Kerry for Veep? Hell, why not go all the way?

[jgraz]

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you:



The NEXT VICE PRESIDENT OF... of...

the almost-victorious Democratic ticket!!!

[Hoof Hearted]

1. McGovern is still alive - why not him?

[jgraz]

He's a bit too exciting. Don't want to scare people

[ihavenobias]

49. Yes, I really did laugh out loud when I read that n/t

[JI7]

2. Obama's position on FISA is an example of him avoiding

what happened to Dukakis.

[anonymous171]

4. As much as I hate that position, I believe you are right.

Doesn't make it any easier to swallow though. :(

[jgraz]

5. Wrong. Dukakis lost because he was weak. Kerry and Gore lost because they were weak.

Obama caving on FISA is WEAK. It appeals to NO ONE. It will not get him a single vote. But it will likely lose him thousands, maybe more.

[JI7]

6. how was Dukakis weak, he never backed down from his liberal positions

and Kerry did a lot better than Dukakis.

Clinton did the opposite of Dukakis with his third way politics and won.

[jgraz]

7. Are you serious? Check out his infamous death penalty answer during the debates

Also, note that he would not even admit to being a liberal until well into September -- after he'd already blown the 12-point lead he had after the convention.

He never went after Bush I on the Willie Horton bullshit, he never went after him on Iran/Contra. He basically was a doormat for the right.

[JI7]

8. yeah, he stuck to his position on the death penalty

and that hurt him. he should have given some vague answer heavy on emotion but without much substance.

[jgraz]

9. It's the WAY he stuck to it -- it almost was like he felt the need to apologize for it.

He'd already lost the debate. He never really stood up and went after Bush and the Repugs for their heartless, soulless and brainless support of a failed policy. If the guy really, passionately believed that the death penalty was wrong, he should have been able to take Bush apart on that issue (and many others).

[Hippo_Tron]

27. Clinton could have opposed the death penalty and still won

Triangulating helped Clinton but only a fraction of what his communication skills did. Dukakis lost votes on the death penalty because he responded poorly to a question asking about if his wife were murdered would he want to see the murderer put to death. Dukakis answered that he opposed the death penalty.

Clinton (if he had opposed the death penalty) would have started the answer by telling some story about how a friend of his back in Arkansas had a family member murdered and what that was like. He would then would have given the correct answer which is that if his wife were murdered he would want to kill the guy himself and that he would absolutely want it to be cruel and unusual which is precisely why we have constitutional protections for the accused and convicted and that we need to re-consider any punishment such as the death penalty that is based on vengeance and not justice.

[ProSense]

12. Gore lost because he was weak?

Are you serious?

[jgraz]

15. Two words: Joe Lieberman

[ProSense]

17. Two points:

500,000 vote advantage and SCOTUS.

[jgraz]

18. Gore should have crushed that retarded monkey. He played it safe and look what it got us.

[ProSense]

20. Right, a ham sandwich could have won.

Obama should sit back and eat one. After all, McCain is a worse candidate than Bush.

These arguments are stupid.

[cboy4]

13. OMG, Gore lost because he was weak?

:spray:

[eridani]

35. The pre "Inconvenient Truth" Gore appeared weak

The "recovering politician" has been really kicking ass.

[jgraz]

48. Pre-2003 Gore WAS weak. He should have kicked Bush's ass

[blm]

43. The RNC stole 2000,2002 and 2004, and the DNC sat on their hands and let them do it.

There is a NEW DNC now and more states have strengthened their party infrastructures.

Bush was a weak candidate. RNC stole those elections because the DNC was at its weakest point in decades by 2000, 2002 and 2004.

[jgraz]

47. It should have never even been that close.

Especially in '04, there should have been no question as to who was the better choice.

[blm]

50. BushInc was at its most powerful in 2004 with more media protection than any president in history.

And the last Dem president spent his June/July book tour supporting and defending Bush's decisions on terrorism and Iraq war from the very criticisms being leveled at him by the left and the Dem nominee at the time.

2000, 2002 and 2004 should never have been close, but a collapsed DNC infrastructure in too many states made sure it happened. I will bet that both Gore and Kerry won by far wider margins than most even suspect.

[eridani]

34. No, it's Obama who's looking like Dukakis

Fake "military" photo op = wuss
Backing down on his previous FISA filibuster = wuss.

[jgraz]

45. Sad but true.

[Seen the light]

3. Any person that seriously thinks Obama will pick Kerry is a dumbass

A dumbassed giant fiery turd of a dumbass.

[tkmorris]

10. See now, why is that necessary?

Why can't someone just be wrong? Without all the ridiculous invective?

[TwilightGardener]

14. Bwah! The overkill cracked me up.

:thumbsup:

[pansypoo53219]

11. sigh.

nobody mentioned mondale.

[jgraz]

16. I thought that would be pushing it.

[PresidentObama]

19. Kerry won, Dukakis didn't

[jgraz]

21. Try telling that to Kerry.

[ProSense]

23. Seriously, what's your point?

In the 2004 election, more than 121 million people voted and Kerry got 59 million votes to Bush's 62 million, a less than 2.5 % margin. It was an extremely close election. That's something when you consider the terror alerts, swiftboating and media complicity, and the rest.

Now, you can argue a lot of things, but to claim Kerry was weak is almost dumb argument.

[dailykoff]

22. Har har.

Me and maw ar bustin a gut laffin.

[jgraz]

24. Glad you liked it.

Cuz if Obama is dumb enough to pick a defeated presidential candidate for his running mate, you're going to be hearing Dukakis jokes from now until well after McCain wins in November.

