Here's what worries me............

[KoKo]

Been around DU since 2000 Selection...I'm not an "original or legacy" poster but joined in '01.

I'm worried that we Dems are being GAMED AGAIN....Hillary/Obama.........

Is this the President/Vice President?

Talking Head Pundits put it as the GIVEN for us DEMS that it's a Hillary Ticket... Obama comes in Second and Edwards is the "Dark Horse."

MEDIA has decided that THIS is THE RACE! THESE ARE THE CANDIDATES!

Even on Tweety Matthews Show Tonight with Mike, (Plagerist), Barnacle reporting it was a DONE DEAL...Even the REPUGS according to Barnacle & Gallup Pollster are NOW seeing HILLARY AS INEVITABLE!

So if even Repugs see Hillary as the Chosen (and we might assume she'd pick OBAMA) then what does this say about our Political System these days?

M$M PICKS THE CANDIDATES and we GRASSROOTS who don't have the BIG BUCKS WHO are SUPPORTING HILLARY/OBAMA go to the BACK OF THE BUS? :-(

[NMDemDist2]

1. just remember Dean was the 'annointed one' this time in 2003

I'll wait for the voting to begin :hi:

[Autumn Colors]

5. Only til he went on Hardball

Dean was the anointed one until he went on Hardball and stated that his first executive order as president would be to break up the big media conglomerates. It only took those same big media conglomerates ONE WEEK to torpedo his campaign by airing that "scream footage" (admittedly with the audience mic NOT included in the mix) over and over and over and over til the damage was done.

[UnityDem]

14. Ding Ding Ding!

I saw that interview and knew it was over for Dean then.
He also said in that same interview that America should take a more "even approach" in the Middle East (ala Jimmy Carter's remarks). This was spun as anti-Israel and anti-semetic.
Two big errors (politically, anyway) by Dean that doomed him far more than the scream, imho.

[question everything]

30. Except that the "scream" came after he lost Iowa

and the surprising win by Kerry and Edwards.

[Vincardog]

2. That is THEIR plan. Vote DK in the primaries/or RUN GORE

[Connie_Corleone]

3. Hillary's not going to pick Obama as a running mate.

[KoKo]

6. She might pick Dodd...Author of HAVA Act and SEC Deregulation that lead

to RAPING OF AMERICA BY WALL STREET! Only thing I like about Dodd is that he's defended Hugo Chavez...but that might CHANGE once he's another P-Resident.

[LeFleur1]

22. VP?

How about Hillary (if she gets the nomination) and Clark?

How about whoever and Clark?

That's who I'd like to see in the VP position.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Don't buy it; did the media choose Kerry in 2004?

If so, they sure let him languish an awfully long time in the polls.

Iowa is capable of throwing everything off course; if not the Hawkeyes, New Hampshire. The front-loaded process that gives two small, ethnically unrepresentative states the ability to play kingmaker sucks, but voters still have the ability to trump the media.

[KoKo]

8. Who CRASHED Kerry down, though?

:shrug:

[sandnsea]

9. That's the new story

Matthew Dowd chose Kerry in Iowa by attacking him because they were really afraid of Edwards. :shrug:

Absolutley pulled right out of his ass. And yet it's all over the news today. They can say anything they want, and the media reports it as fact and half the Dem Party believes it because it suits their personal agenda.

Just crazy.

[KoKo]

11. I know...it's looking like what you say.....n/t

[spotbird]

23. Rove doesn't deny the report:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/20/rove.strategies.ap/index.html">Rove's attacks on Clinton a flashback to 2004

Rove might be revisiting his 2004 play book. Bush's re-election team aimed its harshest comments at Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the eventual nominee, because it wanted Bush to take on Kerry rather than Edwards, then a senator from North Carolina.

Rove mum on Obama

The Los Angeles Times on Sunday reported that Bush's former pollster and strategist Matthew Dowd said at a 2004 Harvard University conference that Bush's re-election team went after Kerry because they were more afraid of Edwards.

Asked whether he was attacking Clinton because the GOP feared Obama, Rove replied: "I read that in the L.A. Times this morning. Those guys out in L.A. have got to get clued in. I mean, come on."

Asked for his opinions on Obama, Rove demurred.

[Buzz Clik]

7. The media doesn't vote, but you do.

[JuniperLea]

10. We all need to vote our conscience!

I'm so sick of the rah rah yay team mentality! Don't keep from voting for a candidate because you don't think that candidate will win! Who said you have to vote for the winner anyway? Does that make you a better, stronger, smarter, sexier person? Oh, hell no it doesn't! It makes you a rah rah cheerleader who doesn't really give a flying F*** who wins as long as you voted for the winner!

Vote for the person you feel is best suited, had more ideals that are in keeping with your own, and you WILL choose the winner! The winner of your vote!

This is not the NFL, the NBA, it's not soccer, it's not baseball, it's not tidily-winks.

When the US gives us a ballot, we need to be honest. Just be honest!!

[KoKo]

12. So...we do a "write in Candidate" on our Touch Screen?

Who cares "what we think?" That's my other worry. :-(

[illinoisprogressive]

13. I support Obama but, always felt that Edwards should have been the frontrunner due to 04

I mean, Edwards was our vp nominee. Shouldn't he have been the frontrunner to start with? So the media decided that it was going to be the corporate candidate instead. I felt it was an insult to Edwards to start with.
the media may want a Clinton Obama ticket but, neither will pick the other. clinton is DLC.
Obama is progressive.

[Colobo]

15. Obama for President, and whoever you want for VP.

[emilyg]

17. My sweet friend

Clinton-Obama.

