I've added a feed to the latest comments on Twitter about Netroots Nation--it's in the left sidebar. Apparently Howard Dean is about to speak at a rally. Also, watch the shared items for blog posts related to Netroots Nation happenings.
Haloscan comment thread
Thank you, Howard Dean!
This primary season certainly puts Howard Dean in a tough spot.
Clinton Donors Press Dean at Fifth Avenue Bundler Summit
More on Clinton Donors Versus Dean
From the second link:
Dean then responded, heatedly, that in his experience, those who sought the intervention of party leadership were motivated by their own particular agendas. And that was not the sort of leadership he intended to provide.You tell 'em, Howard!
From the comments...
Howard was right, as usual. We need to appeal to people with Confederate flags on the backs of their pickup trucks. But who would have thought an African-American would be the person to do it?
Story from last night's Obama for President/Democratic Party of Oak Park Meetup: Rob Baren, the local party's political director, has been visiting his father in the hospital in Dayton. He couldn't quite believe everybody telling him everyone they knew was voting for Obama. But driving back through rural Ohio, a guy in one of those big, fancy pickup trucks waved as he went past. And in the back window of the pickup were three signs:
Nitional Rifle Association
Confderate flag
Obama for President
Bill Thomasson | 11.27.07 - 11:15 am |
This morning, President Bush rejected health care for children. Now it's time for Democrats to reject President Bush.
If we can get 2/3 of Congress to stand up to President Bush, we can overturn his veto on the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- a program that provides health insurance for millions of kids.
We need your help to get those votes.
We've set up a simple tool that will allow you to write a letter and send it to your members of Congress instantly. Send your Senators and Representative a message telling them to stand up to George Bush:
http://www.democrats.org/FightForKids
George Bush made a cold political calculation this morning. He could have signed this bi-partisan bill into law, or he could have pandered to conservatives who didn't want to see the Children's Health Insurance Program get the funding it needs.
He decided to pander -- and millions of kids will suffer for it.
What makes this veto worse is that George Bush will spend billions of dollars in Iraq, some of it on contractors like Blackwater and Halliburton, while denying millions of children needed doctors' visits or medicine here at home.
On top of that, all of the Republican candidates for president support his veto.
Democrats are in the majority for a reason. Send a message to your Senators and Representative and let them know why that is:
http://www.democrats.org/FightForKids
This past week, Graeme Frost, a 12 year old from Baltimore, Maryland, delivered this week's Democratic Radio Address.
Graeme is a brave young man. Three years ago, his family was in a serious car accident. Graeme was in a coma for a week, suffered severe brain trauma, and had to re-learn how to eat and walk.
Graeme is alive today because of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. As he said last weekend:
"My parents work really hard and always make sure my sister and I have everything we need, but the hospital bills were huge. We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program.
"I don't know why President Bush wants to stop kids who really need help from getting CHIP. All I know is I have some really good doctors. They took great care of me when I was sick, and I'm glad I could see them because of the Children's Health Program."
Thanks to floridagal for posting the link to the video of Howard Dean's speech last night at Yearly Kos, and to Donna for linking to Scarecrow's writeup at Firedoglake, Howard Dean: A tough act to follow.
Dean let us know that he gets it, that he understands how important this amazing community is and how much it’s changing the way democracy functions in America. He knows how this movement is transforming the Democratic Party and bringing America back from the abyss Bush created and towards which he is still driving us. Dean won the crowd early on, and as they listened many had tears in their eyes, lamenting again what the media did to a man who so clearly saw in 2003-04 where the country was going and tried to warn us. But he was not one of the beltway’s privileged and they got him. But the man was not done.
Dean pulled it all together — the trampling of the Constitution, the disgracing of the Justice Department, the neglect of government’s legitimate and necessary functions, the need for checks and balances, the need to restore our civil liberties and to stop commuting the sentences of people who lie and obtruct justice and betray patriots, the need to end the occupation of Iraq — yes, it was all there in the same terms we use to describe what we see and how we feel about what has happened to our country. But then he let us know, as few other politicians can, that he undertands what we, the blogging community, are about.
Thank you, Barry, for posting a link to the article Joe Trippi's Renaissance in the comments. The link didn't work for some reason, but I was intrigued enough to go track down one that did. Ah, where to start...
