what will the DNC learn from this?

[pstokely]

nt

[Marlie]

1. Sadly

Nothing!

[JI7]

2. that the media is full of whores

pretty much it. in california the media has been VERY tough on davis and bustamante while kissing arnold's ass. even when the allegations of abuse came out the media kept repeating arnold's accusation that it was gray davis' fault. fucking whores.

[Evanstondem]

3. How is the DNC to blame for this?

Gray Davis is at the top of the blame list, far, far ahead of anyone else.

[Marlie]

5. They should have supplied a strong alternative to Gray Davis

For instance a Diane Fienstein - Cruz Bustamonte?

[JI7]

9. feinstein said no

feinstein was one of the biggest opponents of the recall. she said she will only vote no on the recall as she doesn't think that in itself is right and the second part does not concern her. bustamante only got in the race after she come out strongly against the recall and said she wont run.

[AP]

6. The whole game was rigged against him.

The point of this law was to usurp a democratically elected leader.

The only reason nobody invokes this law is because there's a huge political risk in being sour grapes recaller, but the Republicans figured out how to get around that. They guy who paid for the recall pulled out, and they ran a famous actor who has never run for anything before. So no stigma attaches to him.

That's not Davis's fault.

[AP]

4. That they have to do a better job of pointing out that moderate Republican

are really fascists.

They also should have reminded people that Davis was a decorated Vietnam war veteran and that Arnold has only played one on TV.

[Classical_Liberal]

8. actually the fascist stuff sounds silly

and it probably created a backlash. Why oh why do so many dems respond to unsucessful campaigns by doing more of the same.

[AP]

14. Look, they are fascists. I'm not saying "use the word fascist"

I'm saying, explain how concentrating more wealth and power in fewer hands isn't good for the economy. Explain the difference between raising/lowering taxes and apportioning the tax burden in a way that makes America create more wealth for more people, wealthy and poor. etc etc etc.

Have some imagination.

[JI7]

11. only kerry and clark would bring it up

i have been saying davis should have ran ads on that and brought it up often. but it was only brought up during kerry and clark's campaigning with him. kerry campaigned with him at some veterans centers. clark brought it up at the firehouse museum. but davis himself never brought it up unless asked. he really should have. i think that was the biggest mistake in the campaign.

[quinnox]

7. That it's important

to rally round Dean. But seriously, nothing, except it is not a good idea to have a weak, unpopular candidate run for governor and only win because the opposition was even worse.

[AntiCoup2K4]

10. Not a goddamned thing

If the DNC could learn anything, Benedict McAuliffe would have been history after the midterm fiasco in 2002.

[Carmerian]

12. As others have said

They won't learn a thing. This is what you get from career politicians who are afraid of taking a stand, since that might cause them to lose their cushy jobs! I say it's time for a purge.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. The DNC will learn...

what it already knows.

Der Schwanz won because he said nothing and did nothing. he had no positions and no stands. He was a blank slate with only celebrity to commend him.

Shrub got what votes he had for pretty much the same reason.

And Clinton, btw.

Issues only piss people off. Taking a stand on anything merely means that you have alienated everyone who disagrees with that stand, but haven't necessarily brought anyone in to your camp.

This is politics in the 21st century. Avoid controversy. Avoid stands. Claim "Principles," but never define them. Campaign only in sound bites, never in full discussion of the issues. Promise the voters everything, and especially promise them that no one will have to actually pay for it.

Sorry, but that's just - the - way - it - is now. We do still live in a democracy of sorts, and politicians who win are the ones who do what the majority of voters expect. And few of the voters seem to want firm stands on many issues.

Now comes the real flamebait-- Kucinich and Dean have stated a lot of positions that I personally agree with. Sharpton and Braun, too. If any of them get the nod after the primaries are over, they are guaranteed to lose.

They will lose because their positions will become targets for the opposition. They will lose because for every voter who agrees with them on one issue, one will violently disagree on another. They will lose because the opposition will never directly address an issue, but will use innuendo and sound bites to ridicule them.

This is take no prisoners politics, and they will do whatever it takes to win. Unfortunately, nice guys often do finish last.

It's all well and good to talk about bringing the Democratic Party back to its roots, whatever they are, but the problem is that the voters don't seem to want those roots right now.

The survival of the party outside of urban areas is the critical thing now. We'll bring back the New Deal and the Great Society when we get back on our feet.

Or, they win the whole thing.

[0rganism]

18. Hey! You read like Hunter S. Thompson, cool!

I just started reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (1972) a few days ago, and you have HST's flair for declarative cynicism. Go pro!

[AP]

15. Another lesson: if you repeat a phrase enough, people believe it.

Democrats need to repeat a few ideas over and over and over again until people get hypnotized by the truth.

[Julien Sorel]

16. What did you learn from it that you'd like to pass along?

[jpgray]

17. The DNC is lucky to be holding on to what it has

They are at a huge disadvantage for media coverage since their stances aren't good for corporations, and the party is as far away from unified as it gets. There has been a concerted effort to villify social services, public schools and unions in the media--these are bastions of Democratic support. If you were McAuliffe, would you jettison the milque toast, and perhaps never regain any semblance of parity? The removal of term limits and voter fraud may well turn the country into a dictatorship once Congress is no longer contested. If the DNC could deal with a battle-ready squad that was popular, had great reelection chances and was adequately covered in the media, then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation. Not to mention the amount of whoring the DNC has to do for any media captial.

All the above alienates the base, and as I said elsewhere, I don't know how this can be easily fixed. Trying to hold up the walls while you fix the house doesn't work very well, but what else can you do?