

Did the polls show people don't want a President who dyes his hair?

I'm just curious because it was so obvious he had covered his grey just a few weeks ago.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. Everyone wears makeup on TV

that's a fact.

[Ripley]

18. I didn't say make-up.

Hair dyed brown in one debate. Hair salt and pepper gray the next debate.

Why did he change his mind?

[Forkboy]

15. I dont get this "they can win" stuff

we dont know who can and can't win until someone either wins or doesn't win :shrug: