Postmortem

[[AK]Bribo]

This is an interesting read:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041104/nyth186_1.html

[[AK]Squidly]

Teresa...what a horror show. If Kerry had won, that whole scene would've made for interesting fodder.

[[AK]Bribo]

Here's the whole Newsweek article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6414892/site/newsweek/

It's a bit biased but a good read non-the-less.

[[AK]Squidly]

Funny thing is, biased reporting doesn't bother me this week. It's actually fun.

Nothing they say can hurt us. ROFLMAO.

[[AK]Nuts]

Here's one from the San Francisco Chronicle

Some interesting quotes and my rebuttal:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio -- the liberal former presidential candidate who is speaking at events in the Bay Area this weekend -- insists that even progressive Democrats must discuss moral concerns, noting they were central to the efforts of great political leaders such the Rev. Martin Luther King.

Actually the Democratic Party was the pillar of segregation in the South.

"There's a larger Democratic base in this country than a Republican base, and they didn't even get to that,'' Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean, said. Trippi echoes the concerns of many Democrats, who say Kerry's campaign did not seize on a consistent message that resonated with Americans who have lost jobs, are worried about health care, and were concerned with terrorism and the war.

Democrates have a larger base? Boy, I need to go back to school and learn math.

Panetta agreed and said Democrats must also choose their issues carefully. "It's clear the gay marriage issue basically blew up in our face and was used by (top Bush political adviser) Karl Rove to drive their constituencies to the polls,'' he said.

'Used by Rove'? I didn't see a single anti-gay marriage commercial or comment by Bush.

"They need to retool their intellectual capabilities ... and unless they change, they will be the minority party -- for good.'' - Martin Anderson, economic advisor.

Um... you never hear republicans says, "Hey guys we lost to Clinton. Let's all drop our moral values and retool our intellectual capabilities."

[[AK]Leonidas]

"Um... you never hear republicans says, "Hey guys we lost to Clinton. Let's all drop our moral values and retool our intellectual capabilities.""

I remember hearing things like that after 1992. The conventional wisdom at the time was that Bush Sr's chances were ruined when they let too many fundamentalist Christians speak at the Republican convention. I wasn't paying much attention to politics back then, but apparently they gave a major speaking slot to Falwell or some similar preacher who went a bit overboard.

The Republicans have been struggling for a long time to balance the social conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, and the libertarians. Lots of Republicans would love to get the Christian vote without listening to their issues.

The retooling of intellectual capabilities has been happening on the right for 15 years or more, at least as long as I've been paying attention. You could trace it back to 1980, or even 1964 with Goldwater. But certainly in the past 15 years the right has put a lot of work into educating its members with books, magazines, radio, and recently TV. It takes a lot more knowledge to be a respected member of the right than of the left.

The left is still stuck in the sixties: Every Republican in office is Richard Nixon; every war is Vietnam; every international conflict is the Cold War, in which our only hope is unconditional unilateral surrender; every election is a contest between the enlightened urban liberals and the ignorant bigoted country bumpkins in flyover country. I hope that they update their thinking soon. This country deserves two serious political parties.