Do you prefer this primary season to that of 2000?

[jpgray]

[theoceansnerves]

1. yes

i liked bill bradley though :shrug:

[woofless]

2. Yes, there was way too much complacency in the Democratic

Party and we got HOSED big time. None of that this year. Dems are in a take no prisoners mode and it is quite refreshing. We can thank Dean for a lot of that.

[bigwillq]

3. Thank you for saying....

"We can thank Dean for a lot of that."

[jpgray]

4. He was the vehicle for a lot of people's discontent

Without him, this may have been a rather dull primary. :) Kucinich and Sharpton were both on the right side of the issues, but early support didn't identify with them as with Dean.

[bigwillq]

5. Agree strongly with you

If Kerry wins the nomination and then the White House, he owes Dr. Dean big time, imo.

[question everything]

10. I think that everyone agrees that Dean galvanized many voters

especially young ones and made the process interesting and having many wanting to participate.

However, trail blazers not necessarily make good governors. Politics is the art of compromise and I think that it would be very difficult for a maverick to govern. Would have been different if, say, 60% of the voters were democrats and if the house had a comfortable majority of Democrats. But the way the country is evenly divided - and we can discuss this on a different thread - we cannot afford to have Dean as the nominee. We should, however, be grateful for him.

[cally]

6. Yes, Dems seem more united this time around

I also think that Kerry will come out of this less damaged by the primary than Gore was. He looks to have some ability to start focusing on Bush without too much rehabilitation from a bruising primary fight.

My vote has never mattered in a primary and usually in the nomination. I live in the largest state and yet we have no influence over our Presidency. It infuriates me but it is better than 2000. We had a small chance to make a difference this time.

[MrSlayer]

7. Yes, I can't even tell you who was in 2000.

People opposed Gore? Who were they?

[eleny]

8. When I heard Kery say

that he was going to fight back at everything the Repukes throw at him, it gave me much hope. He's drawn a line in the sand, the R's keep crossing it and their lies keep getting debunked. We have a much better chance since we have a candidate who clearly knows who he is and won't take any crap laying down.

[question everything]

9. Yes. It was a mistake for Gore to run

Except for Bush Sr., sitting vice presidents do not get elected for presidents. They have to be out in public, to build their own image, ideas, character, interactions - separate from the one in whose shadow they served during the past four or eight years.

He could have taken credit for the booming economy that we had during the Clinton years - the last time when the lowest level of income rose by the same percentage as the highest one. But he wanted to disassociate himself from the Clinton White House and Monica.

But Democrats felt uncomfortable running against the heir apparent, not that I know who would have jumped. Bradley was very uninspiring.

I don't know what happened to all the brave, gutsy, articulate and intelligent Democratic leaders. I think that most of us were not too excited about Clinton in 1992. I certainly was not and was grateful to have Tsonga still in the race to vote for him. (But I did vote for him in November and, of course, in 1996). Bush Sr. had his war and had an approval rating of 91%, I think, at some point, so Democrats were afraid to be crushed the way Reagan did to Mondale in 1984.