Okay, let's take a moment to appreciate this

[TayTay]

Seriously, go to this link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/07/eveningnews/main1983503.shtml and check out the stories there.

See the conservative former military guy who has never voted for a Dem say that he is voting Dem this fall. See this same guy tear Bush a new one over his policies in Iraq.

See the poll numbers on Bush.

Read the critical stories on Bush and the number of Americans who have simply concluded that Bush is incompetent.

Breath. Yes, the RW is throwing everything they have at the Dems right now. News Flash. IT'S NOT WORKING!!!!!

Breath, live in this moment. Enjoy the view. Have a glass of wine or spring water or something. Breath. Relax for a second. The friggin bastids are on the run. Every time they mention the scary bad men who are coming to get us, their poll numbers go down. They gave it their best shot these past two weeks, what with Rumsfeld calling Dems and others Nazi appeasers and the like and the American people tuned them out.

Breath for second. Revel in this moment. We are WINNING.

[whometense]

1. I know it's OT, but

did you watch the debate tonight??

And, yeah, with all the noise out there - and there is a deafening amount of noise which is probably only going to get louder and louder over the next two months - we are winning. Though often it's hard to see that. The *ies are desperate. Ugly desperate.

Good article, BTW. Really good. I wouldn't want that guy mad at me.

[TayTay]

2. We are winning!

This race and this fight is winnable. The tactics that were successful in '02 and '04 are not working. The Democrats are fighting back hard and it is having an impact. The Bush Admin tanked with Katrina and has never recovered. The stench from the Admin failures is covering the Republican Congress lie a dead fish left for a day in a hot car. They can't get away from it. It follows them everywhere. This Admin's days are numbered. Come November, even Bush will conclude that. He will be forced to.

Be not afraid. Breath, believe in what you do and do it. We are winning!



I saw the Mass Dem Gov's debate. I am very biased. I thought Deval Patrick did a great job and mentioned taxes in just the right way. I have mixed feelings on Chris Gabrieli and can't figure out what he was trying to say on the Stem Cell thing. (That was a confusing moment. Why did supporting Stem Cell research become a referendum on Harvard vs. UMass Medical. I didn't get that part.) I did not think that Tom Reilly did that well. He seemed too aggressive to me.

Your mileage should vary. What did you think?

[whometense]

3. I started out wanting Reilly to do well.

I hated the way he ignored that really excellent question from Janet Wu and used his time to attack Gabrieli instead. What was he thinking??? She threw him a lifeline and he used it to try and strangle Gabrieli.

After the first ten minutes I felt like knocking Gabrieli's and Reilly's heads together.

For me there was no contest. Patrick was calm, he was focused, he was smart, and he was charming. And he was serious. He wins the charisma sweepstakes hands down, but I thought he also was the only person up there with a vision of where he wants to take the state.

We need a worker bee, but we also need a leader with a big picture in his head. Deval was the only one with vision. I knew the debate would give me the answer, and it did.

That whole Harvard vs. U Mass thing was a headscratcher. I thought Reilly was trying to score points with the audience-at-home (can't go wrong bashing Harvard, right?) I thought Reilly came across as mean, and I know he's really not. But I thought he did terribly.

[TayTay]

4. I thought Deval Patrick won as well.

I have been very worried that the 'too liberal' thing was going to stick to Patrick, but he very nicely pointed out that he is pro-business and pro-growth. I loved his line that we don't need to worry about the income tax, we need to worry about property taxes. (Loved that.) Plus, Patrick mentioned bringing jobs and business to Springfield. That is very cool.

I really like Tom Reilly. He bought me breakfast at the DCI back in March and once someone buys me breakfast or beers or something, well, I'm basically theirs for life. (Tay is easy, sigh!) But I just don't think he did that well. I don't think anyone in the State cares that someone from Gabrieli's campaign leaked the financial records of Reilly's one-time Lt. Gov candidate. That was just a head-scratcher. (Who cares?)

Chris Gabrieli is a good guy and a major Dem donor (and he lives a few doors down from Sen. Kerry in Boston) but I can't see him as Gov. He's just not, something.

I am happy to hear you say you liked Deval. I love the guy. He is even better in person and much funnier. (Ahm, I promise not to make elections about who is funny and who isn't. Although, Kerry Healey is NOT funny. Not even a little bit. And I still think she has 'real Kerry' envy.)

[MH1]

7. Check this out

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14275232

2006 Key Political Races - ranked by most likely to switch party control. Look at where MA is on the Governor list.

:D :bounce:

[whometense]

10. That's GREAT -

and I am even more thrilled to see that Ohio is ahead of us!!!!!

