If you're considering a candidate to support

[Brian_Expat]

One question you should ask yourself. . .

Is the Democrat running a Democratic candidacy or a Republican one?

A Democrat is running a Democratic candidacy if he's running on Democratic issues like civil rights, the economy, health care, security without violation of our freedoms, etc.

A Democrat is running like a Republican if he quotes Rove talking points on national security about other candidates, runs on "electability" rather than principles, slams other candidates based on how much they agree with Bush's frames for the election and the Bush agenda, and has had sudden too-perfect "conversions" from long-time conservative views to conveniently liberal ones on a whole host of Democratic issues.

[La_Serpiente]

1. If you're considering a candidate to support

you should be asking yourself

"Does this person have the experience to be the President?"

and then ask yourself

"Is this person an effective campaigner?"

both go hand in hand.

[Bread and Circus]

2. Here are some of the questions folks should ask themselves:

Can the candidate get the crucial swing states? Will we be confident
we can beat Bush with the candidate?

Does the candidate have the ability to get us out of Iraq successfully
with the best possible outcome for Iraqi's, the Mideast, our soldiers,
and the US?

Will the candidate work toward avoid further un-necessary military actions and still stem the tide of terrorist acts?

Will the candidate bring the country together and reduce the partisan
BS that is ruining our country?

Will the candidate leave a positive legacy/good name for liberalism
to return the faith of the people more and more toward progressive,
compassionate, peaceful values?

Will the candidate be able to handle a partisan congress and Supreme
Court in order to get good judges nominated and good legislation
passed?

Will the candidate hold him/herself accountable and get the job
done, especially in a crisis.

Is the candidate a good role model for ourselves and our youth?
Does the person have the honesty, character, and fortitude to
lead all Americans?

---

Please notice I purposely left out any crap out Democrats vs
Republicans. I am so sick of the labels and the bickering.

[Capablanca]

3. Great Post

I totally agree with you FamilyDoctor. Now who do you think can fill this bill?

[anti-bush]

13. John Edwards on all of these

No question Edwards fits the bill.

And in reply to the original post:

"A Democrat is running a Democratic candidacy if he's running on Democratic issues like civil rights, the economy, health care, security without violation of our freedoms, etc."

John Edwards is running on all of these issues. The others are running on comparing themselves to Dubya, and fighting with the others.

[newyawker99]

19. Hi Capablanca!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[JVS]

4. The question I ask is who can rebuild our party.

[chimpymustgo]

5. The question I ask is who can rebuild our country.

nt

[JVS]

6. That is of secondary importance

if we rebuild the country but not the party, then the country will be trashed again after 4 or 8 years. Kind of like the Clinton administration, he ran the country well, but under him the party fell into disarray. I don't want to see this happen again.

[wyldwolf]

7. ..and that is much more important.

Those who keep saying "we need to rebuild our party" assume the party needs rebuilding. It does not.


They obviously mean they want third party and/or further left people to hijack it.

[YellowDawgDemocrat]

9. Who has the best chance at winning the election

Hey, it's party politics, not a beauty contest. If that isn't the first question you are asking yourself, you can wallow in your defeat as an idealistic idealogue.

[wyldwolf]

14. Not that I'm anything close to an idealistic idealogue...

[windansea]

8. talk is cheap

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

[TeacherCreature]

11. talk may be cheap but that graphic is bullshit

Who answered the questions that place the candidates where they are? Did they take the survey? Did they each individually weight the importance of the question?

Answer: No, here is the quote from the web site that states they determine where someone stands.

<<<How can you determine where politicians are honestly at without asking them?

How can you tell where they're honestly at by asking them? Especially around election time. We've relied on reports, parliamentary records, ... and actions that spoke louder than words.>>>

[delete_bush]

12. Thanks for the link!

For me these Dean vs. Clark vs. et al snipings are becoming redundant and rather boring. Thanks for the diversion.

For those who haven't been to this site, you take a short test and then they show where you end up on this same graph. Takes 5 minutes or so.

My results? A little bit below and to the left of Al Sharpton.

Now what? I mean, I would love to see him debate chimpy but it's just not gonna happen. If I make my way up the list, next stop is DK, then Kerry. CMB is next, but not polling well.

So it looks like I'm going with Kerry, if not then Clark.

Funny thing is, this is pretty close to how I've felt all along if the candidate's positions were the only variable. So much for GD-2004. This plus astrological charts are all I need!

[sweetheart]

10. its a simpler quesiton:

Is this candidate the right person.

All the other questions will coalesce around this core issue. Pick the right one, and the rest will come.

[eileen_d]

15. Is this one of those "You might be a redneck if..." posts?

If you're considering a candidate to support, don't listen to anything on DU. Do your own research for the love of God!

[democratreformed]

18. Great idea, eileen_d! nt/

[Dookus]

16. the main flaw in this

that I see is that the supporters of ANY candidate can claim that any criticism of that candidate is a "Rove talking point".

Personally, I'm sick and tired of the whole Rove thing. We don't need an external boogey-man to blame for all our problems.

This is a primary campaign. Any candidate who DOESN'T draw out the important distinctions between himself and the others isn't worthy of the nomination. It's not Republican to do that. It's small-d democratic.

[stickdog]

17. You can't beat Rove with Rove-lite. (nt)