U.S. Democratic Canidate?

[Frank S.]

The government's like a vending machine: cash goes in, your policies come out.
As a footnote, just read that Bush is likely to ask for an additional $40 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan after the election.

[Wholley]

In answer to the original question,
John Kerry(D.Mass) will probably win the nomination.
An elitist with a perchant for marrying wealthy women he won't have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Bush.Neither will Dean or Lieberman.
The way Kerry's buddy Kennedy is acting right now some one should bring up Chappaquidic just to shut the pompous bastard up.
Ahhh...Election years,gotta love em.
Wholley.

[Tony D]

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/presaddress2.shtml

Funny.

[Spannerman]

Our friends on MF across the pond in the USA, I saw on the news in the UK re the whooping and the hollerin' on Kerry getting some nomination in one state and Gephardt, Wesley and whoever else getting nominated elsewhere and quite frankly I find it a total embarrassment to see these mature people behaving in such a manner.

I am certainly not a fan of George W but by comparison he looks so composed, personally I think that a lot of the UK politicians are a load of 'Bankers' but they do appear to have a little decorum when speaking, even if voices are raised a tad over the dispatch box in Parliament and 'hear hear' muttered with the waving of order papers all through one person The Speaker of the Chamber.

Just glad we don't have the same razzamatazz over here when we elect a leader, just my thoughts!

[Wholley]

Hi Spanner's,
Gephardt has dropped out of the race and I suspect Dean will be next.
Kerry won in Iowa and will probably win New Hampshire.Edwards will win South Carolina.Confusing isn't it?I agree with you,it's unseemly for potential presidents to behave like high school cheer leaders.
Bush is a shoe-in in November,not real good news,but the Democratic alternatives are just too dire.
Wholley.

[josephwells]

Can someone explain the political partys in america please? its bloody confusing.

[Wholley]

Joseph,
I'll try.
Republicans are similar to Conservatives in Great Britain.
Democrats are like New Labor.
However the lines are blurred right now with this present Administration.
Bush is not really a Republican or a conservative.
He has expanded Federal powers with Homeland Security and more ominously The Patriot Act.He really does not defend the Consitituion as a loyal president should.
You also have to realise that we are a Republic,not a Democracy.
So we ended up with the worst part of French Repubilcanism and the worst part of British Parliamentary Democracy.
Errmm...Does that help?
Wholley.

[Frank S.]

I am certainly not a fan of George W but by comparison he looks so composed.

Quite right. And he 'stumbled' only about four times during his state of the union speech, which is a great improvement for him.
Perception matters very much, and he is 'seen' as more presidential than most of the opponents.
Speaking of whom, this whole election process reminds me of 'American Idol'. People with no talent, worse, people who are atrocious, vying for stardom and unable to accept their faults and limitations.
Same in politics. The law of the lowest common denominator in full force.

Now what's scary is this: the Democrats are in the same kind of disarray the Republicans were during Clinton's presidency. Dean is a worrisome sign that they are radicalizing, in the same way the Bush team has radicalized the Republican party. He is bilious and secretive, but he does have support and momentum, still.
A few years from now, such a radical Democrat may well end up in the White House and it'll be just as bad, maybe worse in some ways, than the current administration. For conservative Americans, this would make Clinton look more presidential.
M'afraid we'll eventually end up with some other rabid politician in '08. One who'll either come up with his own 'alternate' voting system or seize control of the existing system.

Those electronic voting machines, you can make them spit out whatever result you want...

[josephwells]

Thanks Wholley that does explain things a bit better, I have read a book called Fortunate Son which is quite alarming, how did the US people let an obviously corrupt politician like bush get into any position of power. His CV reads like Mayor Quimby from the Simpsons!!

[josephwells]

A genuinley incenditary book. I first heard of a book thats entire first print had been burned to please the Bush family some time ago. The reason St Martins Press first gave was that it was because the author was a convicted felon (You'll find out after reading this so is the subject). The second edition was also withdrawn, but luckily Vision acquired the rights to the text. And here it is.

I really don't want to spoil the most exciting revalations made within this book, as I feel other readers will be as outraged at them as I was. Lets just say having daddy's name was a very convient way for George to avoid his insider trading being investigated, make millions, avoid Vietnam and also escape from the most damaging allegation ever made about a President.

Two of his contacts told James Hatfield to "look over his shoulder" as he was finishing this book. In July 2001 he was discovered dead in a hotel room - he had apparently committed suicide due to depression. This was after he told his family "If anything happenes to me, I'm not depressed". What price did James pay for telling the truth about the world's most fortunate son?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 96-8826222

[Wholley]

Joseph,
If Quimby ran against Bush,he'd get my vote!
He has a certain dis-honesty which is touchingly...ermmm.Dis-honest.
Reminds me of Clinton.It seems we over here are not having much luck with this new batch of politicians.I would not trust any of them to walk my dogs,and neither would my dogs.
Wholley.

[Frank S.]

I'm keen to see what'll happen with immigration and the US military, if anything.
Kerry is in favor of adding two divisions to the army, but how?
Bush's immigration proposal does not confer 'legal resident' status to those illegal immigrants he wants to legalize, but a sort of 'unskilled worker' visa valid for three years. The onus would be on employers to show that the immigrant is not taking the job away from an American citizen.
Now, in order to join the US military, it is currently necessary to be at minimum a legal resident.
But with the needs of the military, I suspect this standard could be lowered to allow this newly created class of visa workers to join. That's a big maybe.
But overall, I don't think Americans are rushing to their recruiting stations and retention of enlisted personnel is not going well.
Someone may correct me on that.

[Big Cheese]

You also have to realise that we are a Republic,not a Democracy

Sorry Wholley, could you explain that a bit further?

In essence I know that the US isn't really a democracy after visiting a few times and seeing the country extensively, however I didn't realise that its officially not a democracy.

Therefore please excuse my ignorance of what a republic is, I presumed it were merely a country without a monarchy

[Frank S.]

If I may attempt an explanation, I would say that though we are a republic (a federal republic), some defining factors of a republic appear to be absent in our government:
responsibility to the people, or accountability to the people and governance according to law.
As to the first point, we see that in practice cronyism actually trumps the premise that 'all men are created equal'. From the workplace to the awarding of government contracts, where we have reverted to Jackson's system of 'spoils' clearly biased towards maybe a couple hundred so-called Beltway insiders.
There can be no accountability when the government awards contracts without bid and in secret. Nor when the president flatly refuses to answer questions from his drug use to time tables for troop deployment.
And one of the defining factors of a democracy being the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges, I think that conflicts of interests such as having Richard Perle advising both the Israeli Likud party and the Bush administration on political and strategic matters simultaneously is one violation of the democratic intent of the republic, as it serves special interests rather than the American people as a whole.
Another (there are quite a few and probably better ones) would be the political contributions to the administration by companies which manufacture electronic/blackbox voting machines (Diebold, ES&S), compounded by comments such as these:
“[we are committed] to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”
Walden O'Dell, Diebold CEO.
As to governance according to law, both Cheney and Bush still refuse to answer questions about creative accounting schemes while they headed private sector firms (Halliburton and Harken energy).

Saddam's 'regime' was a republic, too.

[Big Cheese]

Thanks for the informative post Frank S.

Well so much for 'land of the free' then!!!