Reply #138: Kucinich has no chance [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

We both know that. I'm glad he entered the race and has had a voice at the table so to speak. As to Clark's early statements on the Iraq war, I have read some, enough to make me comfortable with the consistency of his position. To be honest, I have been avoiding many work deadlines all day, spending time here when I should be there. I'm not trying to duck your request, but I don't have time right now to research links to interviews etc.

I will say though that in general, so long as a Democrat was not a strong supporter of backing Bush all the way (such as Lieberman), I factor in their current position as well as their past in my overall judgement of them as a viable current candidate. They lose many many points though if they were a leading voice in the Party and blew it when they had a chance to speak and be heard against this Administration, both on Iraq and other issues.

I made a long post on the "Clark attacks Dean" thread about how I perceive Clark, and have made some comments here about that also in my earlier posts. So I won't go on about it now, especially given my current time constraints. On the face of it, Dean has taken a stronger stand about the need to regulate corporate America, but your characterization of their two positions is unfair and distorted. A phrase such as "serious regulatory controls" is a sound bite. There are thousands of ways in which corporations are theoretically controlled, but no specifics are provided. Saying Clark rejects regulatory control is unfair, he has literally said otherwise (specifically he stated that there is a need to impose regulatory controls beyond what Clinton did in some important areas). The devil is in the details. Clark starts out with the Clinton play book, but I think he will shift it in a progressive direction. Say what you will about Clark, but he did not spend most of his adult life personally beholden to corporate interests. Most politicians can't even say the same.

Yes I like the populist things Edwards has to say, which as I noted in a post, is one reason I rank him third. I don't think Edwards would be as strong a candidate as Clark in the General election, especially not now with the Republicans all fired up to conduct the campaign on national security fears and an attack on the patriotism of opponents. I think Dean would be a stronger overall candidate than Edwards, even though I think Edwards would do better in the South than Dean which is a big concern of mine.