In which the Kellinator blows her budget and diet in the name of the grass-roots movement

[kellinator]

Last night sirinek lured me out to Manuel's Tavern for drinks with some of the people from Howard Dean's campaign.

So there I am, tired and hungry, only intending to have one drink because I'm broke and have leftovers for dinner anyway, and the only person at the table who hasn't absolutely decided that Dean's my man. I mean, no offense, sirinek, but of course the links you've sent me say he's great. A candidate who can't sound good in his own promotional material needs to go back to Candidate School.

But regardless I'm hoping to learn some useful information, so I turn to one of the campaign chairs sitting next to me and say "So what do you think is the key to Dean's early success?"

The guy gives me a glare that clearly says How dare you question the Master!!!!! and says something completely useless like "because he's the best candidate!!" Dude, I know you think that already! Otherwise you wouldn't be here! Tell me something I don't know!

I have concluded:

Second-least useful place to get objective information about a candidate: Said candidate's campaign rally.

Least useful place to get objective information about a candidate: Drinks with candidates' supporters after the rally.

But anyway, then we got to bitching about politics and pretty soon I needed a second drink, and I couldn't drink on an empty stomach so I ordered some food too, and pretty soon I was even broker (is that a word?). But it was fun to hear the Clinton impersonations.

Oh, here's an interesting article about the MoveOn.org primary:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=11948&mode=nested

Comments

[sirinek.livejournal.com]

By all means, do the research on the candidates on the sites of your choice and make your own informed decision. :) Thats what I did. I'm not expecting you to become an instant Dean convert. I invited you because I was driving through your part of town and figured you would enjoy hanging out with Democrats. :)

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

And I much appreciated the invite. :) (that Dekalb guy was a little oversexed, no? *SNARK* )

thanks for the link....

[daraflower.livejournal.com]

MoveOn unwisely allowed only Dean, Kucinich and Kerry, as the top three finishers in the straw poll, to send campaign e-mails directly to the 1.4 million members last week.

i'm on the MoveOn mailing list, and i had in fact been wondering why i received emails from only those three candidates. how perplexing.

also, i just wanted to tell you i share your frustration over the lack of objective information. i read over the MoveOn interviews before voting in the primary, but it really wasn't much help because all the candidates are so obviously aware that they're answering to a left-leaning audience.

i'll take a stab at your unanswered question though, with the caveat that i am doing so with only the most cursory information about any of the candidates. in my unsolicited opinion, dean has been successful because he comes off as refreshingly liberal... not just in ideology, but in (what is at least perceived as) practice. i had heard of howard dean in passing, back when vermont passed the gay marriage thing.... so by the time i heard he was running in the presidential primary, i was delighted because i already had formed positive associations between his name and the success of an issue i strongly support. so even if the real credit for said gay victory belongs to the voters of vermont, i find myself favoring dean as their representative.

whether this makes any strategical sense or not, i have no idea. i have a hard time voting based on strategy, especially because my conscience usually favors someone quite unlikely to win (i.e. ralph nader). *sigh* the psychology of politics is a curious thing.

lastly, HI! i'm a friend of missrachael's, and sometimes, i tend to ramble uninvited. =)

Re: thanks for the link....

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Hi! *waves* Thanks for your thoughts; those make a lot of sense. Is Dean your guy then?

[daraflower.livejournal.com]

for the time being... sure, why not! but since i don't have any really good factual basis for that decision, i did actually consider electability to some degree... apparently he's tops among progressives like the MoveOn folk, but the most recent gallup poll doesn't look good for him. well, maybe the results of this primary will change that....

ugh-- i can't believe bush is still showing like 50% support. maybe it's just the company i keep, but i really, really can't believe it.

Re:

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell. Me either. I walk around scowling and bitching when it comes to politics. Luckily most of my coworkers agree with me or I probably would have mouthed off at the wrong time and gotten fired by now.

How do people feel about the Shrub in California? People in Georgia seem to have really bought into the entire "patriotic=Republican" equation... *barf*

[daraflower.livejournal.com]

heh, yeah... i'm not sure how california as a whole sees him... it's probably rather divided. on the one hand, you've got the san francisco area (a district in which they picked the green over the republican in the last gubernatorial race).... but on the other hand, i live in orange county: a land of corporate uberconservatives who own lots of property and investments and aim to keep it that way... so, many of them are still tooling around in their bush-cheney bumper-stickered SUVs. it's actually fairly creepy; much of orange county gives off a very sterile "family values" kinda vibe. but, it's not all grim-- i did see a "regime change begins at home" sticker the other day.

so, are you a registered democrat, or just anti-republicans-controlling-everything?

Re:

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Heh. Both, actually. I admit I'm totally pigheaded and biased about politics (my mother and most of my grandparents are yellow-dog Democrat, i.e. we'd vote for a yellow dog before we'd vote for a Republican), but at least I admit my biases! Yourself?

That "family values" shit puts me through the roof -- especially when you consider that Newt Gingrich was screwing his intern during the entire "Contract OnWith America" phase. I have no sympathy for his wife though. She should have realized what she was in for when he served his first wife with divorce papers while she was bedridden with cancer and then failed to pay child support.

[daraflower.livejournal.com]

ugh... i read a little about gingrich's sordid personal "family values" in an al franken book; i had had no idea the hypocrisy was so flagrant.

me... i'm not registered with a party, and i feel pretty good about that. but, if i lived someplace with closed primaries i'd probably register as a green or a democrat. i have only fairly recently come to the realization that i am a textbook liberal on most issues, but have always avoided the term because i think both major parties are way too dependent on soft money. that was what compelled me to vote green in the last couple of elections... they seem more populist, more progressive, and totally fed up with corporate politics. the idealist in me would love to see more greens in office, but realistically i felt like i was voting more to make a point than with any hope of a victory. basically, i want a candidate i can be enthusiastic about, one who's gonna go ahead and BE unabashedly liberal... i'm hoping that whoever wins the democratic nomination fits that description, as i will almost certainly be voting for him anyway. =P