Come together right now

"Democracy is a team sport. I want to do everything in my power to convince you to get behind Howard Dean... All of us need to get behind the strongest candidate. " Former Vice President Al Gore.


What Al Gore is saying, and what the Democrats and Libertarians (Independents like myself need to pay attention as well) better hear, is simple. If we have any hope's of getting Bush out of the White House we had better stop this back stabbing, petty bickering and come together behind the strongest candidate. Dean may not be everything to everybody, but he is the man out front and shows signs of staying there.

Did Al create a political faux pas by not calling Joe Lieberman up and saying "hey Joe, I appreciate you standing by me during that whole Election 2000 fiasco, but here's the deal...". Well, yeah, he did. It would have been the decent thing to do. I don't know and can't venture a guess as to why he didn't. Maybe he missed Miss Manner's class on the polite way to treat a former running mate. Al is not known for his brilliance (well there is that whole 'I invented the internet' thing, but lets not be TOO petty).

It's clear there are a LOT of people out there that are jumping on Dean's bandwagon. A hell of a lot more than are on Liebermans. So Al had to make a choice. Support an old friend who has no hope of winning or go with the guy who might be able to? That's a no brainer even for me (and AL). He did what he thought was best for the party and the country.

Of course the Republicans are loving this. Any thing they can do to feed dissent within the Democrats is more power for them. In fact I think the Republicans secretly love the Clintons. Why? Because they know that Hillary has her sights set on 08 and is willing to sacrifice her party (and realistically her country) for another 4 years in order to improve her odds of a win in 08. I mean lets face it by the end of another 5 years there is no way anybody but the hard core, far right are going to still be under the influence of the Bush smoke and mirrors administration. That is going to leave the field wide open for Her Magesty the junior Senator from New York. Yes, the republicans can stick Condalezza in there, but that's a big gamble. She may be female and she may be black, but I don't think she can carry the South or the Heartland for that matter. There are a lot of African Americans who see her the same way they do Colin Powell. A traitor to her race. I'm not saying she is, I'm saying there are a lot of folks out there who see her that way.

Hillary knows that a run in 04 MIGHT mean a defeat. The stench of Bill's shenanigans is still hovering too strongly over the White House. Give it a few years, let dubya, mess it up a bit and people will be ready for a change. And she's the girl who can do it for them. If she is nothing else, Hillary Clinton is a brilliant politician. Even her detractors have to admit that.

The bottom line here is as Al Gore said, we have got to come together as one team if we are going to win. Not just Democrats, but Libertarians and Independents as well. If you want Bush out in 04, forget party lines and cast your vote to remove him. It looks like a vote for Dean is the only way to do that.

posted by wanda at 3:03 AM