This cycle, three presidential candidates courted him. He signed on with ex-Sen. John Edwards after bonding with Elizabeth Edwards -- there's a whole separate story here about how he's fitting in. But he's in. That "Hair" video -- vintage Trippi. Edwards hired Trippi in part because Iowa is Trippi's specialty -- he helped Walter Mondale and Dick Gephardt win the caucuses -- and Edwards needs to win the caucuses.Well, obviously I can't let the words "Iowa is Trippi's specialty" pass without comment. Let us all take a moment and think back fondly to the magic that Joe worked for the Dean campaign in Iowa. Oh, wait...
The small-dollar Internet donor base attracted by the Dean and flogged relentless by Trippi has transformed the party's fundraising. Democrats actually counterpunch these days. Every single campaign uses Trippi-patented tactics to raise money. The men and women Joe Trippi cultivated on Dean's staff have stormed the gates and occupy positions of power in major party and campaign offices.
Hi, all,
My name is Kevin Shaw and I'm the guy in the blue shirt next to Charlie in the blogger's photo. This was my first DemocracyFest and it was a blast. Thanks to everyone that worked so hard to make it a great event.
Yes, I'm the guy that was tossing condoms during Subway's performance of "Comdomaniacs". I'm also the chair of Montgomery County (PA) Democracy for America and webmaster for PA for Democracy and a huge Howard fan, albeit late to the party (Howard's canpaign was pretty much over by the time the 2004 campaigns got to PA). I first heard him speak at a League of Conservation Voters canvassing event near Philly. I was an immediate convert and after working Leave No Voter Behind with MoveOn, found a local DFA group to participate in.
pafordemocracy.com had some software troubles last year and so I had to start over. Here's my old blog, and here's the new site.
So, anyway, thanks to all of you for being so accepting of a stranger in your midst. It was fun banging on Subway's guitar and trying to remember the words to some old songs.
Like Howard said, "I don't know where you'll be next year, but I'll be there!"
Haloscan comment thread
You can read part 1 here.
On Sunday the Bloggers breakfast was opened by Thankful. As we were about to go around introducing ourselves, those missing could be sensed (OC , JC and Steve Gilliard) and Thankful gave a verbal recognition of them. Monica, sitting where the connection was good, did live blogging for the BFA and listed all who stood up and gave their blogger name. Hey, there is Mainefem. It helped us find each other and match names. Subway did his “official” performance. (Details below).
As we left to break up for sessions, Marcia’s friend volunteered to save our front row table for the big evening event. Our group was not the only DFers on the alert because the rest of the group had staked out the front center and another table in the 2nd row.
It was always very evident of where the true Deanics were because these tables of people were always the first to stand up and cheer. No wonder others don’t quite get us. But I must say, we do know how to have fun.
We had break out groups, and being an organizer for Rockford DFA I wanted to see what Jim Dean and Tom had to say at the DFA breakout session. Most of the time was used to introduce ourselves. I am pretty impressed with what everyone is doing and I have to admit it gave me in inferiority complex. But I have to remember I live in a red-sea and with a relatively small population. Can’t compare with blue, New York City.
There were several good breakout sessions and movies but Paula, Lois and I were on overload. We went back to our room, ordered out lunch then went for a swim. Hey, never let a good hotel go to waste.
At dinner the NH Sec of State, William Gardner spoke. Marcia said he has been reappointed for over 25 years. We asked if he was a Democrat or a Republican. She said neither that position has to be non-partisan. Well she doesn’t live in IL because that is a most sought over elected position. He talked about NH political history, and was basically justifying why NH still has to be the first primary. This picture caught my reaction.
Now what you are all waiting for, Howard Dean’s portion of the event. Planted at the front table I estimated that he would have to walk past us to get in like John Edwards did. But the organizers knew better and snuck him in the back door behind the podium so he just had to jump on the stage. And does Howard look great!. Bear with me on my description. In one word great!
We all felt that he looks like he has lost weight or at least got a great looking suit. Jessica can attest to the fact that he is now eating bananas and sunflower seeds, but Marcia gave him a pound of fudge as he exited so if he starts to gain weight we can blame her for making him fall off the wagon. Dean had on a dark suit with an aqua blue open collared shirt. We will forgive him for not wearing our whale tie. The shirt set off his blue eyes. Howard spoke behind the podium so I can’t discuss pant length or shoes. LOL
I cannot give justice to his speech so hear them for yourselves. He was very passionate, only giving out his trademark grin a few times. He didn’t shy away from the issues including the Iraq war-funding bill.
