Wasn't Sure Whether To Ask This In GD or Here (so since I'm scared of GD)

[THUNDER HANDS]

And the way things tend to rile up out there I thought I could post this here and have a somewhat civil discussion with the "cool, relaxed" people who regularly post in this forum.

Okay, here's the question.

How personally invested are you with the campaign of the candidate you are supporting?

I really don't care who you're supporting, but I'd just like to know if you sense yourself getting a little more...um....

...on the edge, so to speak?

You might have a shorter fuse. A little bit less of a tolerance for something other than praise for the person you're pulling for.

We're only weeks away now. And I'm sure it's only natural for tensions to run high. But how do YOU personally feel?

I guess it probably depends on how invested you are with a candidate. If you're still undecided or have just recently decided on a candidate to support, then you're probably pretty relaxed and just anxious (in a good way) about the primaries coming up.

But if you're a diehard, then I guess what I wanna know is - are you taking that term literally?

---

Me? I'm fine. I'm happy with all the candidates. I just wanna beat Bush and start fixin' this country. Although, I never said I was a diehard for any candidate, so I'm probably in a minority here.

[alwynsw]

1. I'm still totally committed to Pat Paulsen

And I'm not gonna change until all the diehards are forced to listen to Earnestine for 72 hours straight.

[toddzilla]

2. i think it's rather pointless

The only true progressive candidate is quite frankly, not an option in today's world. so i'll vote for whatever centrist corporate whore we end up nominating because unless we nominate a 200 pound pile of toejam, we couldn't do any worse than what's up there now.

not quite sure this belongs here though.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. I am with you. We will get the same crap we always get, but

let's just hope it can beat the crap we have in the WH now. True progressive policies will have to wait until the economy is healed again.

[Myra]

10. Hah! Too funny alwynsw.

:)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

14. ROFL!!!

Pat Paulsen can save America! :hi:

[Rowdyboy]

3. I am 100% badass committted to my candidate

Unless somebody else wins the nomination...

I think you were smart to ask it here! Much safer.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Well I am sitting here with a list of numbers for people who have

signed up on the candidate's website. I have promised to call each and every one of them so that they are informed on the upcoming Michigan caucus vote...and we are also trying to get them signed up for email and absentee voting. So my answer is, more that I thought I would be, but you know...in doing this, I have found so many more like minded people in my closed conservative community than I have ever thought possible.

I think I'm in it for the long haul. :)

[SOteric]

6. About 89.7% ABB.

This is a repost of a response I made a while back to NSMA's question in GD. You can find the original thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=783072

I have not been participating in the great candidate-bash and mudslinging festival.

In fact, I have not yet publicly or firmly come out in favour of any one specific candidate. This is not because I'm wishy-washy. For the sake of Skinner's straw poll earlier this year I went with the candidate I was leaning toward most heavily at the time.

I have a short list of three candidates I would be happiest with. In truth I will stand behind pretty much any Democrat on the ballot. You'll note I said "pretty much." I don't consider myself ABB. I don't have a candidate I'm going to bash at this moment, so all you candidate loyalists who might be sufficiently bored as to be reading this far down in the thread can untwist your knickers now.

At this point in my examination of the candidates, there isn't a glaring misstep any of the candidates has made that would cause me to completely rule them out. I leave the space in my declaration for ABB because in the short experience of my life the better part of wisdom and my combined life lessons have too often presented a new variation of the old saw "out of the frying pan, into the fire." And perhaps not without reason, those life lessons always seem to be delivered in close proximity to the utterance of the phrase "nothing could be worse than this."

Yeah, I'm verbose. Sue me.

So rather than commit to any candidate, I insist on intense scrutiny. I conceive it possible that there could be someone worse than Bush and that someone could possible be running as a Democrat. History is resplendent in example of incompetent and perfidious rulers, even if few were American presidents. And a time when so many Americans are deeply disappointed in the administration is a time ripe for a desperate population to vote in a candidate without intense scrutiny.

What disappoints me most in all the poo-flinging that goes on in this forum with regard to candidates is that one cannot scrutinise a candidate with that level of exacting detail while engaged in loyalist behaviour.

I'm not ready for the tin-foil hat, but I intend to vote with my eyes wide open.

Okay, I've said my piece. You can go back to your turkey sandwiches and martinis.

