Nation-Building

Looking for something to tide you over until the "debate" starts? Matthew Yglesias has some interesting thoughts on the demographic roots of the Dean campaign , while Ezra Klein reviews Joe Trippi's new book and the role of on-line support in politics.

A strong title, to be sure, but one that immediately leapt to my mind after reading Farhad Manjoo's excellent article in Salon on blogging (watch an ad for a day pass). Farhad mentions how at Dailykos, a Diarist (Zackpunk) wrote an excellent piece , which was Recommended, then Promoted, and ultimately ended up in Kerry's stump speech. That's the true power of Scoop as a system of community building that allows a campaign to skim the best of the ideas from the proverbial Chaos of participatory democracy. That's a capability that Moveable Type, old technology that the Dean campagn's o-blog never graduated from, sorely lacks. Farhad asks: In the Dean campaign, Trippi and other advisors professed to rely on the readers of the official Howard Dean blog for at least some strategic advice; we'll never know if this advice ultimately helped Dean, propelling him to a position that he never would have attained without help from the bloggers, or whether, in the end,

Jimmy Carter, known throughout the world for his interest in fair elections, is warning of possible irregularities in Florida . Many of those who regard this as a bizarre conspiracy theory are Republicans who strongly believe Kennedy won the 1960 election due to corruption in Chicago. I suspect that in 2000 and 2004, Florida has become the latest Chicago.

I think the ISraeilis were wise to have bombed Iraq's Osirak reactor a few decades ago - and that kind of pre-emptive strike in general is something that, unlike land invasions of non-nuclear non-threatening countries, something that needs to be consdered "on the table". The idea that fanatical islamic terrorists could get their hand on a nuclear device is beyond terrifying - it;s a much more direct threat to the global order - not just America - than 9-11 ever could have been. This kind of talk from Obama is pretty much the only realistic attitude left - but it has the benefit of helping to reclaim the tough Democrat mantle from JFK's ghost as well. U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. . . . Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different brand of foe than was the Sovie

It's great that we can come up with gotcha questions for Bush , but we also need to look forward to a Kerry Administration and what direction policy will turn under his leadership. My Deaniac bias aside, I think that Kerry needs to be sent through the same wringer - in advance. So let's play the same game - what questions would you ask of Kerry at the town hall debate? Here's what I want to ask Kerry: A common critique of you by Republicans is that you lack a guiding principle in your foreign policy. You recently disavowed promotion of democracy abroad, and mentioned giving nuclear materials to Iran. What are your principles and how will they inform your foreign policy decisions? post yours - and recommend this diary of you think its important to ask Kerry substantive questions too. Maybe the campaign is listening - or at least, someone from the St Louis metropolitan area who might be in that audience. (btw, link goes to my DailyKos diary on the same topic, ple

I think I detect a similar pattern here - see my RedState diary for details. I should clarify that I don't really care about Coburn being elected or not to the Senate - unlike most Daily Kos readers, I'm not on the Democrats Always Rule train. I don't think I know enough about Coburn to assess whether he really is a right-wing wacko r whether he's just coming off that way. We complained about the media filter alot around here when it made our guy look like a leftist moonbat - one has to at least acknowledge the possibility it works in reverse too. My larger point is that Coburn seems to have the same ability to torpedo himself that Dean displayed. Remember Dean's refusal to open his Vermont records? Remember Dean's Confederate Flag in Pickup Trucks comment? We defended him as best we could but he did damage to himself. Coburn strikes me as remarkably similar in his tendencies.

In an earlier open thread, Generational Storm wrote: I'm just wondering if any of you are as frustated as I am by the disdain that some people in the DFA movement have for "conservatives". Pravin also commented, I would like to see the Dean movement not wedded to a rigid idealogy. There should of course be some common principles - like accountability, transparency in goverment, compassion for your fellow human beings, concern for the environment, security of the country. How you go about accomplishing them should not be wedded to a certain ideology. what Pravin describes is exactly what Dean preached - facts, not ideology, should determine policy. There's a reason I put Matthew Miller's 2% Solution book on the reading list - it's exactly that kind of attitude towards compromise on idealogy for the sake of *successful* and *effective* policy that Dean exemplified, in his record as governor and in his rhetoric. Its exactly what attracted me to hi