To exit the stage he only had to walk a few feet to the rear door, but you cannot imagine how many deaniacs can crowd into such a small space. Marcia of course was one of the first people to talk to him. I jumped up and stood next to her as she moved over to the exit door. Lois and Paula also knew to do the same. As he approached us, he pointed at my 2004 Dean for America T-shirt and said with his grin, “I like that shirt!” Paula had given him a picture of her car’s license plate with Dean 2008 and told him the 2012 was still available. He paused long enough for us to get a group picture. I had hoped someone could take it and this too showed up on Johnson’s photo album.
Most people filed out leaving the hard cores and this gave us chance to get a group picture. (I would love someone to label all the people). Still reveling in the after-glow, none of us die-hard Dean fans were willing to leave the conference room. The center was also smart to keep the bar open.. We filled a few tables and sat and talked. Subway volunteered to go back on stage to sing our choice songs. They were filled with political humor and sentimentality. He is such an enlightened gentle soul and this comes through with his music.
A sample of his music.
This time also gave us a chance to finish up conversations. I got to hear Charlie’s escapades in the Florida jail and his explanation on where he was living (answer, everywhere friends will put him up in town). I corned Sal and asked him how he, a Kucinich support, could grill John Edwards on stage about his scheming with Kucinich to take away votes from Dean in Iowa. In the middle of everything Paula and I talked about her losing her mother and Sarah and I touched base about her children and her hassles. Thankful, received my check supporting her brother’s aids fundraiser and Subway and I discussed our mutual love of Harry Chapin music.
Closeness of friendships cannot be judged on the amount of time spent together but rather on the quality and intensity of the time that one does share. We all come from a mutual space of loving our country and being activated to do something about this. We all share the inspiration of Howard Dean bring us to this point. Just knowing that Charlie is down in Florida fighting for a just election system, Marcia is working in her state to make fair laws, and Subway is reaching someone’s heart in the underground of New York, makes my little self in rural Illinois feel not quite so alone.
Thank-you all for such an inspiring weekend thank also to Jessica, and her organizational gang.
Credit to Paul Johnson for attached photos. My cardboard camera didn’t cut it.
Haloscan comment thread
The Magic of Unlikely Friendships
Demfest 2007
by Holly J
What could possibly bring together a Floridian activist, an East Coast state representative a Midwest doctor’s wife and a New York subway singer? Answer; love of country and the inspiration of one man who taught them they could each make a difference.
I (the Midwest doctor’s wife) have never been to New Hampshire before so it was fun to go to another part of the country for Demfest 2007. People came in from all parts of the country in many ways but the airport was very assessable (and nice compared to dumpy O’Hare) so I chose to fly. The facilities were perfect, a modernized rambling hotel with attached conference rooms. The description of a conference center with a mill and ducks was accurate after you drove through “any where USA” shopping malls to get there. I wish I could say I had a taste of New Hampshire but the driving rain and cool weather kept me confined to the facilities.
Marcia (the state representative) and Lois picked me up at the airport. We joined the other crushies in 3 adjoining rooms with 2 queen-sized beds and a bathroom each. This was definitely a step up from the dorm room and shared shower last year. I have no idear if they had heard about us crushies but we were literally the farthest possible and up 3 floors from the conference rooms.
There was no problem finding the other BFAers, just follow your nose to the nearest bar. Well I prefer to call it a lounge. The female bartender was our designated caretaker and stuck with us the entire 3 days, moving from the lounge bar to the conference whenever there was a pay bar to be had. I think I even saw her setting up the buffet. There was a registration table with nametags. They were required for admission and for food. I always appreciate nametags so I am sure to put the right face on the name I already knew.
One by one we straggled in and greeted each other. Thankul showed us her new leopard high heels she was breaking in to wear to a gay pride parade in remembrance of her brother. Sal flitted around the table and Marcia mothered me by seeing that I got food despite the closed kitchen. This is where my story deviates from most of the rest of the BFA crew.
Having worked that day, I encouraged the other crushies to return to the room for crushie time. Marcia pulled out her marvelous picture albums for Lois, Paula and me to oogle over. “Front row” Marcia had up close pictures of all the presidential candidates that have come to New Hampshire. We quickly passed over Hilary’s pictures to spend the time on Howard’s J
After the delicious breakfast buffet, Jim Dean opened the Saturday session. Jim was spiffy in his suit. The rest of us looked more the part of activist wearing t-shirts displaying our favorite slogan. By the end of the day, I looked like a car bumper with stickers and pins professing my stance on the issues.