[welshTerrier2]

12. Thanks ...

What disappoints me most in all the poo-flinging that goes on in this forum with regard to candidates is that one cannot scrutinise a candidate with that level of exacting detail while engaged in loyalist behaviour.

this is my exact frustration with DU these days ... honest analysis of the candidates and the issues is too often sacrificed on the alter of candidate cheerleaders ... it's become 99% commercials and 1% programming ...

i'm not "undecided", i'm unaligned ...

and, actually, on further reflection, it's worse than you said it is ... it's not just that we "cannot scrutinise a candidate with that level of exacting detail", it's that if a candidate other than the one your supporting does something great to fight against the right-wing madness, it has to be criticized as "too little too late" or "flip-flopping" or politically expedient ...

wouldn't it be nice if we could bury the biases just long enough to remember that we're all supposed to be fighting the same enemy ...

[UTUSN]

7. "Scared of GD" - So Funny n/t

[alexwcovington]

8. Not too committed

Except to myself (state house run)

[toddzilla]

9. I'm not verbose this evening..

instead of saying a bunch of stuff.. i'll agree with SOteric..



but remember we aren't voting for a president, we are voting for a cabinet, supreme court justices etc...

[SheilaT]

11. I'm very committed to my candidate.

I host a meetup. I write letters. I donate to the campaign. I get people to register as Democrats and sign the petition to get his name on the caucus ballot here in Kansas. I will go to my caucus on March 13 and it's my not very secret ambition to go to Boston in August as a delegate to the convention.

[supernova]

13. Haven't been committed yet

:evilgrin:

I haven't made up my mind about a candidate yet. At this point I think they should all be out getting as much publicity not only for themselves but for the Democratic Party in general.

Call me old-fashioned, but all this bickering and backstabbing about one candidate over another over in GD is pointless at this point.

[Liberal Veteran]

15. I swore an oath today...

I swore by all I hold sacred that I will vote for whomever gets the democratic nomination even if I have to hold my nose, avert my eyes, and bathe in acid to get the stench off of me afterwards in the unlikely event that Lieberman gets the nomination.


And I intend to hold to that.

But right now I will happily support Dean or Clark because I think they both hold the best chance of getting the nod and unseating Bush.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Is Harold Stassen still running?

Or Gus Hall? Or are they dead? (You couldn't really tell if they were alive years ago, anyway.)

Here in Joisey, it doesn't make any difference who you support. Our primary isn't until June, and it's all in the bag by then.

So, I gots me a couple of favorites, and might send them some money, but it's basically wait and see, unless it's deadlocked by the time it gets here.

No way I'm going to New Hampshire or Michigan or some other damn place to knock on doors or stuff envelopes.

[burr]

17. I'm completely invested on the issues...

when I discover a primary candidate who I believe is ditching core democratic principles, I become edgy. I used to get angry at repuke attacks on Clinton's healthcare plan...now I get furious at Democratic attacks on national healthcare. I used to get pissed about Newt's attacks on Clinton for "his huge retroactive tax increase", now I explode over DINO attacks on Democrats who wish to bring back those surplusses. I used to get angry at repukes who called Clinton "the illegitimate President" because he only won a plurality, not a majority of the popular vote in 92 and 96. Now I blowup when I hear Repukes and Democrats agree that the Electoral College should remain constitutional, but that following the proper Betsy Ross rules for handling the flag should be made unconstitutional! :thumbsdown:

I know that it will not be long before I finally commit to a single primary candidate, but GOD only knows if this will make me more or less edgy. :shrug:

[Myra]

18. Yeah, GD is a snakepit. And I'm not jumping on board anyone's campaign!

I have some favorite*S*, and there is one candidate
that I would not vote for even over Bush. I'd just have
to vote for a third party candidate or write in my vote
rather than settle for...that person in the unlikey event
that they win the Dem nomination.

I frankly think a lot of the people who passionately
defend their one candidate against legitimate questions,
and/or constantly get in people's faces to argue them
away from a candidate:

-Are freepers, or
-Have suspended their ability to think critically, or
-Are sincere but so godamn tired of the the orchestrated
smears against Democrats that they're unable to distinguish
between smears and legit concerns.

