Bourgeois Deviant

Monday, August 22, 2005

Douche and the Future of the DNC

Last week I, perhaps foolishly, thanked George Allen for being a duplicitous Republican in actually criticizing the President. Well, allow me to retract that. Yes it is cool when the President’s own party shallowly criticizes him on a point of common decency, but here we see George Allan’s complete detachment from reality. All cool points withdrawn. He’s back to being a first class hypocrite. Thank you TPM!

I nominate George Allen as douche bag of the week.

In other news, I watched Meet the Press yesterday and Russ Feingold was on. In his introduction, he was mentioned as a possible contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination. The only things I know about the guy are that he is from Wisconsin (go Packers!) and that he and John McCain (one of the few Republicans I genuinely respect) teamed up to reform campaign finance.

For as much press as the McCain Feingold bill got, this is the first time I have seen Russ’s face. This to me is, initially, encouraging. Here is my reasoning: There are two types of politicians, those who want the limelight and are out amidst the press constantly promoting their agenda and ideas. Then there are those who work diligently on legislation and actually do most of the leg work that makes the legislative world turn. My impression is that Senator Feingold is the latter type of elected official.

So, perhaps Russ Feingold is humble. This would be an asset that would set him apart from Hillary Clinton or John Edwards. I am not against either of those two seeking the nomination, nor do I think they are arrogant, but baggage and disenchantment linger from years and elections past. Senator Clinton has a lot of bad blood with the Republicans from when she was First Lady. And, she has Bubba in tow (both a massive target and a killer advisor all in one)! Edwards is still Mr. Charm and has good ideas, but the sore memory of a losing ticket combined with his general relative lack of legislative experience might be a an Achilles heel.

It is both my hope and my sincere worry that Senator Feingold might be another Bill Bradley candidate. In the 2000 election, Gore blew it, without question or doubt. Bradley would have blown Bush out of the water. That is pure conjecture, but I feel that it would have been the likely outcome. So, I hope that Feingold is as substantive as Bradley was. My worry is that the Democrats will make a similar “go with what we know” kind of choice and select Hillary or Edwards. However, with Dean as the DNC chair, all establishment bets are off. I entreat you, the reader, to share your thoughts on the Democratic hopefuls.

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2 Comments:

  • I would love to see an Edwards/Feingold ticket... that would be a surefire winner.... plus the two like each other and are friends. I strongly believe John Edwards has the right stuff to win nationally... he doesn't have hillary's baggage, yet he has all her's and her husband's strengths. Feingold, unfortunately is too unexciting a personality to get the top job... in american politics, you either have to come across as a regular guy (ala bush) or have charisma in spades like Edwards and Bill clinton. Feingold has neither.

    And even beyond the superficial, Edwards has a strong passion for social justice and equality... that engulfs everything from poverty, healthcare, growing wealth disparity, tax reform, to everything else. He seems to have the plan for a new deal for the new challenges ahead. If Feingold gets in, I would like to see his platform first because currently Edwards is the only guy who has a solid platform to run on (his Two Americas speech still rings true and articulate very well the economic conditions of this country). For the rest of them, be it Clinton, Feingold, Biden, Bayh, or Warner, we have yet to hear the platforms and ideas. So, I guess it's too early to judge.

    Btw, Edwards is one of the most humble and nicest guys if you've ever met him in person... however, he is also very, very confident of himself, a trait I guess we need in the man who is going to lead the world!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tuesday, August 23, 2005 5:20:00 AM  

  • A. Nonymous-

    Thanks for your input. I really had no inclination of Feingold's (for lack of a better term) sexy factor. You make a good point and I shall take it under advisement.

    I do agree with you on Edwards. Perhaps a ticket with them would be the right combo. They both certainly have their ducks in a row on all my pet issues. It is a fault of mine to confuse confident person w/ an arrogant one. However, I think most of the country has it crossed up when it comes to assessing Bush.

    By Blogger Bourgeois Deviant, at Tuesday, August 23, 2005 9:25:00 AM  

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