The 2004 American Presidential Election

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Saint Marcus
Russia would never have gone all the way. Never.

Would you have been willing to risk a shooting war over something that pointless?

[MrFun]

Re: Why Dean will be the next Pres

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

We stand at a critical moment in American history. Either we come together and take action now to restore a politics of participation and a politics of the people, or we allow the Washington insiders and the special interests to continue to make the back room deals that are destroying people's faith in our government.

Democracy itself is at stake in this election. The extreme right wing of the Republican Party has shown nothing but contempt for democracy. From the impeachment of a sitting President, to the recount in Florida, to opportunistic redistricting efforts in Colorado and Texas, and now in the recall effort in California, a narrow band of right-wing ideologues have subverted the democratic process whenever they haven't liked the outcome.

I agree with many of the critical points made in this same article against the Bush administration.

But come on -- don't you think that these two paragraphs are overblowiing the importance of this upcoming election as well as baiting for hatred of Republicans in general??

[Ben Kenobi]

Bush will be beaten because:

1. His pontificating on the Iraq issue has been completely, utterly and absolutely discredited.

2. Tax cuts don't work.

3. He has failed in the War on Terror.

4. He has made the US look like Satan and alienated almost all its friends.

4. Alienation is a two-way street. Bush can claim that Germany/France would never have agreed to work with the Americans over the war in Iraq.

3. Failure implies that the war has ended. Bush can simply say that it is a work in progress.

2. For whom?

1. Discredited by those who Bush's supporters trust?

[Sava]

Originally posted by Defiant
Bush will not be beat in 2004, you can write this in your little guotes areas if you like. The rebuilding in Iraq is coming along fine. If anything it looks as though other countries are now interested in helping, I don't want them there but Germany nows says they are ready to help and France is now not opposing a lengthy time to turn over control to the Iraqis once they are ready. 70% of the Iraqis are saying the war was worth it and will be better off in 5 years or less.
The only weiners that say it isn't going well are the liberal jokes who have nothing else to run the Presidential campaign on. Even most of them have switched their tones on Iraq a few times in recent months. Nobody could have done Iraq better than Bush, certainly not, Wesley "lets send in British and French troops to the airport to beat the Russians" Clark, he is just another Clinton puppet and joke.

wow... it's interesting to read what the victims of right-wing hate-media think...

[Imran Siddiqui]

it's interesting to read what the victims of right-wing hate-media think

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPentagon.asp?Page=\Pentagon\archive\200309\PEN20030924a.html

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee returned from a recent tour of Iraq with a message for the American people: The establishment media is presenting a biased and unnecessarily negative portrayal of the military and political progress in the newly freed Middle East nation.

"I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon," wrote Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) Monday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether the news media were somehow complicit in his death."

Marshall is one of seven members of the House Armed Services Committee who traveled to Iraq earlier this month to see for themselves whether the American military has become "mired" in its efforts to rebuild the country. He decided to make the trip because of "bleak" news media reports that "contrast sharply with reports of hope and progress" from the Defense Department. What Marshall found surprised him.

"I'm afraid the news media are hurting our chances. They are dwelling upon the mistakes, the ambushes, the soldiers killed, the wounded, the Blumbergs," Marshall wrote. "Fair enough. But it is not balancing this bad news with 'the rest of the story,' the progress made daily, the good news.

"The falsely bleak picture weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy," Marshall added.

Marshall is not alone in his criticism. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the ranking minority member of the committee, said at a press conference last week that the establishment media is dwelling on the negative news to the exclusion of the positive.

"The media stresses the wounds, the injuries and the deaths, as they should," Skelton said. "But, for instance, in Northern Iraq, General [David] Petraeus has 3,100 projects, from soccer fields to schools to refineries. It's all the good stuff that isn't being reported."

Reporting 'by the numbers' may hinder accurate coverage

It may be a matter of mathematics as to why "all the good stuff" is not being reported.

