A Caucus Primer

Iowa’s “First in the Nation Caucuses” are just a couple of weeks away, on January 19th. As a public service, here’s my personal guide to the 2 or 3 major parties and their candidates:

Who knows if or when the Reform Party will hold a national convention. They basically broke apart at their 1999 convention in Long Beach, California. It looks like party activist and businessman Ted Weill is the frontrunner for the party's 2004 Presidential nomination. Weill is both the Mississippi Reform Party Chairman and a Reform Party National Committeeman. I know this is prejudiced on my part, but I for one am terrified of fringe party candidates from Mississippi…and Alabama…and South Carolina. See where I’m going with this?
Weill opposes giving money to other countries, hopes to lower the cost of gas and create jobs by pursuing alternative fuels. He thinks prisoners should be used for slave labor, that all prescriptions should be made available for no more than $5 and wants to offer free college internet classes and free adoptions. Exciting.

The Green Party National Convention is the earliest one. It will be in Milwaukee, WI June 23-28, 2004. Beer and cheese. Sounds like a party.
Their most likely candidate, of course is consumer advocate, liberal activist and Harvard-educated attorney, this will be Ralph Nader’s fourth Presidential. But there’s also David Cobb, a lawyer who’s the General Counsel for the Green Party of the United States (GP-US) and helped to found the Green Party of Texas.

What can I tell you? I have a friend who used to be a hard core Republican who decided that true democratic reform, consumer rights and the environment were more important to him than voting for people who actually get elected.

The Democratic National Convention will be July 26-29 in Boston Massatchusetts. Staunch Democratic country. Expect to see lots of Kennedys, with the exception perhaps of California’s First Lady Maria Schriver-Shwarzenagger.

Former Ambassador to New Zealand Carol Moseley Braun is a former Senator from Illinois. Her big issues are funding for public schools and, as you might guess, diversity. She knows she’s not going to get the nomination, but believes her voice is important to the race. I can see her getting a Cabinet job if a Democrat is elected.

Retired General Wesley Clark is the former commander of NATO durring Kosovo. He’s a moderate, the darling of the fiscally conservative Democratic Leadership Conference. But I don’t know what else he stands for, but I like that he’s one of only 2 candidates to say President Bush went to war with Iraq too soon and without any advanced plans for getting us out.

Right now it looks like the frontrunner is New Hampshire Governor Howard Dean. I’ve liked him all along. I keep telling people he reminds me of a Democratic John McCain. Just a little edge, just a dash of indignation. He opposed the war, he opposes monster deficits. He makes the Party leadership nervous enough that moderate swing voters will think he’s his own man. All he has to do is debate Bush and he’s got a chance. He much more relaxed and natural than Gore was. I think he stands a chance.

High school girls like North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Young, handsome, innovative ideas. I can see him as an ideal pick for Dean’s running mate. If Dean wins the nomination, he’s going to need a moderate Southerner to balance the ticket and General Clark may not be Southern enough, plus Clark comes off as too intelectual.Conservatives and swing moderates seem to be afraid of brains, especially articulate ones- wittness our current President.

I actually perferred Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt over Gore, but I voted for New Jersy Senator Bill Bradley in the 2000 Primary. I even perferred Gephardt over Clinton, but in 1988 I voted for Illinois Senator Paul Simon. He recently passed away after heart surgery. He was Lutheran. What can I say, I like intelligence. Watching Gephardt this time around, I saw too much artificial anger, like he was trying to act like Gore was trying to act in the last election. He used to be about labor, farming, and health care, now he looks like he’s just about running for President one last time.

I like Massatchusetts Senator John Kerry. I’d rather vote for Nebraska Senator Bob Kerry. They’re both veterans, they’re both smart and articulate. There is the married to the Heintz Katsup heiress thing, and the Massatchusetts thing. Republican fodder.

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich? Two words, Michael Dukakis. Only divorced.

Conecticut Senator Joe Lieberman may be upset that former Vice President Gore didn’t give him his endorsement, but that didn’t mean he had to become a Republican. Supporting our troops doesn’t mean you have to have supported the President’s decision to go to war, even Republicans know that. You don’t try appealing to the swing voters in the primaries, you wait until you’ve got the nomination, but Lieberman doesn’t seem to get that.

Who does Reverend Al Sharpton think he is? Lets face it, even Liberal Democrats think this guy makes Jesse Jackson look as religiously legitimate as Billy Graham and as politically conservative as Jerry Fawell. It’s not that he’s radical, its not that he’s black, it’s that he’s a wacko.

The Republican National Convention will be in New York City, August 30-Sept 6. At first, it was going to be a cruise on the Hudson river. I can’t blame Republicans for not wanting to actually be in the city itself. Democrats out number them 5 to 1 there. But Republican Mayor Blooburg talked them into bringing their millions of dollars into Manhattan it’s self. My theory is that it’s one big photo-op. The GOP wants to capitalize on 9/11, but I’m pretty cynical and just a little conspiracy minded. I blame that on Watergate.

What do I think of President Goerge W. Bush? Massive deficits, failed foreign policy, failed education policy, Massive tax cuts to billionares at the expense of our children’s future, failed economic policy, lied to the American people to make us think that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had something to do with Al Queda, Bin Laden or 9/11 so that he could unilaterally and “pre-emptively” invade a tiny country so that his and his Vice President’s friends could make money off the oil, not smart, not articulate.

Other than that, he’s a great guy. Nice, personable, down to earth, faith and family are important. Did I mention that he did not come to office by winning the popular election of the majority of Americans? What more do you want?

I wanted at least one other Republican to challenge him for his party’s nomination. I wanted Arizona Republican John McCain or Bill Bradley, or one of them as President and the other as Vice President. But, you can’t have it all.