I have to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

The chickens have finally come home to roost. The Repubs have been so used to trashing anybody who isn't a Republican that they can no longer quit using the tactic on each other. It's too much to hope that this kind of public airing of the Republican use of below-the-belt debate techniques will make people wake up and wonder what "their party" has become.

[ 29 November 2007: Message edited by: DrConway ]

As for the individual candidates I think Guiliani lost some momentum by setting the negative tone that was carried through the entire night, and McCain might have gained some by staying out of the fracas. The big picture is no less complicated than it was a week ago, but I still peg Mitt Romney as the favorite to take the nomination.

[ 29 November 2007: Message edited by: West Coast Greeny ]

quote:

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Originally posted by West Coast Greeny:
Never think the Republicans are out of it, but they are in disarray at the moment. You will have noticed that the Republican crowd was way more partisan than the Democratic one. That bodes very poorly for the Republicans in the next general election.

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They are not out of it, because...

a) Their Neo-Liberal 'opponents' will ultimately implement most of their policies, with merely a slight delay or dilution.

b) They have their dirty bags of tricks, which include :

-Emotive attack ads
-Corporate media manipulations & bias
-Staged or engineered events (domestic & international)
-Lack of proportional representation
-The Iowa Caucus
-The electoral college
-8 hour waits in the voting line
-Blacklisting blacks off of the voting regestration list and other intentional obstructions of minorities
-No paper trail for the e-voting machines
-Pro-Bush Diebold, and other corporations, who have exclusive access to the e-voting machine codes, and have set up barriers to transparency

(among other things)

quote:

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Originally posted by Peppered Pothead:
They are not out of it, because...

a) Their Neo-Liberal 'opponents' will ultimately implement most of their policies, with merely a slight delay or dilution.

---

no kidding. continuing the policies of Bush is what Hillary is saying she'll do. she's already beating the war-drums about Iran.

quote:

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Both parties do this to each other during the primaries. The candidates tear each other apart and attack each other. It's happening with the Democrats too. People will forget about it once someone wins, and then it'll be business as usual in the presidential election.

---

I've been watching both debates, and while there was some sniping between Obama and Clinton, and one attack by John Edwards, none of the Democrats fell anywhere near the level Guiliani or Thompson did.

The Democrats are far more likely to rally around thier candidate (even if its Hillary) than the Republicans at this point. There are so many ways the party could fracture.

- Socons have already threatened to run a 3rd candiate if Guiliani wins.
- Supply-siders will never unite with Huckabee.
- Romney has to get past all the bigots.
- And while all this is happening, conservative Libertarians are leaving in droves, with Ron Paul siphoning more and more of them. Do you really think he'll endorse any of the other Repubs for prez?

[ 01 December 2007: Message edited by: West Coast Greeny ]