Which candidate - when he is President - will be able to withstand a

[patricia92243]

continuous, non-ending attack like Clinton went thru for 8 years? It will happen - no question on that - I just wondered which one will have the most skeletons in his closet to be attacked (real or made up) and which one will have the guts to fight on for 8 years?

[LZ1234]

1. How true!

If the same attack was launched on GWB, he would be facing impeachment right now.

[Nashyra]

2. Clark

[patricia92243]

4. Impeachment and imprisonment

[RC]

16. All we need is a free & honest press in this country.

[gulliver]

3. Clark would not need to.

How are they going to attack a guy like Clark? He was wounded in Vietnam serving his country, is a devout church-goer, a brilliant Rhodes scholar, an athlete, and a man who is inclusive of all Americans regardless of party.

[Dark Star]

6. I tend to agree.

Clark will be fine.

[Eloriel]

14. None of that innoculates him in any way

Sorry -- but it just doesn't. He's also not that effective, IMO, in handling surprisingly difficult questions. He always looks like a deer caught in the headlights, and his answers are squishy.

[LTR]

5. Some of the candidates hold up well

Clark, for one. He spent slmost all of his adult life in the armed forces! Nearly everything about him is out in the open. Doesn't seem too fazed by the GOP. And I'm not sure the average American would stand for wholesale smearing of a war hero.

I'd be willing to say Edwards too, since he emerged unscathed from attacks by the Helms machine (there's dirty politics for ya). But is he too nice a guy to stand up to the GOP goons?

Alas, no bimbo factor for either (as far as I know).

I'm concerned about Dean. A Dean presidency could easily turn into a slaughter of Clinton-like proportions.

Kerry is also an unknown, since there is still much about him not widely known. He seems pretty clean. May tear into his divorce and activist phase during the Vietnam war.

[asthmaticeog]

7. Wesley Clark...

... is pretty damn near bulletproof. Kucinich and Dean would both handle it well because they just wouldn't give a f*@k what GOP psychos try to do to them. I imagine Sharpton would fail despite defending himself terrifically; though he's a brilliant rhetorician, there will always be Tawana Brawley to sideswipe him with, and that'll probably resonate farther with the public than his words now, especially in the GOPs hands. Kerry would probably try to appease his adversaries, and fail at a Clinton-style triangulation attempt. Edwards, I don't know what he'd do, really, though I suspect he'd show a good amount of backbone.

[texasmom]

8. Definitely Clark

Which is one of the reasons I'm so fiercely behind him. I think if he can get our nomination, he'll have coattails across the country. Democrats will be proud to stand by him and have him campaign with them everywhere. That will lead to a more equal playing field with Congress.
No skeletons in his closet, and he's a fighter. He's a person of impeccable integrity. I think he's ready for the fight, too.

[milkyway]

9. This has been one of my strongest reasons to support Howard Dean.

A Dem president will be facing a non-stop assault from the right wing attack dogs, a repug Congress, and a right-wing dominated corporate media that may be even worse than what Clinton faced (post 9-11,they will scream that a Dem president's policies will get us all killed--the Clinton years were relatively calm for national security issues). He will face tremendous pressure to cave in. I feel confident that Dean has just the right temperament to be president in this environment. He'll stand up and do what he thinks is right. How many really feel this way about John Kerry? Kerry will be rolled by the right wing, and with his constituency all of the United States instead of liberal Massachusetts, you can forget about him being a progressive. He'll be seen as a weak poll-following president with no personal charisma to win people over. Jimmy Carter was viewed as a weak president, and it lead to 12 years of Reagan/Bush.

[arewethereyet]

10. Edwards is the only one who provdes no such ammunition

we'll no longer be a lawyer, he's not a philanderer and he does not contradict himself because he thnks before he speaks and does his homework.

None of the others in any position to vie can say that.

[Eloriel]

15. They don't need ammunition

Haven't you been paying attention? ANYthing can be blowin out of proportion, misquoted, twisted. And if that fails, they make stuff up.

The question remains: who can HANDLE and stand up to that best? The answer remains: Dean.

[arewethereyet]

17. Yes, I have been paying attention

and if you still feel that Dr Dean has been subjected to some sort of situation of "anything" being blown out of proportion then I really have to suggest that you are way too close to that situation to be objective.

All the landmines that Dean has stepped on are significant, tied directly to his policy or speak directly to his ability to lead.

And Dean is not alone in these failings.

Edwards does not make those sorts of mistakes.

[blm]

11. Kerry has been savaged by the rightwing and its press for over 30 years.

They ramped it up during his investigations and exposures in BCCI and IranContra, including a thorrough investigation by the FBI against Kerry.

He was already Scaifed for years. GOP operatives and the FBI couldn't bring him down.

I doubt Dean and his supporters can do what Nixon, Reagan and Bush could not.

[MMT]

12. Dennis Kucinich would hold up very well. Maybe the best of all.

He comes from a humble background.

He has a 35-year documented history as an anti-corporatist Democrat, has won all kinds of elective offices, is respected by political opponents, and never tries to hide or explain away anything in his past that he's grown out of.

He has a clear and almost complete vision for a people-centered future for America and the world.

He is the only one to have put his whole career on the line in order to stand up to corporate greedheads.

He has a toughness and clarity that only real hardship produces. And he is not afraid of the ruling elites because, short of killing him outright, they've already done their worst and failed to bring him to heel or scare him off.

No other candidate can say the same.

[Eloriel]

13. Dean, without any doubt whatsoever

Proof: his performance on Meet the Press this morning. Brilliant.

[cthrumatrix]

18. exactly...he already has...he's is soo good for our country

[arewethereyet]

19. he's had ample practice, thats for sure

but I think thats more the issue than the solution