[Dr.Phool]

16. I've voted in every election since 1972, and haven't picked a winner yet!

Oh wait, there were 2 guys named Carter and Clinton.

I had a better record picking winners at the horse track. And I lost a lot of money. So, following tradition, in this primary I'm voting Kucinich!

[AtomicKitten]

18. If we had a genuine national primary election --

things would be much different. The will of the people is traditionally usurped by an outdated, ineffective, and damn disastrous primary process.

Nice to see you. :hi:

[KoKo]

19. A Genuine National Primary Election.........

Wouldn't that be grand. And have it sometime next June or so. Plenty of time for the National Conventions and plenty of time for folks to have time to think.

Makes too much sense, doesn't it. :eyes:

:hi:

[unkachuck]

20. I'm worried too....

"...and we GRASSROOTS who don't have the BIG BUCKS WHO are SUPPORTING HILLARY/OBAMA go to the BACK OF THE BUS?"

....at the core of the Party and our electoral process is big-money which dissadvantages any grassroots effort and favors corporate money-machines and the wealthy....they constructed it this way....

....we need a new non-money based ideology that would resonate with the average citizen and voter....something that would advantage the grassroots and yet couldn't be 'purchased' by corporate wealth....then when this new ideology is adopted by the Party, we will then be able to accurately measure each candidate accorgingly....

.....many in the Democratic Party find nothing wrong with the corporate agenda and our electoral system, other can't stand either....we need a Party that centers around a new ideology that we all agree upon; what we have now favors corporate money machines and the wealthy....again, they constructed it this way....

....as long as we have a money-based system and our Party is purchased to pay little more than lip-service to grassroots issues and views, we are destined to be "GAMED AGAIN", and again, and again....

[AdHocSolver]

21. It isn't just the media that screws us. The party insiders pick the candidates and they are often...

wrong about who can win, and the best way to run the campaigns.

The fact is that most Democrats, like the rest of the voters, are "sheeple" when it comes to making a decision. They look to the party insiders for direction, and these party leaders are often full of it. These party insiders talked Gore and Kerry into not "wasting" time or money campaigning in "red" states, which cost them electoral votes that would have offset Florida and Ohio. Then they criticize Howard Dean for his fifty-state strategy, even though it was Dean who won the House for Democrats in 2006.

Having been a delegate to my state conventions, I have seen the insiders support certain candidates in the primaries (rather than my preferred candidate) and have, unfortunately, been correct more than once in predicting that their hand-picked candidates would lose the general election. I found it difficult to convince people why the insiders were wrong, because of the influence they have over the rank and file.

It may be the media's influence over non-Democrats as to why we lose races, but many times it is Democratic insiders who influence candidate selection and campaign policies within the party that allows the Republicans to win.

[mrgorth]

24. Can we stop with the

conspiracy theories a bit? I backed Dean in 2004 and remember things very clearly. First, the media had Kerry written off before Iowa and he won, partially because Joe Trippi was dumb enough to get into a mud-slinging match with Gephart. Then Dean screamed. Understand this, when you lose you go out and give the fucking concession speech. That's ALL you do. You HAVE to do it. That shit Dean did was stupid and it sounded rediculous. Partially because of that Kerry rolled through his home turf of NH and the rest was gravy. Kerry mostly lost because he was scared to be proud of his anti-war credentials. If he had owned up to them AND fought back against the SBV he MIGHT'VE won. There was nothing HE could do about however many anti-gay marriage referenda were out there. Please, own our shit.

[MonkeyFunk]

25. Maybe they get the attention

because they're raising the most money and doing best in the polls?

Not everything is a media conspiracy.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

26. Hillary ranks 1 in national polls

Obama ranks 2nd. Edwards, 3rd except for Iowa. How is that the MSM choosing our candidates? If Kucinich consistently polled above Hillary Clinton, he would be getting major airtime. But he's not, so he isn't.

Not sure why this is a conspiracy...

You may also notice that when a pop-music album outsells its peers, the artist will appear on magazine covers and on television shows. Yes, the record labels will be behind the scenes trying to manipulate public opinion, as in politics, but the public still has to buy what you're selling.

[KoKo]

27. So...shouldn't we just declare the ELECTION IS OVER?

If the Pundits & Polls have Hillary winning it's kind of like a "Rock Star" with Agents and the Record Companies waiting "behind the scenes" to PROMOTE OR NOT....depending on how it all goes? :shrug:

[Totally Committed]

28. Here's what worries me:

We ARE being "gamed". Our nominee IS being chosen for us. And there are many who are in on it.

The DLC.

The Corporations.

Big Medicine.

Big Pharma.

The Oil Companies.

The Auto Industry.

Archer Daniels Midland.


IT MUST STOP HERE AND NOW, AND ONLY WE CAN STOP IT.

TC

[Totally Committed]

29. And, Halliburton, Bechtel, AIPAC ... and many various others.

Did I mention the DLC?

TC

[KoKo]

34. Yes...great graphic and what you say......well it's what it IS! n/t

[Totally Committed]

31. Here's another thing that worries me....

and pisses me off:






TC

[KoKo]

33. That's very scary....but the Idiot still has Power...so it's double scary.........

:scared:

[HuffleClaw]

32. damn straight!

i've been saying this for ages. the republican-owned corporate media is propping up THEIR choices for democrat candidates and will just as easily kick those props away. they will, at a time of their choosing DESTROY THEM in a blitz of bad press and trumped up 'scandal'. i'm counting on it.