The big event of the day was John Edwards and they opened up the back to enlarge the conference hall to accommodate around 800 people (my guess). Crushie reports require dress description so here goes. John wore slim style jeans and a dress shirt with open collar and rolled up sleeves. I noted that his hair wasn’t quite as fluffy which is more appealing to me. He has a much smaller frame than I expected. His light southern drawl matched his blue jeans. We had planted ourselves in the front table and off to the left which was perfect because the podium was off center to the right. This forced anyone talking to stay on our side.
John didn’t like the podium, holding the free mike in his hand. He did say all the right stuff for progressives; out of the war as soon as possible, universal health care, and caring for our environment. He did relay how important the grassroots are to get our country on track. Since this time around he isn’t part of the beltway DCers, he knows he has to reach out to us. I do appreciate him coming to talk to us and he even opened up for questions. He was handed a softball question from Marcia but he was scooted off the stage after Sal nailed Edwards with asking if he had a deal with Kucinich at the Iowa Caucus.
Deciding which event to attend is always difficult. We chose the impeachment panel because Marcia was involved with this at her state legislature. Newly elected NH US Rep. Carol Shea-Porter told her inspiring story of her totally grass-root, low cost campaign. She is a natural speaker and a true progressive. Her fellow congressman told us the most disturbing fact of the weekend. The shape of our country is even worse than he has guessed. There was Bush administration damage to our country under “every rock that gets turned over,”
Paula, Lois and I attend Arshad’s DFA Precinct training. His courses are packed with information and his humorous “side comments” is his trademark. Bev Harris’s session drew a big crowd and her findings of “Black Box” election fraud was hidden under the “bolder” she had turned over. By this time a nap called me because my room was in sight near this classroom.
We have already discussed Sen. Mike Gravel on the blog. Sorry no detailed description of him here. He is unappealing to me. I couldn’t really hear much else of what he said after he went off on not taxing corporations. I will leave that up to his supporters.
One of my highlights for the whole weekend was Granny D. Being crushie trained, I was on the lookout for her before her event and there she was, standing in the hallway. And, you could not miss her with her trademark hat. She is even smaller than I have imagined, and at 5’ 3’’ I had to actually look down quite a bit to talk to her. She was gracious and grinned widely for her picture with me. Her speech deviated from her campaign finance reform issue to talk about the hot topic of the day, immigration reform. If anyone can find a link for transcript let me know. She is in the later half of her 90’s and is bright and feisty as ever but being in the medical world, I wanted her to sit down and take a breathing treatment.
I do have to talk about Obama’s representative. (You know I like Obama). It aggravates me to have candidates send in reps but this William McNearry guy was great. Many people had left and were talking but within a few minutes he had us. McNeary is a Black-Baptist minister and we responded like his congregation. He read from his notes tossing the pages on the floor behind him. We rose to our feet to applaud in agreement. He followed up by sitting in the lounge with the Obama skeptics, unruffled by questions thrown to him. We all agreed, we would all vote for him.
I will leave it to others the fill in the “after hours” details. (and will combine the “Subway experience" in part II.)
Haloscan comment thread
Thanks to floridagal for the heads-up that Howard Dean was going to be on Ring of Fire this afternoon. Below is a transcript of most of the segment. The main thing I'm missing is the name of the person interviewing Howard. Apparently it is someone who worked on his presidential campaign.
Ring of Fire: When you were out there doing the 50-state strategy, how important was it that there was a balance, particularly of radio, in the world?
Howard Dean: Well, as you know, right wing radio is, as I call it, "hate radio", and it takes advantage of the very worst that people have to offer. They're always appealing to people's bigotries and people's prejudices and racism and all that other stuff. So, what I like to think of Air America as, is a place for optimism and idears. And I think that's really by and large, what it's been. We need a place where Americans can tune in and listen to things that are going to be good about America. Different ways of doing things, and not the kind of fearmongering and hatemongering that goes on on the right.
Ring of Fire: Speaking of which, last week we saw the passing of Jerry Falwell, and Republicans were jumping all over themselves to eulogize him. What do you think his legacy is to the political process.
Howard Dean: I think he has been an incredibly divisive person in terms of American history. He did appeal to sometimes the very worst in people--the anti-gay stuff, the racism that was going on at Liberty University with White folks not being able to date Black folks and stuff like that. So, you know, it's a mixed bag. He certainly was a potent political force in the Republican party, but in some ways he represented the worst of the Republican party.
