Are you more or less invested in the '08 campaign than you were in '04?

[Occam Bandage]

This time around, we have the most energizing candidate in my lifetime, as well as favorable winds and a truly frightening GOP ticket. On the other hand, I've never seen liberals universally agree on anything to the extent and ferocity that they agreed in '04 that George W. Bush must be defeated for the good of the nation.

So, are you more emotionally invested in '08, or was '04 as energizing as it gets for you?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Waaaaaaaaaaaay more invested in '08!

I didn't think it was possible, but I am!

:woohoo:

[crossroads]

2. Me toooooo!!!!

[TheKentuckian]

3. It took some effort but against all possibility I'm actually more into it.

[vanderBeth]

4. More interested in '08

Which I now feel bad for, because I really have a new respect for Kerry.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. In 2004 I got too depressed and really stopped following it.

The primaries were big for me. I was a big Howard Dean supporter and I remember checking the Iowa and NH tracking polls daily like I do the general election polls now. However, after Dean lost, I stopped following the race from late winter until around the debates. By that time, I felt Kerry had already lost it, that I didn't invest much hope or time into following the results. I still glanced at the polls, especially about this time four years ago (since we were so close to the election), but he never seemed to really move past Bush, so I was pretty convinced he was going to lose.

It's hard to get invested in a loser like that.

[Eric J in MN]

6. Much more in 2004. I wanted Bush the Torturer to be rejected.

I wanted a message sent that acting like the Bush Administration did in it's first term means getting voted out.

I wanted Bush's damage to the country to be stopped.

[insanity]

7. 08 is a better election, but I worked more in 04

This time, I'm a poor college student who has so much shit going on that its hard to work. However, I'm more excited about Obama then I ever was about Kerry

[The Wielding Truth]

8. I don't sleep much, and I've volunteered more, and I am sick of

what * has done to our country, and the opportunity for McCain/Palin to finish it off, is an awfully disturbing thought.

Yea, emotionally, civicly, democratically involved.

[Cleita]

9. I dunno.

That's like asking you if you are a bigger ass now than you were in 2004?

[Occam Bandage]

11. Oh, certainly in 2004.

I've mellowed with age.

[daninthemoon]

10. No comparison. Biggest election of my lifetime, and that's 8 votes.

[Nevernose]

12. I've worked harder in 2008

And I worked pretty damned hard in 2004!

You asked if we were more emotionally invested this time around. I'd have to say that, although I've been pushing Obama as the next president since before his '04 convention speech and am far more excited about him that I have ever been about any politician, I was more "emotionally invested" in 2004. We could have stopped Bush cold back then. If we'd stopped Bush, we wouldn't NEED Obama to make help us make it better.

[politicasista]

13. 2008 is more historic, however

Both elections are different. And people in this thread are forgetting that it was Kerry that introduced Obama to a national audience by giving him his first big break. Obama himself would not be happy that we are knocking his best surrogate just to praise him.

2008 is not 2004. This is now post-Katrina, post-Iraq Civil War, post-economy in toilet, record home foreclosures, post-Schiavo, post-3.00 a gallon a gas, Bush/Rove now at their weakest, when they and everyone else were at their strongest in 2004.

Plus, we and Obama have Dean and Democrats standing with him. Kerry was stuck with McAuliffe and out there by himself (minus Dean, Clark, Cleland, etc).

[Occam Bandage]

15. I don't think anyone in this thread is knocking John Kerry. nt

[politicasista]

17. Don't get me wrong

People are finally awake and seeing how dangerous and destructive a McPalin administration would be. People are starving for change. Obama is the right candidate for the right moment :). However, it's important to know that a lot has happened in the last 4 years for people to throw up their hands and say enough is enough.

There have been some here always dumping on Kerry to praise Obama (especially when it comes to comparing them over the responses to the smears).

To each his own for people saying that Kerry didn't excite people, but that only plays right into the hands of the media and GOP. I doubt that people would be saying that he and Gore were "unlikeable" had they won. JMO.

2008 is my second election, while I love and inspired by Obama and am paying attention more (DM has a bumper sticker, something I never saw before :)), I wish I could have worked in 2004 (first time voter) and 2000.


It's ok. Just ignore me.

[Cha]

14. I was crushed in 2000 and 2004 but

I'm even more invested now.

[Clio the Leo]

16. I'm not sure I've ever been this invested in anything in my lifetime.

Sad, but true.

[ddeclue]

18. Way more invested in 04 but not by choice...

I'm having to commute down to Ft. Lauderdale during the weekdays and back up on the weekends for my job which is taking all my spare time too. Economic necessity.

Back in 2004 I went totally nuts on this stuff and gave about 1,000 hours to the Kerry campaign in just a few months of work.

I've put several thousand hours into getting Dems elected since 2003 but after this year's primary in August I had to pull back for the last couple of months because of my job situation. I still try to keep up and help where I can but it's nothing like 2004. Earlier in 2007-2008 I was the Edwards organizer for the Orlando area but when this fell through I switched over to helping out Alan Grayson for Congress through the primary victory. I am a strong Obama supporter but haven't had time to do much this season - I switched to Obama when Edwards dropped out. I still hope to do some last minute canvassing work this weekend in Orlando and maybe some phone banking in Ft. Lauderdale before the election.

Doug D.