November 20, 2004

November 19, 2004

Bush names Powell replacement...

November 14, 2004

November 13, 2004

November 12, 2004

November 11, 2004

November 10, 2004

November 9, 2004

November 8, 2004

November 7, 2004

November 6, 2004

Q & A...

November 5, 2004

What mandate? Bush and his cronies are bragging that he was re-elected by the largest plurality in the history of the presidency.  B.F.D. He also had more voters vote against him than ever in the history of the presidency. More significantly, after the provisional ballots have been tallied in Ohio, it is clear that Bush was fewer than 100,000 votes in one state from being a one-term president like his father. Let's not roll over for the next four years.

November 4, 2004

A Post Mortem...

What went wrong?  My thoughts on the subject...

Kerry was not a bad candidate.  He was a much better campaigner than Gore.  However, he did a few dumb things which didn't help.  

• Kerry was bludgeoned by his statement, "Well actually I did vote for the 87 billion before I voted against it."  It took way too much money and energy to overcome the flip-flop label which, in a large part, was given life by this one misstatement.

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• Although, at the time, I thought it perfectly innocuous, his reference to Cheney's lesbian daughter became the only thing talked about for days after the last debate instead of the issues or the fact that, taken cumulatively, Kerry cleaned Bush's clock in the debates.

• Goose hunting.  He looked silly.  It was silly taking time from the rush of the campaign to go hunting  and it was too obvious that he was doing it solely to pander to people who weren't buying Kerry anyway.  It reminded me of Dukakis driving the tank.

• He played into the excess-spending liberal stereotype.  He had an agenda for a number of important programs - health care, education, energy, etc.  However, people weren't convinced that he could pay for these programs without raising taxes.  He had the right answer but he didn't put it out there prominently enough.  Every time he spoke about these programs, he should have told people that although he was committed to his proposals, they would only be implemented when there were revenues, without taxes for the middle class, to pay for them.

• John Edwards.  Don't get me wrong.  I like Edwards.  He proved to be a very energetic campaigner and he gave the campaign a spark when it needed that spark very badly.  However, on the other side of the coin, Edwards looks even younger (read: inexperienced) than he actually is.  And, as attractive as it is, the pictures of Edwards holding his two-year old kid make him seem like a dad in his early thirties.  More importantly, he didn't win any electoral votes.  Wesley Clark, Dick Gephardt, or Bob Graham would have countered Bush/Cheney much more effectively on Iraq and terrorism.  More importantly, Gephardt would have delivered Missouri or Graham would have delivered Florida.  Clark might have delivered Arkansas.

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• Teresa Heinz Kerry.  I like her, too.  But to too many in this country, having a foreigner as the first lady wasn't a plus, particularly one who sounds like a foreigner.  I admit that they married years before his candidacy and picking her wasn't like picking a vice-presidential candidate.  I just think that putting her out front with all of her brashness may have alienated as many as who were intrigued by Teresa.

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• The "youth vote".  For all the work of P Diddy and Rock the Vote and others, registered voters between 18 and 24 had the same turnout as in 2000, low.  This was probably the single most disappointing demographic which, if it had been anywhere near the projections, would have been enough to carry Ohio.

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In yesterday's Rant, I compared Bush to a malignant tumor growing in our country.  If Jeb Bush runs for president in 2008, I'll know I'm right and that the cancer is spreading.  We must be proactive.  What the country needs is a double mastectomy to have these two boobs removed.

November 3, 2004

Comedian Yakov Smirnoff made famous the line, "What a country!"

I, too, say "What a country!"  However, I say it not in jest but rather with revulsion and dread.  It is mind-boggling and unacceptable to me that a majority of my fellow citizens could vote for a president who has alienated most of our traditional allies in the world, taken us into a war based upon a lie, taken giant steps backward on environmental issues, has appointed judges who advocate putting pictures of Jesus in our courtrooms, has turned a budget surplus into a deficit, and on and on.

A friend recently described me as being apoplectic about the election.  I'm afraid so.  While I remember surviving eight years of Ronald Reagan, as tumors go, Reagan was benign compared to this malignancy which has grown in our country.

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November 2, 2004

ELECTION DAY
(in case you hadn't noticed)

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Check out The Daily Rant prediction below in November 1 Rant.

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November 1, 2004

ARE YOU BETTER OFF NOW THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?

IRAQ WAR - Deaths By Coalition Country

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The Daily Rant Electoral Vote Prediction... Considering my track record, this prediction is worth what you pay for admission to this site.  But, no guts, no glory. The story of this election will be the turnout of people, minorities and young voters, who have not traditionally turned out in big numbers.  There will be in excess of 125,000,000 votes cast for president.  Most of the pollsters will be embarrassed because they have not figured out how to poll these new voters who will break 3 to 2 for Kerry.   Kerry will win 304 electoral votes to 234 for Bush.  The popular vote will be Kerry 51%, Bush 48%, and Nader <1%.

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