Ring of Fire: And we saw, what was so interesting, in the debate a few weeks ago, three Republican candidates raising their hands saying they didn't believe in the theory of evolution. Isn't this part and parcel of appealing to the Falwells and the Pat Robertsons of the Republican party?
Howard Dean: Those folks are a passing generation. The Democrats are actually starting to reach out to Evangelicals. Young Evangelicals would rather hear what we're going to do about Darfur, poverty and global warming than they would beat up on their gay neighbor. And you know, in some ways, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts and these people are dinosaurs. They're people who represent the anger part of Christianity, and there really is no justifiable anger part of Christianity--they're showmen, they make money off it. But the new generation are people that are emphasizing what was really in Jesus' message, which had to do with reaching out to people, taking care of the least among us. It's a much more American message, and the young, smart Evangelical preachers are creating *huge* congregations with that kind of a message of hope. And that's something the Democrats can work with, and I'm looking forward to that.
Ring of Fire: Well, you have been reaching out to them. We've talked about that in the past. And that's a perfect opportunity to talk about the fact that you have not written off any state in the union. I want us to tick this off...in two years as chairman, the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, took control of the Senate, won a majority of the nation's governorships, and added ten new chambers in state legislatures. And then, James Carville said you should step down the next day, because, of course, that makes sense...
Howard Dean: The generations are passing in every institution, including ours. (Laughter). Look, I didn't do all that stuff by myself, without Chuck Schumer we don't win the Senate, and without Rahm Emanuel we don't win the House. It was a team effort. But, what we did do is go into new territory. Territory like Kansas and Minnesota and upstate New York--territories that hadn't been aggressively attacked. And of course we're delighted that we won the majority in the House and the Senate, but the really exciting thing is that we forced the president and the vice president to be campaigning in Idaho and Nebraska the last two weekends of that campaign.
Ring of Fire: You put them on defense.
Howard Dean: You gotta be playing offense all the time. When you start playing defense, which we've been doing for thirty years, then you're not winning. And now we're winning, and we're winning because we're asking everybody for their vote. There's not a vote that I'm afraid to ask for, and we do not have to give up our principles to ask people that don't agree with us for their votes. People will respect you if you respect them, and that's something we've learned by watching the terrible mistakes of the president. The president has not just been incompetent because of his policy mistakes. He's been incompetent because he set out from the beginning of his presidency to only be the president of half the people. And we want to be the president of ALL the people, including those that don't vote for us.
Ring of Fire: And you took the words right out of my mouth, because, in fact, not giving up our principles involves being able to stand strong in opposing this war. And we saw candidates in unlikely places, people like Jim Webb in Virginia, John Tester in Montana, who, in red states, ran against this war and won majorities.
Howard Dean: That's right. I think that people understand now that when you don't tell the truth about why you're going to war, the war effort's not likely to be successful. And the president and his folks simply didn't tell America the truth.
Ring of Fire: I've asked you this before, Governor--what does it feel like to have been essentially four years ahead of your time? (Laughter) You were a lonely voice--within the Democratic party, I might point out, calling for an end to this war. How did it feel to you watching people come around?
Howard Dean: You were part of that campaign, and I think you remember the day that I said capturing Saddam Hussein would not make us any safer, which created a huge uproar. Unfortunately, "I told you so" is not a good campaign slogan. So, I'm happy doing what I'm doing. We have a *great* field of people running for president. It's a great time to be chairman of the DNC, and I'm really looking forward to seeing our presidential candidate win.
Via Democrats.org Dean: We Will Do What the American People Have Asked Us To Do and Bring Our Troops Home" :
As Americans, we are united in our support for our troops. And because we support our troops, Democrats have put forward a plan for success in Iraq. A plan to get us out of Iraq.
We have made it clear that we will work with the President to find a solution. In response, the President continues to say "my way or the highway," and Vice President Cheney uses divisive rhetoric to question the patriotism of members of Congress who disagree with him. That's not what the country needs right now.
It is time for the President and Republicans in Congress to stop try to bully their way through this and work with Democrats to end the war. It's time for the President to show respect to the American people, who voted overwhelmingly to leave Iraq.