[ProSense]

25. Who do you think he should pick? n/t

[jgraz]

26. "Should" in the sense of the best political choice? Probably Clark

"Should" in the sense of the best person for the job? Russ Feingold. Hands down.

[ProSense]

28. Clark just took himself out of the Presidential campaign

and Feingold isn't on the list.

It's interesting that people seem to denigrate Kerry's appeal, while pushing for people who have had even less mass appeal.

[jgraz]

29. You would have given that same answer no matter who I named

But you can't get around the fact that choosing a failed presidential candidate as Veep is a bad move.

[ProSense]

30. That's your opinion.

Like the opinions that claimed Kerry's endorsement of Obama was the end all.

There are a lot of dynamics at work. Kerry is progressive, popular, and he has built a network nationwide as the 2004 candidate. He can pull strings.

Still, this is a rumor, and I doubt it's true.

[jgraz]

31. Then name someone besides Kerry who Obama "should" pick.

[ProSense]

32. That's Obama's choice

I'm not advocating for anyone, not even Kerry. If people are going to advance bogus arguments about why Kerry shouldn't be the picked, I'll respond.

I believe Kerry would have been one of the best presidents ever.

[jgraz]

33. You know we will always disagree on this

Let's just get this one elected, then we can go back to fighting about Kerry.

[TheKentuckian]

36. Of late, I place most of the blame on voters

not the nominees. In a reasonably sane country Bush would have never been close enough for shenanigans to ensue in either election. Sure Gore and Kerry made mistakes but nothing anywhere the magnitude to allow such a horrid challenger as Dubbya to even steal the races.

"Duke" was a bench guy that was ill prepared for the 1st full national smear machine assault. Mondale was a fair candidate on paper but somewhat cannonfodder in the personality contest and in light of "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" (after which the question could never again be asked by a Republican without stirring a riot).

I'll give voters the benefit of the doubt on a 2nd Carter administration, Mondale, and Dukakis but Gore and Kerry were head and shoulders above Bush, won their debates, and ran solid if not spectacular campaigns.

I'm not going to run down good men that care about service and the common good to defend an asleep at the wheel, uninformed, and stupid electorate.

[jgraz]

44. That's a completely self-defeating position

We can change the behavior of one inept candidate. We have no chance to change the behavior of millions of "asleep" voters.

[beachmom]

51. Clark has never won an election. EVER. Why people think he is so great

when he has never successfully won any public office is beyond me.

[rox63]

37. Both Kerry and Dukakis are good men and dedicated public servents

Having lived in Massachusetts my whole life, I can vouch for both of them as intelligent, compassionate leaders, who have dedicated their lives to serving their constituents. I doubt Kerry will end up as Obama's veep nominee, because he is currently running for reelection to his Senate seat. MA law says he can't run for two offices at once.

Mike Dukakis is a great guy. You can still occasionally find him riding the subway in the Boston area. I saw him a couple of years ago, in the crowd at a political rally for our current governor, Deval Patrick. He wasn't on stage with the VIPs. He was down in the crowd with his wife Kitty, just like the rest of us. Dukakis was the precinct leader in his neighborhood for the Patrick campaign. I'm told it wasn't uncommon to see him out canvassing for his candidate on the weekends. I know someone who lives in the same town as him, and she says it's not unusual to see him down at the local supermarket, doing his own grocery shopping.

We've got some great Dems here in MA. Either of them would have made an excellent President. I'm sorry we never got to find out what they would have accomplished in the WH.

[bunkerbuster1]

39. I'd be fine with the Iron Duke as Veep.

Granted, he's a bit old.

[book_worm]

38. I always laugh because Dems eat their own

They are particularly mercifulless towards the democrats who have been defeated in presidential elections. On DU McGovern, Mondale, and Dukakis are considered punchlines to jokes, but they were all good men who served their country well and had long careers as fighting democrats. McGovern and Mondale had the misfortune of being our standard bearer in years when no democrat was going to win. Sorry to break it to you but if in '72 Hubert Humphrey or Scoop Jackson had been nominated instead of McGovern they too would have lost in a landslide. In '84 if it had been Gary Hart he still would have lost to Reagan like Fritz Mondale did. As for Dukakis, I concede he blew a lead, but he thought he was doing the right thing to ignore the GOP slime machine and underestimated the American people. The funny thing is that Dukakis still won a higher percentage of the vote than Clinton did four years later when he won. As for Kerry he got more votes than any democrat running for president ever--over 59 million as compared to 51 million for Gore in 2000, so the guy shouldn't be considered a joke.

[bunkerbuster1]

40. Couldn't agree more. I'd recommend your post if I could.

There's very, very little that I envy about the GOPee, but I do wish we'd afford the same respect they show toward those gallant souls who went forward in Presidential battles, and elsewhere, and failed that our political opposition manages.

I'd love for Obama do engineer a reversal of this loathsome practice, and ensure that every surviving Democratic presidential candidate had an important role in the upcoming convention. I'd love to hear from Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry.

I would like, once and for all, for Democrats to stop running away from our past and say loudly and clearly that ANY of our candidates would've been an improvement over the POS Republicans that opposed them.

[JI7]

41. yup, compare it to the way the first Bush and Bob Dole are treated

Bob Dole even did ads for impotent men. yet they are treated as losers by their own party (or event democrats) and the media the way the Dems are including those who did much better and are better people.

[Mass]

42. After that, they are surprised that the GOP and the media make fun of them when they are carrying

the meme themselves.
Some are nothing more than GOP enabling Democrats.

[jgraz]

46. I disagree, considering who they lost to.

These were some of the worst presidents in history, and these guys were too inept at campaigning to save us from them. We make jokes because the only other option is to cry.