Democratic Presidential nomination race

[Uncle Mxy]

Obama has 8 years experience in state government, 4 in federal.

Clinton has 6 years experience in federal government, far more only if you count first lady (but arguably, her biggest accomplishment on that front was delaying advances in healthcare for over a decade - doh!)

Edwards has 6 years experience in federal government

You've got to get to the 2nd tier candidates to find vast experience.

Of course, experience is the enemy on the Republican side as well. I'm sure that the relative success of Huckabee and Romney has a lot to do with the fact that they've not been in the federal eye a lot, while the likes of McCain have. Giuliani is "special" in this regard... if not for 9/11, his legacy would be as a mediocre mayor.

Note that Romney wasn't "the main man" in Massachusetts the way a lot of governors normally are in their states. Massachusetts has a Democratic supermajority in their legislature, and can readily override any gubernatorial veto. That's one big reason you don't see him run on his record there.

[Tahoe]

re:Hills experience

You know how she use to say "I spent 8 years in the WH and consulted with my husband on issues...blah blah blah"

So Obama is like release those documents from the library. Then the brakes went on and Bill and Hill started saying its up to the 'head dude at the library' and everyone including Russert was like Bullshit.

So Hill has backed off her experience claim quite a bit.

[Big Swami]

Yeah, I think the top tier of both party fields is very light on Federal experience...IMHO, a good thing. Lots of youth and idealism coming from Obama, Edwards, Huckabee, and Romney.

I get the feeling that Hillary and Julie are suffering at the moment because they're viewed as the "establishment" candidates, the kind of person the insiders want to win, and there's a strong anti-establishment groundswell right now.

[Tahoe]

I'll throw RG under the bus if you throw Hillary.

[Big Swami]

Consider her ass thrown. Ugh. Anyone working with James Carville can throw themselves under the bus for all I care.

RG seems like a good idea until you realize there's no "there" there. He's like a hot pastry made with turds - poke the surface and it mostly deflates, and whatever's left over is shit.

[b-diddy]

when you do your best to appear "the inevitable" and that gets challenged, shit can hit the fan quickly.

its why i got so pissy a little while back when people claimed barak was unelectable due to his skin color. i dont know why, but in elections, and especially in primaries, people like to vote for the person they think will win. like you get a cookie for guessing the winner.

as far as i could tell, the #1 reason people seemed to support hilary was because they thought she had already won.

meanwhile, the people who seem to have the biggest problem with obama's skin color seem to be the blacks. we'll see if that is just loyalty that they rightly feel towards bill clinton, or something more unseemly.

anyway, i think this is shaping up to be a an election that could be among the most important in US history. well, maybe. i dont believe that the president alone (though bush tried to change this) can affect the country on a massive extent, but there are serious issues at play on the international lvl that far exceed terrorism as far as threats to our long term well being go, and the next pres needs to lead us past partisan bickering and chronyism. shit actually needs to be addressed. the best unifying force imo is barak, which makes it a slam dunk cuz i like him for alot of other reasons too.

[Glenn]

Not sure if it will be the "most important" election, but it could be the dirtiest/nastiest.

Do you guys ever look at the banner ads at the bottom of these threads?

There are a few McCain ones running right now that look like they are straight out of Orwell's 1984 or something. The fearmongering that is going on would be funny as hell if it weren't so effective.

[Tahoe]

The fear mongering is effective. The Dems have been telling everyone Bush lied and Bush is listening to you phone calls and it was working there for a while. I don't think peeps believe it as much as they did though.

[b-diddy]

The fear mongering is effective. The Dems have been telling everyone Bush lied and Bush is listening to you phone calls and it was working there for a while. I don't think peeps believe it as much as they did though.

tenuous.

i've never heard of protecting civil liberties as fear mongering.

and i dont think its people not believing as much as not caring.

[b-diddy]

Not sure if it will be the "most important" election, but it could be the dirtiest/nastiest.

it might be hard to call THIS election the most important, but its gonna be up there.

and i think that people who follow the financial markets would agree. nothing is gonna change china taking over as the #1 economy in the world (during all our life times) but its just a question of when? were not just talking bout recession in america, which looks very dire, but an exploding economy in asia.

and this is connected to the environment. which depending on your values and what you believe, could be even more important/ominous than the economy.

were not facing an impending war which always gets presidents extra notice, but this is definitly a crucial time in this countries history going forward.