Comments on: A Glimmer of Hope

By: Bob Roth

Bob Roth — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:27:38 +0000

This is what I like about it, the fact that we can have this type of conversation! The premise of Unity08 is that the P & VP are largely following a national agenda that has been dictated by the delegation. The people vote on the most important issues and how to resolve them. The people will then nominate the team (who have also proposed cabinet members in a few key positions) to pursue the agenda together. Speaking of Hagel, did you see the Bloomberg/Hagel rumors in the news a few weeks ago?

By: op99

op99 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:56:49 +0000

Bob, I was referring to the president having political leverage in Congress to advance her/his national agenda, not just getting elected. At last count, there were only 2 independents in the Senate, for example. The rest are all Democrats and Republicans.

Say Chuck Hagel was the U08 Pres, and was trying to get some piece of compromise legislation passed, which the Republicans had problems with. Hagel can’t twist arms in Congress the way Bush can now (or could earlier in his tenure) - Hagel’s not a Republican anymore (in this example).

By: Bob Roth

Bob Roth — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:14:08 +0000

op99 says, “If someone sticks it to his party by running for office outside of it, doesn’t that make him a pariah in his former party, forfeiting whatever strength he had?”

It is an interesting comment, because it assumes that the parties have a solid base. What if the parties have a hollow base? Consider this for a second, because I know both parties are considering it… what if Obama doesn’t get the Dem nod in the primary? And, since we are really waxing philosophical, what if Obama teams up with a prominent Repub up-and-comer like Huckabee who is starting to gain momentum? This may be an aside, but there are more registered Independents right now than there are Repubs or Dems… if one could find a strong ticket that picked up a percentage of Dems, Indeps, and Repubs… well then, we have a ball game, don’t we?

By: Pixelation

Pixelation — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:47:51 +0000

op,
I completely understand how you feel. Heck, after the past dozen elections, I find that politicians end up pandering to the lowest common denominator of the country’s memetic culture. Tall poppy seed syndrome or the lesser of the evils it is sometimes called. I prefer to think of it as the mediocre candidate rising to the top :-).

The solution, if it can be called that, is to realize how useless it is to fight this battle. We’ve been beaten down again and again. You’d think we’d realize that it’s not going to change by now. I call it Battered Voter’s Syndrome. The solution is to worry about local politics first. National issues will only follow when local politics are solid.

Those are my two cents. Your objections to Unity’08 are good ones (and potentially damning to the whole concept), but I’m an optimist and I’ll refrain from judging it until it’s had it’s fair shot at the big time.

By: op99

op99 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:34:45 +0000

Bob Roth, if someone sticks it to his party by running for office outside of it, doesn’t that make him a pariah in his former party, forfeiting whatever strength he had?