Never mind

[sybylla]

I'm not interested in being called a Kerry Basher by people who can't read.

[Submariner]

1. The Primary process

picked Kerry because of his military experience followed by 18 years of political experience in the Senate. I thought it would be clear to all by now, that a non-vet candidate during this election cycle would have been creamed by the Bush/Rove smear machine as having no miltary experience to take over the war in Jan 2005.

We have seen the kind of smear they have tried to make stick on Kerry, if Dean or Edwards were the nominee we'd have no chickenhawk argument (i.e., no military experience, thus incompetant to prosecute the Bush war as we all can see) to unseat Bushco with. Now we do with Kerry.

[sybylla]

3. Did you read the article? This isn't about bashing Kerry.

The author isn't judging the Kerry campaign - he says its too early.

His point is, regardless of the skills and abilities of our eventual nominee, has our primary process degraded to one where our candidates are chosen by zealots and money or by a level-headed majority who have made a decision based upon the issues and the candidates?

[emulatorloo]

2. I say no

Let me re-iterate the amount of face time we in Iowa had with these candidates.

As to blogging Bob, John Edwards a stronger candidate against George Bush? Give me a break.

Nothing against John Edwards, I like the guy. But he is not seasoned like JK, for one thing.

Let me give you an overview of the Bush Campaign against John Edwards. They can and will lie about anybody.

John Edwards - he is lying about his father! He was a manager!
John Edwards - flip-flopper
John Edwards - he has no experience to be President!
John Edwards - he knows nothing about the military and foreign policy!
John Edwards - he exploited the court system with frivolous lawsuits!
John Edwards - he voted for the Iraq war!
John Edwards - he is nothing but a young pretty boy!
John Edwards - he is a rich attorney!
John Edwards - he is a Washington Insider!
John Edwards - he is too young to be President!
John Edwards - he is a slick speaker, but he has no message or core values
John Edwards - our allies won't respect him
John Edwards - he is out of touch with America's values
John Edwards - he is attacking our president personally!

[sybylla]

4. Blogging Bob didn't say it, a New York Times poll did

The editorial isn't about candidates. It's about the primary system.

This isn't to say Kerry is the wrong candidate. It isn't to say Kerry is the right candidate. Zealots and the monied interests are as likely to be right on a candidate as they are wrong.

Is our primary system now perverted to the point where monied interests and zealots choose our candidates?

[bemildred]

5. The primaries EXIST for the purpose of allowing the

party "leadership" to select candidates of their liking.
This used to be done in "smoke filled rooms". When a
big enough stink was raised, the primary election process
was instituted (in some states) where the candidate is
selected, at least in theory, by popular vote of party
members. This does appear to have made it less of a
slam dunk for the party bosses, but they still get their
way most of the time. It is no accident that Iowa and
New Hampshire come first, they are small and easier to
rig. If they wanted an early read on the will of the
people, we'd have big and unpredictable states first.

[sybylla]

6. Thank you, Bemildred

I agree. It seems our primary, like our campaign financing system has moved around the roadblocks put in place to protect the people from manipulation and corruption. Where there is a powerful entity, there seems to be a way.

I hadn't thought about the Iowa and New Hampshire angle before. Thanks for that.

I appreciate your thoughtful response. However, as the author I've pulled the post. I'm just not going to go down the road previous posters want to go. I thought that crap died down in the months since Kerry's selection but I was wrong.

Perhaps we'll have another opportunity to discuss this in the future.

[emulatorloo]

7. Nobody is calling you a Kerry Basher

I could claim you are calling me a "Monied Zealot" because I do not agree with your assessment of the primary system. Again I remind you of the amount of face time we have in Iowa with these candidates, and how well informed the caucus goers are. The primary system isn't perfect, no doubt. But to claim Iowa was "rigged" is not right.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. It's my ball, and I'm taking it home. So there.

You could at least have left us the link!