Take on Tom Delay! Texas Tuesdays is featuring Richard Morrison , running against Delay in TX-22. Don't miss the interview ! As you may recall, Morrison actually met with a group of Texan bloggers during the state Democratic convention in Houston this year ( photo ). This race is symbolic of the struggle against all that is wrong with modern Republicanism. Please consider donating - it is literally the one congressional race that has the potential to transform the nation overnight. Let's show Tom Delay that Dean Nation still has the power! Campaign website - http://www.richardmorrisonfordistrict22.com/ Donations - https://www.onlinecontribution.com/rmorrison/donate.php

GS in the previous thread mentioned the idea of Senator Dean. What do you think? its an intriguing possibility. Dean is popular enough in VT to win office again, and as senator he'd still be able to cultivate DFA v2. Plus he would add a political power base to his organizational one. Maybe we need Dean in the senate, making sure that his ideas remain part of the public debate: emphasis on fact-based policy, fiscal discipline, etc. I really like the idea. As for Obama, I think he wont be ready to run until 2012 at the earliest anyway, so lets not get ahead of ourselves :) and i want to see what Obama's Senate record will be before I endorse him for president the way i have endorsed him for Senate. By 2012, he will have a record we can evaluate with more detail.

Red State looks at the "evidence" and draws the conclusion that Kerry won't prosecute the war on terror in his first term, whereas Bush will begin to in his second term. Tacitus is intellectually honest to admit that Bush hasn't been prosecuting said war very effectively until this point (of course, the definition of "prosecute the WOT" is itself open to legitimate debate). The opinion ultimately boils down to a question of faith, in your party's strength and righteousness, or more accurately in the case of Red State, the Other party's craven weakness. I don't believe it is intellectually rigorous to support Bush in 2004 on the basis of actions he will (may) do but has not yet done. I see this election as a referendum on the incumbent's performance . The right to vote, if not excercised punitively against leadership who fail to meet expectation, is ultimately wasted. The reason that I think Bush won't do a good job in a seco

The Quad City Times has a profile of Barack Obama , which includes lots of good stuff about the state of our political debate and various issues in the Illinois Senate race.

I really hope that this discussion gets input from as many people as possible, een gthough I know that many members of our community no longer actively participate online the way they used to. But in a recent comment, someone mentioned rumors that Dean stated he's run again in 2012. Whats your opinion? Personally, I think that Dean's work on DFA v2.0 is important. It wont pay dividends until probably 2012 anyway - but I have a feeling that Dean, amazing candidate that he is, would be as divisive a figure were he to run as Hillary Clinton. Even if that divisiveness is manufactured or unfair, I still think it's important to look for someone who both sides of the current partisan divide can look at and say, "well, I can disagree with him and still spport him." Of course the right wing machine will try to paint ANYONE they oppose as a threat to America's existence, but as a firm believer in the rationality of the general public, I think there's onl

New book by Dean out, available for pre-order from Amazon (release September 27th). Subtitle is "How to Take Back Our Country and Restore Democracy in America." This is his memoir of the campaign and his thoughts on the future of where the movement needs to go. Probably make a nice companion to Trippi's book (which I am currently reading for review)... wonder if I can get my hands on a review copy of this one too? If anyone has a contact with the publisher, let me know..

Well, which is it? Is Kerry's campaign asleep at the helm , and ceding the momentum to Bush, as claims Joe Trippi? Or is Kerry being remarkably competitive , holding his own against a popular incumbent despite having been the focus of a coordinated, multi-million dollar smear campaign, as claims Chris Bowers at Daily Kos? A little bit of both, actually. Kerry's campaign staff has ballooned, and the resulting inertia makes it hard for the organization to spin on a dime. Hence the slow, largely defensive response to the Swift Boat smears. But despite that, Bush's victory is in no way guaranteed given his poll situation, one that no previous incumbent has ever prevailed against. 2004 is 2004, not 1968 or 1980 or any other year we want to invoke to justify our pet analysis of the moment. The reality is that Kerry and Bush are in a close race. Either side can stumble, or rally, for that matter. The bulk of the independent voters won't even decide until the final d

While watching the Republican National Convention, everyone remember that Dean was attacked for strident anti-Bush rhetoric. For a series of really good posts on the RNC, check out Cliopatra .