Marshall recalled that 774 journalists from various western media outlets were embedded with U.S. troops at the height of the conventional war. While Fox News Channel alone had 27 reporters embedded then, Marshall complained: "Today, there are only 27 embedded journalists from all media combined.

"During the conventional part of this conflict, embedded journalists reported the good, the bad and the ugly," Marshall recalled. "Where are the embeds now that we are in the difficult part of the war, now that fair and balanced reporting is critically important to our chances of success?"

Steve Rendall, senior analyst with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal media watchdog group, acknowledged that the U.S. news presence in Iraq lacks depth.

"Yes, there are too few American reporters in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. I would agree with that point. I do think that there should be more," Rendall said. "But I don't agree that there aren't an awful lot of sources for Americans, especially those with access to the Internet."

Rendall: 'Politicians should probably stick to making policy'

Rendall believes the reports of widespread Iraqi opposition to the continued American presence in Iraq are accurate, and he discounted most of the congressional delegation's remaining complaints.

"Politicians should probably stick to making policy," Rendall said. "Politicians returning from Iraq, who were just given a V.I.P. tour, mainly including contact with top-level American officials, both civilian and military officials, are really not in a position to tell us the whole story about the facts on the ground in Iraq."

Rendall did acknowledge that he has no way of knowing what other contacts the members might have had with Iraqi citizens.

While claiming there should be more American reporters in Iraq, Marshall lamented the work of those who are there, describing "the harm done by our media" and concluding, "I'm afraid it is killing our troops."

Tim Graham is director of media analysis for the conservative Media Research Center, of which CNSNews.com is a division. He believes Marshall's analysis of the news coverage coming from Iraq is accurate, even if his conclusion is exaggerated.

"Are we really getting an accurate and complete picture? No, we're not," Graham said. "Obviously, the thing that's most newsworthy to the families of our troops, which is that they get killed, is about the only question we're getting [answered]."

Of Marshall's contention that inadequate media coverage is contributing to the deaths of American troops, Graham said: "That's a little too strong...for me."

Graham says: 'Realities of newsgathering' dictate what is and is not covered

Graham concurs with the assessment that there are too few western journalists covering Iraq. While the limited number of American reporters there may be affecting the coverage U.S. audiences receive, he said there are also other factors to consider.

"This is one of the realities of newsgathering that we all understand. You don't put on the front page that your dog is still alive or that traffic wasn't so bad today," Graham explained. "There are a lot of things in Iraq that are going right, and they're not newsworthy because they're not disastrous."

Graham compared the coverage of random attacks against coalition forces to the coverage of power outages following Hurricane Isabel.

"If regular life resumes in Iraq, it's not news because it's dull," Graham added. "The danger you get in is when you think the only thing that's newsworthy is the power's out. In Washington right now, the big story is that some power is still out, because it's unusual."

Rendall agreed.

"Especially with too few reporters there, it's going to be hard to get journalists to tear themselves away from those dramatic scenes to go and talk about the reopening of a school or the building of a soccer field, which are all worthy things and all newsworthy under normal circumstances," Rendall explained.

"But in a case where the story just down the street has to do with Americans coming under fire and sometimes dying," Rendall continued, "I think reporters will be guided by priorities that have to do with sort of the flash and the spectacular aspect of the combat stories and also the drama of them."

While Rendall dismissed the congressional complaints of media bias in the coverage of Iraq, Graham hopes news consumers will consider the liberal leanings of the establishment media and remember that a presidential election is not too far in the future.

"The media's coverage of this sounds more like a campaign and less like objective reporting," Graham said. "It sounds like 'softening up' the opponent."

In a limited defense of reporters, Graham said the nature of the news business is also affecting the coverage.

"Anybody who's going to vote, anybody who's going to form an opinion on how we're doing in Iraq," Graham cautioned, "ought to realize, with a grain of salt, that the news media doesn't feed you the happy news."