But deciding on a candidate then closing the mind like
it's a done deal is scary, and quite childish.
Even when I do end up with a candidate I'm not gonna
worship them like a god, because everyone has proverbial
feet of clay.

And the DUers I'm most wary of are the ones that have
their candidate's name as part of their login hame...

[burr]

19. A very good point...

"I frankly think a lot of the people who passionately
defend their one candidate against legitimate questions,
and/or constantly get in people's faces to argue them
away from a candidate:"

Some feel that those who question their candidate are in fact attacking that candidate. They will often equate a policy disagreement as a personal attack or even an insult. Some who post responses often forget that uncommitted Democrats read the responses to better understand the reasoning behind the supporters of primary candidates, not to read attacks on other contenders and their supporters.

Threads of primary candidates which argue that Kucinich supporters are all impractical or that Dean is running just to shit on the middleclass..would drive away uncommitted DUers from a particular candidate, not attract them!

[moz4prez]

21. indeed . . .

And the DUers I'm most wary of are the ones that have their candidate's name as part of their login hame

though I strongly doubt anyone considers Morrissey a threat

[Don_G]

20. Committed To Eliminating These F**kers

[Padraig18]

22. I'm committed, but not fanatically so.

I actually like my candidate a LOT, and would be extremely disappointed if he didn't get the nomination; that said, I think we have several fine candidates running, and I could (and will) swallow my disappointment and work my fingers to the bone for whichever one gets the nomination.

Does that answer the question? :)

[thom1102]

24. Me too! This is exactly how I feel!

[piece sine]

23. DU is far, far too insulated....

every time I read here that "Any one of our candidates can easily beat Bush" I just shake my head. Sure, it's fun to be a pep rally...you can cheer and jeer all you want and it feels good. But unlike most poster here, I see Dubya as an extremely serious opponent who will be VERY hard to defeat. My sober assessment is that, right now, only 3 or 4 of our candidates have even a potential to beat him, IF IF IF IF, we can close ranks behind our candidate BEFORE Boston.

Winning in 2004 will take a magic vortex of:

"Popular and unified Democratic momentum behind one man;"

"Economic and political circumstances as they are NEXT fall, not now;"

"Plenty of durable political capital to fend-off what will be a monsterous GOP onslaught of negative ads and accusations against whomever we nominate."

I shiver at how difficult this task will be. Just because Dean fills a hotel ballroom in Iowa or Clark gets an hour with Madonna doesn't mean we've scored a homerun.

Frankly, I wish the Democratic debates would stop with the group-grope and pair-off into mixed couples....let Dean debate Edwards; Kerry debate Gephardt -- one on one -- and then switch debate partners and do it again. The field is far too broad right now, and Carol, Al and Dennis and Joe are meaningless sideshows. We're wasting time fooling around with "candidates" with absolutely no chance of carrying the party, let along the nation.

[THUNDER HANDS]

27. I agree

It's best to lower your expectations and work harder than it is to raise them and rest on our laurels (if that's how that word is spelled). :D

[Screaming Lord Byron]

25. I could live with Kucinich, Clark, Dean, Edwards, Braun or Kerry.

but as a Canadian, I have to choose between Martin, Layton, Orchard, Harper and Duceppe. So I figure, I shouldn't try to play favourites with the US choices, as I don't have to vote for them.

p.s. on the Canadian choice, its Layton all the way.

[YNGW]

26. Candidates

I'm is a similar boat of undecided but for a different reason. I can't seem to get excited about any of them. Maybe once the primaries get closer to happening in my state things will change, but I don't recall ever feeling so blah about a field of candidates before, which is why I'm undecided. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

[jukes]

28. I just wanna beat Bush

I got your back, RAT. ALL the candidates are democrats, and any democrat (oh, OK, not that turncoat senator from my state, Zell Miller) is better than what's been forced on us.

I lean toward Clark/Dean; would maybe like to see a P/VP team there, but flaming supporters of others is silly & counter-productive. We should save our adrenaline for the big fight.

Further on Clark: since I've been in the military, I distrust lifers, but the man is persuaaive, & his platform makes sense.

I'll support and vote for any Dem candidate, gladly, and will pray to anybody's mythical diety(ies) for a republican defeat. Unfortunately, our next president will never be able to undo the damage that has been done to our country.

:thumbsup: