5 of 9 opposed war

[goodhue]

The war was opposed by five of the nine candidates: Dr. Howard Dean, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; Sen. Bob Graham of Florida; the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York and Carol Moseley Braun, the former senator from Illinois.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/politics/campaigns/29DEMS.html?hp

DLC is all wet. Best to nominate one of the 5 who opposed war. Agree?

[Pallas180]

1. Agree, but we need to let the DLC know en masse they're barking up wrong

tree, in wrong forest, in wrong direction, in WRONG.

[lifelong_Dem]

2. Disagree

I'm a Dean supporter, but single-issue voting is dumb.

[Robin Hood]

7. I hate to lump

a pre-emptive, illegal war where ours and theirs are dying everyday for Bush's oil robbers as a single issue. It seems to be to big for that.

I do think that if Iraq continues to escalate out of control, as it appears to every day. It will be imperative that we not only run a candidate that was against this madness but also has a viable solution to end the madness.

[grytpype]

3. No.

Having voted for the war is essential with the swing voters we need to win the election. The important thing is getting a new President who can clean up the messes Bush has made. The future, not the past.

[ButterflyBlood]

5. no one will vote against a candidate JUST for voting against the war

unless they're a Freeper type who wouldn't vote for our candidate anyway.

only two who voted against the war last year lost in either House. Maloney in CT who was redistricted into a district against an incumbent who was favored in the new district, and Connie Morella, one of the 6 Republicans who voted no, who was beaten by a Democrat who was also anti-war. Voting against the war is probably what saved Jim Leach in IA. What's this about how the people won't vote for any candidate who opposed the war?

[grytpype]

10. In a Presidential election it will be an issue. Maybe the only issue.

[ButterflyBlood]

11. How can it become the only issue?

especially at the rate our soldiers are dying it might actually be a disadvantage. But with the unemployment rate and Bush killing overtime pay among other issues, I find it hard to believe all the people he's fucking over will vote against any anti-war candidate for that reason alone.

[bluestateguy]

4. DLC

The DLCers seem oblivious to the fact that a pro-war candidate, especially Lieberman, could create a mass defection on the Left to the Green Party, costing us Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Maine and maybe even California.

The DLCers forget that the Democratic Party in the end is anchored by a liberal base, without which it cannot win elections. Too many DLCers (but not all of them) lack any kind of populist appeal and sound like that boring professor you had in college: you knew he was brilliant and had good ideas, but in class you kept looking at your watch wanting class to end.

A DLC candidate like Bill Clinton could unite liberals and DLC-disposed voters. Right now the only DLC candidate who might be able to pull that off would be Wesley Clark.

[ButterflyBlood]

6. Kerry

I think he could since he wasn't so behind the war as Lieberman or Gephardt.

[bluestateguy]

9. Maybe

But I hear a lot of crybabies here on this board bitching about one vote Kerry cast in an otherwise liberal political career.

[Samuraimad]

8. The invasion cannot be the issue.

What needs to be the issue is the insane doctrine of pre-emtive war. This needs to be illustrated as lethal to world stability. Focusing on the war could be a very bad idea at the moment. Now if the invasion becomes more unpopular as more soliders die, then prehaps it can be exploited. But focusing on on a war that is sadly supported by most, you might as well say you're going to raise taxes.

[goodhue]

13. gladly pay taxes?

"Most Americans would gladly pay the same taxes they paid under President Bill Clinton if they could just get the Clinton economy back," said former Vermont governor Howard Dean.

. . . .

In contrast, Democrats running as moderates have proposed raising taxes only on the wealthy, while cutting them elsewhere, and they plan to make middle-class tax increases an issue in the Democratic primaries. Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.) would move the highest tax bracket -- 35 percent -- back to the 38.6 percent that it was before this year's tax cut, while instituting a "millionaire's tax bracket" of 40 percent. Graham would also repeal the capital gains and dividend tax cuts signed into law last month.

Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) has taken a similar approach, calling for the top two tax brackets to be returned to their pre-Bush levels of 39.6 percent and 36 percent from the current 35 percent and 33 percent. He would scrap the 15 percent tax on dividends created this year, treating dividends once again as taxable income. And for people making more than $250,000 a year, Edwards would raise the capital gains rate up from the new 15 percent rate and even higher than the 20 percent rate Bush inherited, to 25 percent. He would also retain taxation on large inheritances, scuttling the law that would repeal the estate tax in 2010.

Though less specific, Kerry and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) have suggested raising the top two income tax rates -- which begin for couples at $174,700 of taxable income -- to pre-Bush levels and retaining taxation of very large estates.

Only Lieberman has deliberately tried to avoid the issue. In speeches, the former vice presidential nominee has outlined policies on high-technology investment, poverty fighting and reversing the disastrous decline of manufacturing. In a detailed tax-policy speech likely to be given this fall, Lieberman will call for some tax increases for the wealthy, a campaign source said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1803&ncid=1803&e=1&u=/washpost/20030728/pl_washpost/a54308_2003jul27

[Rowdyboy]

12. Single issue voters deserve what they get...

and I'm a big-time Graham supporter, but I would support him just as strongly if he had voted for that damned resolution for war. I will NOT allow any one vote to dictate my response. I want to win...