what I would like the remants of my party to do

[KanigawaCards7]

1) Fire Terry Macauliffe- this guy is bad in every respect except raising money.We need someone who actually wants to lead, not raise money.
2.) have a conference to decide what our party stands for. at the monet the only thing it stands for is beating George Bush, which even I find funnny at this point. If it doesnt actually come up with a real goal, a philosophy, then It should just be disbanded.
3. DO NOT nominate Hilllary Clinton. democrats should have nominated Howard Dean, because he actually believes in everything he says. He is just not a good politician, but a good governer, john kerry bieng the complete opposite. we should nominate someone who actually stands for something, otherwise we will continue to fall for anything.I actually believe, considering the shocking defeat of Tom Daschle and my dislike of hillary( I would love to see Bill run again though) that Barak obama is the best guy left.He really should be nominated in 2008. I believe he is a powerful proactive speaker who could save the party.

Thats just my opinion. How would you go about the discontinuation of burying our own grave?

[dana33]

[ QUOTE ]
Thats just my opinion. How would you go about the discontinuation of burying our own grave?

[/ QUOTE ]
Dump the pacifist, "America is imperialist" wing and embrace more candidates such as Lieberman. (And the Republicans should dump the "what government needs is more religion" wing, but that's a topic for a different post.)

Regarding Kerry and what he stands for, I think he does stand for something. But he couldn't admit it (perhaps not even to himself), which is why he continued to tie himself in rhetorical knots. What he stands for, since Vietnam, is suspicion of American power and self-assertion in the world. He just doesn't believe in his heart that we're the good guys. Apart from being incorrect, this is not something the American people want to hear.

[TomCollins]

You may be the only intelligent Democrat (at least in terms of political strategy) besides Carville. Maybe you joined the wrong party.

[lorinda]

Your man got the second highest number of votes ever for a Presidential candidate.

Lori

[LaggyLou]

Two things:

1) Take a deep breath, look at all the numbers and decide what went wrong that is correctable.

2) Plan a long-term strategy to regain the majority.

As a litigator, I fight for a living against people who are trying to undermine everything I do. Sometimes they win. Sometimes I win. It is a very hard blow when you have poured yourself into a fight and you lose. But life goes on and winners go forward. Things are very seldom as bad as you think they are after a loss, and are also very seldom as good as you think they are when you win.

Come January, and the new Congress, there will be other fights to have with this President and his party. By engaging in those fights we can, in some cases, force them to be more moderate, and to make better choices. Thus those fights are worth having, and worth preparing for. After a time to absorb this loss.

Don't get sucked into the "sports fan" view of politics. There are serious, well meaning people on both sides. The Repblican Party is not made entirely of people like W00lygimp or TomCollins, no more than our party is made entirely of people like Al Sharpton and Cynthia McKinney.

[daveymck]

If you think getting 47/48% of the vote when they are talking about 60-70% voter turnout is both a failure and means your party is dead then I am surprised.

[Utah]

Hi LaggyLou,

How can you fight if you don't have a basis to fight from? I don't believe fighting just to win is enough. There needs to be some ideals behind the fight. Otherwise, the party is doomed. Look at the trends over the last 4 years. The Democratic party is getting slaughtered. it can't even beat a pretty lousy president.

Without real ideals, leaders who aren't corrupt, and a true seriousness about the issues facing the U.S., the democratic party will stand zero chance of regaining control.

"The Repblican Party is not made entirely of people like W00lygimp or TomCollins, no more than our party is made entirely of people like Al Sharpton and Cynthia McKinney."

Unfortunately, IMHO the Democratic party has been hijacked by exactly these type of people. I simply can't understand how the party can embrace someone like Michael Moore. When they do this they have no chance of getting the independant voters such as myself.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
If you think getting 47/48% of the vote when they are talking about 60-70% voter turnout is both a failure and means your party is dead then I am surprised.

[/ QUOTE ]

The party lost grounds in the Senate, the House, and the Oval Office. The republicans have control of all three of those places, and you can soon add the Judiciary branch as well. As far as power goes, I think your the Democratic party has been crippled on a national level. They still have much power on a state to state level though.

[daveymck]

I dont see that its so bad that they would not be able to turn it around next time. Although I am unsure all these new first time voters will be as easily motivated next time round.

We see it all the time in the UK 2-3 terms of one party, big majoritys then the swing areas swing back and you get 10-15 years of the other lot. It generally take a couple of defeats then a new broom comes in to "modernise" the out of power party and move them forward, I suspect thats what the democrats will do over the coming years.

[GWB]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Fire Terry Macauliffe- this guy is bad in every respect except raising money.We need someone who actually wants to lead, not raise money.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, keep him. The Democrats had 50 Senators when he took over in 2001, now they will have 44 (plus a Democrat leaning Independent). I like his results! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]