Does anyone else get emotionally attached to Presidential candidates?

[PresidentObama]

I remember back in 2004 spending my Friday and Saturday nights on the phone talking to voters trying to get them to vote for Senator Kerry while others my age were out with friends. Waking up everyday listening to "Beautiful Day" by U2, the theme song of the John Kerry campaign, and flipping on CNN and MSNBC to see the latest poll numbers and sound bytes. And of course logging onto the net to check out what the world wide web was saying. To say I got emotionally attached to John Kerry and his campaign is telling it like it is. I remember the tragic feeling that loomed after the election, and the up's and down's of the political roller coaster that led to that point.

Here I am in 2007, and I feel the same feelings. Yes, the candidate has changed...but the optimistic yet nervous feeling is back. I was working on a local Edwards support MySpace, and I listened to his campaign theme over and over without even realizing that I was obsessively listening to the campaign theme. The background of my computer is John Edwards, the sign on my work room walls is a John Edwards 2008 rally sign shoved between all the John Kerry 2004 signs. My yard is about to showcase a John Edwards 2008 yard sign. My car is about to get it's first John Edwards bumper sticker.

The obsession is back. The 24/7 campaign cycle is back. The emotion is back

God I love politics!!

[graywarrior]

1. I wish I could. If Gore were running I'd be into it.

Right now, I'm just waiting it out.

[Gman]

2. Never, ever, EVER fall in love with any politician

as they will very certainly, at some point, break your heart. It is as inevitable as rain.

[napi21]

3. Yep, only my candidate was Howard Dean! If he would run again

today, I'd do everything I did for him in the past only double!

He was tho only candidate I've ever felt that way about, and I haven't found one in the current crop that fits the bill.

[whistle]

4. Not any more, the last two presidential elections took that away

...unless you call being pissed at one candidate and totally discussed with the other a warped sort of emotional attachment. Government no longer represents the middle class in America if it ever really did. Now we know without any doubt that government really tends to the wants and needs of the privileged class and pits the other classes against one another and is creating greater divisions of classes without end. The whole idea, I believe is to render elections obsolete.

[AtomicKitten]

5. Al Gore.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3296855&mesg_id=3296855

[april]

6. no and esp Not this time it is all about what are they going to do for america

[FrenchieCat]

7. Never fell out of love with my candidate

once I researched him and felt confident of what he stood for. That will be a never-ending love story in my personal political history book.

However for me, like real love, it can only happen every once in a great while.....not every election cycle. That would cheapen the quality and intensity of the political love affair for me.

If it happens again, it won't be cause I planned or willed it to happen.....it will be because I was inspired beyond my own will. And that's the way it should be, FAIC!

And so instead, I'm having an affair with the future of my children's world. I want them to see someone in office who can inspire them to be all that they can be, and to inspire them to have principles in life, and make that more important than simply "winning" for the sake of "winning".

[peacetalksforall]

8. I envy you. There is always something that holds be back a little.

Hard work ... yes ... blind trust ... no.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Yes.

Not to often. Twice actually. Gary Hart in 1984, And Wes Clark in '04. I don't think it's going to happen for me in '08.

I do wish that Gore would get in.

[Colobo]

10. I will say I've become an Obamaniac and

this is the first time a politician has done this to me.

[xkenx]

11. Wes Clark, who has inspired me like no one since Bobby Kennedy.

[PresidentObama]

12. America could use President Clark n/t

[LittleClarkie]

13. I'm still hung up on Kerry

Haven't found anyone else yet. So I donated to his Senate campaign, which I'm sure he'll use to help other candidates.

[cleveramerican]

14. It creeps in gradually

and by the time the general rolls around I'm all in.

Craeful not to peak too soon, leave some emotion for the home-stretch.

I love politics too, sometime more than is good for my well-being.


Only 500 days till the election

[JNelson6563]

15. Not this time

But I well remember the passion from 04. I was a Dean supporter, still am of course but in a different way.