Democrats' complaints about media make perfect 'man bites dog' story

Graham also noted the irony he saw in the most vocal complaints about the Iraq coverage coming from Democrats in Congress.

"Usually, the news media loves a 'man bites dog' story," Graham observed. "And there's not a better 'man bites dog' story than Democrats critiquing the media for being too negative about a U.S. war. I think that's a rather remarkable thing."

[Sava]

what does this have to do with Clark being a "clinton puppet"? or do you just like posting complelety irrelevant articles?

[Imran Siddiqui]

You weren't specific to what you were refering to, so I picked the beginning of the quoted text .

Maybe you should quote what you are actually refering to next time .

[yavoon]

Originally posted by Japher





Yes, I am a supporter of capitalism. Yet, I am also a supporter for Lazze-faire politics, especially in the corporate world. If the market has better use for the land then good, use it for the better use. Yet, in many cases the government dictates the market, as with Ag zoned land and water allocations which limit these zones.

Note: I have been eyeing the central valley for sometime as a place for emerging biotechs. Seems that it is a great place to go because the city water systems can handle the large amount of waste generated by the biotech industry, since those water facilities are use to handling contaminated water from the Ag industry...

isn't there a little irony in supporting farming in america by saying that politicians should stay out of it?

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
You weren't specific to what you were refering to, so I picked the beginning of the quoted text .

Maybe you should quote what you are actually refering to next time .

There's Imran again, going tongue crazy . . .

[Imran Siddiqui]

Perv

[chequita guevara]

Re: Re: Why Dean will be the next Pres

Originally posted by MrFun
But come on -- don't you think that these two paragraphs are overblowiing the importance of this upcoming election as well as baiting for hatred of Republicans in general??

Did you not read my earlier post? The Democratic base HATES Bush and the right wing of the Republican party. The insane hatred of the Republicans for Clinton is nothing compred to the white hot fire that these people feel for the Republicans. Dean is the only candidate among the Democrats that recognizes this, and so he's playing to it. He's got fire in the belly, compared to the rest, who have slightly chilled ice water in theirs.

In case you hadn't noticed, the country is polarizing.

[DanS]

Rather, I think this hate signals a crisis in the ideology of the left. The left doesn't have to numbers to drive the politics of the country and it was Bush who did the clean sweep. This is somewhat a new situation, but I don't know how much longer it will last.

[Brtndr4u]

I won't make up my mind until Nov.04'

Dean makes me think McCarthy,Dukakis,Carter

Clark makes me think McCain,North,Ike

Bush makes me think Bush,Bush,Bush

None of the above strike me as deep thinkers or problem solvers.Now if Powell was a canidate or even Rice,I might have an easy decision.Both Clintons are opportunist extrodanaire,they don't want Dean to get the nomination because it would ruin Hill's future plans for 08'

Sharpton,Mosley-Bruan and Dennis Kunnerich(sp) are the only real liberal progressives.The others are centrist.No matter what the Dean folks tell you.But none have a snowballs chance in he11.

Holy Joe,Gephart,Edwards,Kerry are just pissing into the wind IMHO.

As always the South will decide the election again,with Florida again the focal point.

[MrFun]

Re: Re: Re: Why Dean will be the next Pres

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Did you not read my earlier post? The Democratic base HATES Bush and the right wing of the Republican party. The insane hatred of the Republicans for Clinton is nothing compred to the white hot fire that these people feel for the Republicans. Dean is the only candidate among the Democrats that recognizes this, and so he's playing to it. He's got fire in the belly, compared to the rest, who have slightly chilled ice water in theirs.

In case you hadn't noticed, the country is polarizing.

And I think Democrats would do better through more legitimate critique of specific aspects of Bush's policies, rather than the "Republicans are evil incarnate" bull.

It's unfortunate, but even though I might disagree with some of Dean's more extreme attack tactics against the Bush administration, I still say I will vote for Dean.

[Drake Tungsten]

The left is dying, thank god. Now, if only we can figure out a way to kill off the right as well.