[MH1]

14. What's funny

is that for the two states ahead of MA, it's a D challenging an R. But for MA, one R (current party in control) is being challenged by 3 D's and an I, and still makes #3 most likely to switch. In other words, Healey loses to ANY of the D's - even with an I in the race. Or they have a pretty good idea which D is going to win. Either way -

:rofl:

[Mass]

15. Mihos (the I) is more a Republican than anything else, so he probably

takes more votes to Healy than to Democrats.

[ProSense]

13. That's pretty cool! Thanks! n/t

[whometense]

9. Charisma is a funny thing -

something like a sunlamp. When it's turned on you just bask in the glow, but if you wander off you can forget what it felt like to bask.

I really kind of am a kind of old hippie, but I do not like most of my crunchy peers. And I hate liberal purity tests - maybe because I always flunk them. Patrick's grassroots support has gotten him to where he is today, but I've always thought those supporters also might be his downfall. A la Dean. But I think Patrick's a hugely better pol than Dean ever was or ever could be, and that makes a big difference.

[Mass]

8. I agree with you two on Reilly. He certainly did not come out good

on this. My husband and myself were wondering where he was going with this Globe story (particularly as I did not know what he was talking about).

No question Patrick has the most charisma, but I cannot decide between him and Gabrieli. I like Gabrieli's ideas on economy (and the fact that he said the healthcare fee payed by businesses in the new healthcare bill was not enough). The UMass vs Harvard was a stupid loss of time, but it was more Reilly trying to score a cheap point by showing that saying that he is an average person helping average people.).

A point that I have never seen asked to this point and that I really would like to see asked is whether any of them is ready to take a pledge to be a full-term governor for at least one term. This is something that bugs me with the two of them. (actually, it is the only positive thing I see in Reilly. Nobody is going to call him to be part of the Democratic administration in 08).

[TayTay]

12. Good Point Mass

I have heard that all of the candidates have taken this pledge, but I will have to track down the story. I d believe that Deval Patrick was asked that if a Dem became Pres in '08 and wanted him for Atty Gen or something, would he go? He said no.

BTW, Deval Patrick was rumored to be on the short list with one other person to become Attorney General of the United States had John Kerry won in '04. So someone believes in the guy and his abilities. (And Kerry introduced him at his judiciary committee hearing to be US Civil Rights chief at Justice back in '03.)

[whometense]

16. I watched Chet Curtis's show on NECN

after the debate. Braude interviewed all three of them afterwards, and Reilly was still in bulldog mode.

One of them commented on Patrick's passion for governing.

Best line, the poor repug schmo they had on for balance, and who hardly had a word to say except for this one comment right after the debate finished: (drumroll) "I think the real winner tonight was Kerry Healey."

Hilarious. Curtis and Tolman just gave the guy a look and then ignored him completely.

[Blaukraut]

5. It sure looks like it, doesn't it?

The only thing that is puzzling is that most people still think Bush is doing a good job on the 'war on terror'. This is the one issue that the Democrats must wrestle from the rethug stranglehold and make it theirs - find a way to get the truth out there; the Bush administration has, through incompetence, done just about everything to ensure a loss in the war on terror.
Kerry is doing a wonderful job pointing that out. He needs more coverage, though.

[TayTay]

6. That is within the margin of error in the polls

Bush enjoyed a 20+ point margin on this in Nov of '04. Now it's, at most, 3-5 points and dropping fast.

The news on Pakistan and the peace treaty with Al Qaeda and taliban forces will not help Bush with the terror argument. And people do know they are getting a snowjob for 9/11 from Bush, again.

It's not working. 35% is a horrible, horrible number. And it not getting better, it's getting worse.

[Blaukraut]

11. True, it's gotten a lot better

Those 35% are hard to budge, too. They really must be the die-hard rethug base. If we can get their 5% advantage on the WOT turned around in time for the upcoming elections, we'll be golden.

[sandnsea]

17. The Pakistan info needs to hit hard

I think that info will be the final nail. They've got this one week of 9/11 to try to give themselves a boost - but I think if the Pakistan peace deal gets into the mainstream, that'll be the end. I hope it's true that the media is planning on going after the admin on this shortly.

[ginnyinWI]

18. I believe!

I know a lot of Dems don't want to get their hopes up, and it's understandable after the crushing hurt two years ago. But yes--I do see it coming! Their crap is not sticking.

The look on JK's face today on Hardball said so much; he's seeing it too. They're on the run, and victory is sweet. It doesn't matter how much people like Candy Crowly try to make this a horse-race. It will be a rout.


People know that the emperor has no clothes. Anyone who saw him talking to Charlie Gibson on the ABC news tonight can see it for themselves. The guy is demented, and as JK said, he really believes the delusions he keeps spouting. He's in that much of a bubble. I think he's the only one who doesn't know that we are all on to him now. And Gibson just let his delusional answers hang out there without saving the moment--and nobody edited it out.