Enjoyed your post! :hi:

Julie

[LWolf]

16. No.

I don't get emotionally attached to politicians. I dislike most politicians on principle.

I find politics to be a game of dishonesty and corruption. Of propaganda.

I don't love it, but I know it dictates my environment, so I participate.

I don't trust politicians.

There are those whose work and ideas I respect. I support those politicians for as long as their work and stance are worthy. They are few and far between.

There are those whose work and ideas I despise. I oppose them in whatever ways I can.

There are those whose work and ideas I find irritating and less than worthy of respect, that I find to be obstacles to progress regardless of how well they are packaged by party handlers.

I am not, by nature, a cheerleader, a fan, or an adoring follower.

[blm]

17. Kerry for me since I first understood the MAGNITUDE of BCCI, especially after 9-11

knowing full well that 9-11 would NEVER have happened if BCCI wasn't blocked and downplayed by so many of our most powerful powerstructures in this country - both GOPs and powerful Dems.

[primative1]

18. Nah .. I peel the bumper stickers off the day its over ...

I still see people riding around with Kerry stickers on their cars 3 years later ... For me its the ideas that live on ... the person carrying them is not so important ...

[RFKHumphreyObama]

19. Yes....

With the disclaimer that I am not American and I live overseas so my opinion doesn't really count for anything

The first US presidential candidate I fell in love with was Clinton in '92'. His passion, his oratory skills, his charisma and the genuine vision he seemed to have for America and the world. Before that, when following American politics, I tended to lean towards the Republicans. But Clinton changed a lot of my thinking on American politics

Gore didn't inspire me in 2000 but Kerry did in 2004. He had the visionary, statesmanlike quality to him which I thought would make him a great President. Unfortunately I think he ran a weak campaign and never showed his true potential but I thought he would have made a great President

None of the '08' candidates really inspire me yet -the closest I have come to being inspired is by Obama and Edwards and perhaps Richardson

[Apollo11]

20. It sounds like an addiction to me

In 2004 I think Howard Dean had the most enthusiastic and the most "psyched" supporters.

But in the end it wasn't enough for him to win the nomination. He didn't even come close.

I hope that most people take the Presidential election very seriously, and try to think about it rationally.

I hope its not all about which candidate has the warmest smile, the nicest kids or the coolest campaign song.

Before deciding which candidate to support I will look for answers to the following questions:

1) Which candidate has the best qualifications and qualities to be President of the US?

2) Which candidate has the best ideas, plans and solutions to the problems facing America?

3) Which candidate has the best chance of beating the other side and winning the Whitehouse?

Right now I am keeping an open mind, waiting to see if Gore and/or Clark jumps in.

It now looks almost certain that Wes Clark will announce at the start of September.

[Forkboy]

21. Not in the slightest.

Politicians are very low on my list of people to get emotionally attached to,and part of the trouble with politics,in my opinion,is the cult of personality that develops around them based on little more than feel good phrases or sound bites or undefined,barely explained positions.It seems to be a very fine line between being enthused about someone and being blinded by their desire to see that person win.DU is ripe with examples of this taken too far.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. I was/am a huge Kerry fan

and felt terribly let down when he decided not to run. I don't think I've fully recovered, because I just can't get excited about any of the current candidates. If Al Gore decides to run, I think I'll feel better.

[ElizabethDC]

23. Yeah, and I've realized I have to be careful about it

In 2004, I was really, really attached to John Kerry. I was so excited about him and was certain that he would be our next president. Needless to say, things obviously didn't turn out that way, and I was heartbroken for weeks (months?) after the election.

After such an emotional attachment and a rough outcome, I felt kind of disillusioned about politics in general - the excitement had been sucked out of it for me. But then, after I met Bill Clinton in the fall, I did some reading about the Clinton presidency, and I was really impressed by Hillary and her role there. I started paying a little more attention to her, and by January I had decided that I wanted to support her. Now, I feel that rush of excitement coming back again - in some ways, I'm glad to delve back into politics again, but in other ways - I realize how unhealthy it can become.