There were perhaps 500 people attending, well in excess of what the Democratic Party had expected; the organizer had to send out to Kinkos (an American quick-copy chain) for more sign-in sheets. It will be a tussle. GW may yet follow his father as a one-term President. While I can sympathize with him personally, he might keep in mind that it will be for the best interests of the nation.
My precinct went decisively for Kerry: 20 votes out of 36. The balance was "uncommitted" & Kucinich (!) It's not a winner-take-all system at this level so our precinct will send 3 delegates for Kerry and 2 for Kucinich. The few Kucinich people I talked to were sanguine that in the final analysis it will be Kerry and I do not think that they will put up a huge fight at the district level. I hope. I have heard similar from other legislative districts.
As I said, Vote Democrat (rational, sensible, compassionate) but Organize Republican (orderly, disciplined, on message). I think that the Dems are doing it; I heard rants only from the young voters who opined at great and passionate length about integrity and change. Made me think that maybe the voting age should be raised to thirty.
UPDATE: The Seattle Times: Kerry's lead strong in Washington caucuses
Vote Democrat for rationality? If it weren't so dangerous, I'd be laughing.
I've yet to see a rational plan for winning this War on Terror come out of any Democrat to the left of Lieberman (and we all know how well he fared in the primaries, Joementum indeed). I've seen the long-term effects of losing to a jihad on a society (Romania) that never even became formally incorporated. It isn't pretty.
Every year we don't win this thing is a threat to our liberties. We don't have the time to fool around with candidates who are unserious on this issue, no matter how attractive their other positions might be.
Posted by: TM Lutas | Feb 08, 2004 at 05:51 AM
Well to quote a guy whom I think I'd like if I met him, "Isn't democracy great!" The fact that we can disagree is one of the marvels of our country.
And of course, there are indeed rational, reasonable upstanding people who count themselves Republican. In fact, if it were not for the style and manner of the current Republican leadership, I could very well see myself changing parties. If you read this blog then you know I have some somewhat conservative views on various issues and think that the conventional thinking of Democratic liberalism is in many respects sadly lacking.
Unfortunately, I think that the Republicans offer far worse.
As to national security, I wouldn't be smug quite so soon about the wisdom of the Bush administration's actions in either Iraq or more generally. The sad fact is that no one anywhere, of any party, of any nation, wearing any hat, really has a very persuasive program for dealing with terrorism. It is an extremely difficult problem and the only wisdom that I could offer is that the fish swim in a sea. But obviously, the success of criminal syndicates in doing wicked things in our own country, where they have little support, shows the difficulty of fighting small organized groups.
If you believe that Republicans have the secret of victory, pray tell.
Posted by: David Sucher | Feb 08, 2004 at 04:59 PM