President Bush and his Republican allies did not have a clear plan when they misled our nation into this war and they do not have a clear plan to get our troops out. The Republicans sent our brave men and women in uniform to Iraq without proper body armor, equipment or training.
Our military is now stretched to a breaking point. Just this week, the Army announced they will send large division units back to Iraq without giving them at least a year's rest at home, as the Pentagon's standards require. Because our forces have been so badly depleted, the Pentagon just yesterday announced they are deploying an additional 12,000 National Guard reserves to Iraq.
The disgraceful conditions at Walter Reed and veterans' hospitals across the country are an appalling example of the way that President Bush and Republicans in Congress have failed our men and women in uniform. Upon returning home from Iraq, too many of our troops face a system that has been starved of resources for six years, and cannot adequately provide the care and services our troops deserve.
That is wrong.
Via the DNC blog, Howard Dean's remarks on the passage of the Iraq Supplemental Bill...
"Last November the American people demanded a new direction in Iraq, and that is exactly what the Democrats offered today. President Bush's open-ended commitment to a failed Iraq policy is not good enough for our brave men and women fighting in Iraq. Democrats will continue to wholeheartedly support our troops by providing the resources to keep them safe and get them home, holding this Administration accountable, and demanding that Iraqis take responsibility for their own country.Alternate link for comments
“President Bush’s decision to stifle the essential debate on our course in Iraq by threatening to veto this bill stands solidly against the will of the American people, and is an insult to the brave men and women serving in Iraq. It is time for Republicans to put partisanship aside and join our Democratic leadership in fighting for the new direction in Iraq. It’s what our troops deserve and what the American people have demanded.”
Crossposted at My Left Wing, Booman Tribune, ePluribus Media, and Daily Kos
I just found a diary floridagal linked a while ago, which includes a link to Howard Dean's famous "What I wanna know..." speech. Here's the direct link to download the Quicktime movie.
"Howard Dean speaks at the California Democratic Convention in Sacramento, CA on March 15, 2003. This speech was videotaped and edited by Eric Predoehl with the help of an anonymous camera operator.March 15, 2003. Just over four years ago. At the time, I hadn't even heard of Howard Dean, and would only gradually learn enough to become excited about his campaign over the next couple months. The Sleepless Summer tour was still months away.
Lately, if one visits many of the high traffic Democratic/progressive blogs, one can't help but be greeted by Hillary Clinton's face, with words along the lines of "Be part of the conversation from the start." Oh, that's rich. In *so* many ways.
She's using that conversation meme pretty consistently. Now, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, Howard Dean said something about a "Great American Conversation" didn't he?
But, Hillary, what on earth do you mean, "from the start"? We've been *having* a conversation for several years now, and we've done a lot more than talk. We *knew* with every fiber of our beings that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a *bad* idea. And we did everything we could to make our voices heard. But very few people have access to the kind of megaphone that would allow us to *really* be heard, so we were thrilled to find people like Howard Dean who were willing to carry *our* message to a larger audience. Want to know why some of us get so upset when people attack Howard Dean? Because he's often speaking for *us*--he's saying what *we* would say, if we had access to that kind of megaphone. So, when you diss Howard, you *are* dissing us. Please keep that in mind, and try not to act too surprised when we don't want to jump on your bandwagon after you've attacked our messenger.
Another reaction I have is that this whole "conversation" meme must be something that Hillary and her advisers decided would "sell" to bloggers. Sort of the way she came up with this:
In her statement, she also called for “bold but practical changes” in national policy, a four-word formulation that her advisers said was carefully chosen, given that she has sought to portray herself as both a pragmatist and someone who thinks big. Some Democrats dismiss the latter image, finding her too cautious. Yet her pledge of boldness reflects her well-known desire to disprove the notion that she is hesitant or calculating.So, I *do* have my eyes open here, Hillary. I don't believe you want to have a conversation. I believe that you're using those words because you think they are effective marketing tools.
Clinton said her view is that the nation is engaged in a deadly fight against terrorism, a battle that she contends Bush has botched.So, even though he "botched" things, you can't resist using the fear tactic that has been (apparently) so successful for Bush. And that's another thing that bugs me, by the way. For all the hoopla about you potentially being the first woman elected president, you are way too closely aligned with the patriarchy for my liking. And, for me at least, mindset and worldview are more important than whether a candidate has a matching set of X chromosomes or an X and a Y.
"I do think we are engaged in a war against heartless, ruthless enemies," she said. "If they could come after us again tomorrow they would do so."
