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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (16785)	11/19/2003 12:51:12 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793687

We are so by-damn stubborn we can stand touching noses For a week at a time and never see eye to eye! Iowa indecision keeps things hopping By Walter Shapiro USA Today DES MOINES -- Jeani Murray, who runs Howard Dean's campaign in Iowa, was idly flipping channels at home here Sunday afternoon when she discovered that C-SPAN was telecasting live a Dick Gephardt house party. It was not the rival candidate's stump speech in nearby Waukee that intrigued Murray, but the faces in the crowd. She recognized from the TV pictures at least half a dozen uncommitted local activists whom the Dean campaign has also been trying to woo. ''We immediately sent our people out to work on these undecideds,'' Murray said over breakfast Tuesday. ''It's all hand-to-hand combat.'' This anecdote conveys the almost incestuous nature of the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses. Murray, after all, spent 2002 as the campaign manager in the losing congressional race of John Norris, who is now her direct competitor as John Kerry's state coordinator. Murray and Norris -- along with Aaron Pickrell, the state political director for John Edwards -- all served in prior incarnations on Capitol Hill as chiefs of staff for Rep. Leonard Boswell, who is understandably neutral in the presidential race. These intertwined connections are accentuated by a quirk in the way that these first-in-the-nation caucuses are conducted: Democrats express their allegiance to candidates in public rather than through a secret ballot. ''There are some people who will be undecided until they walk into the room on caucus night and pick up a vibe,'' Murray explains. ''And that's the candidate they'll go with.'' It is easy to get caught up in the frequent and fluctuating polls. (Gephardt narrowly leads in an early November poll of likely caucus-goers by The Des Moines Register.) And it's tempting to divine cosmic significance from the 30-second commercials that are already blaring from Iowa TV sets. (Dean has launched a new ad that explicitly attacks Gephardt for appearing at the White House in support of the president's Iraq war resolution in 2002.) But there is still a remarkably high degree of squishiness to Iowa's political sentiments: More than three-quarters of Democrats polled by the Register say they may change their candidate preferences. Conversations with party activists buttress this conclusion. Everywhere from the state party dinner Saturday night in Des Moines to an Edwards rally in Sioux City on Sunday evening, I kept hearing the same refrain: ''I think I've narrowed it down to three.'' Because only five White House hopefuls are making serious efforts in Iowa (Dean, Gephardt, Kerry, Edwards and the largely marginal Dennis Kucinich), this slow process of elimination does not suggest any sudden rush to decision. Iowa's traditional role in presidential politics is to begin to whittle down the field. But the only major candidate whose future is on the chopping block here is Gephardt, who won the caucuses in 1988 and therefore has to repeat or abjectly retreat. Dean may currently be overhyped as the odds-on favorite to win the nomination, but with his Internet fundraising machine and his die-hard supporters, he can survive a setback in Iowa or even New Hampshire. Nothing is likely to eliminate Dean from the race before the convention, save perhaps for a shocking revelation that he is an undercover agent for the Republican National Committee. As for Kerry and Edwards, they are primarily battling for the limited bragging rights that accompany a third-place finish in Iowa. Yes, it does seem weird and a bit unfair that Gephardt would be presumably doomed if he finished second to Dean in Iowa, while Edwards would be swapping high-fives with his supporters if he edged out Kerry for third. But the press and the party fundraisers have traditionally overreacted when a candidate does not measure up to expectations. But Iowa has also become a test market for the candidates seeking to derail Dean. It was telling that in their speeches to the state party's jammed-packed fundraising dinner Saturday night, both Edwards and Kerry made pointed, if implicit, references to Dean's temperament. As Edwards put it, ''If all we are in 2004 is the party of anger, we can't win.'' Kerry's version was, ''We need to offer answers, not just anger.'' Sunday morning, during individual appearances at a synagogue in Des Moines, Dean and Kerry refined this escalating debate over the political merits of a campaign of negativism against George W. Bush. ''People have said I'm the candidate of anger,'' Dean declared. ''Well, we have a right to be angry. We lost 3 million jobs. We lost our place as the moral leader of the world.'' Kerry, who spoke a half-hour after Dean departed, delivered one of the more crisp and compelling speeches of his erratic campaign. His key argument: ''In January, my friends, don't just send them an angry message. Don't respond to who bashes Bush the best. We're a party of solutions. We're a party of leaders.'' But later that same morning in a living room in nearly Clive, Kerry reverted to the rambling-rose rhetoric that has characterized his ill-defined campaign. Kerry became that rare candidate to echo T.S. Eliot's sad-eyed observation ''you measure your life in coffee spoons.'' And as he neared his conclusion, Kerry offered a passionate, if somewhat narrow, plea to restore ''art, music and dance'' to our schools. But with Iowa in flux and New Hampshire a state of notoriously late-deciding voters, it is premature to write Kerry's or anyone else's epitaph. The history of Democratic races is filled with stirring stories of written-off candidates, such as Gary Hart and Gephardt in 1988, who came roaring back into contention. And in 1992, Bill Clinton became the ultimate Comeback Kid. Remember: The hand-to-hand combat phase of the Iowa contest is just beginning. usatoday.com

To: NickSE who wrote (16785)	11/22/2003 11:25:29 AM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793687

Anti-terrorism demonstrations on December 10th healingiraq.blogspot.com I found out yesterday on local tv (IMN) that the GC working together with Iraqi civil unions, provincial councils, prominent tribal leaders, clerics, and various political parties and organizations across the country are making preparations for large nationwide demonstrations condemning terrorism in Iraq on December 10th. I mentioned something about it before but I wasn't aware of the exact date. I also didn't hear anyone mention this in other media outlets as far as I know. The ministry of interior will provide adequate protection for demonstrators in coordination with coalition forces. I will keep you updated on other details as soon as I get them. The only thing I can say is its about damn time. It would be great if someone can organize similar rallies on the same date in the US and Europe to show support and empathy for victims of terrorism in Iraq and the rest of the world. I can only ask you to spread the word about this. I was ashamed and depressed watching those brainwashed and deluded demonstrators in London carrying signs calling for abandoning Iraq and for an end to aggression. While I can understand people who hold peaceful principles against wars in general but nevertheless wish to see Iraq free and prosperous, I fail to understand the logic behind the thinking that appeasing and understanding terrorists will make this world a better place. It was all the same 'No blood for oil', 'Not in my name', 'Bush is Hitler', 'Stop the war', 'End the occupation', 'Bring the troops home' nonsense over and over again. It was almost like one of our masira's in the dark times of the previous regime. If those people truly dislike Bush they should have kept their mouths shout about other issues which they can never understand and sticked to anti-Bush slogans. The only thing that warmed my heart was watching different self-respecting people carrying banners that said 'Mr. Bush you are most welcome, this lot does not speak for me'. I ditto that and add that this lot surely does not speak for Iraqis either. I'm sure Saddam is proud of you and clapping his hands in glee watching from whatever gutter he is hiding in right now. The fact that Al-Arabiyah station decicated two whole hours covering these demonstration while not a single subtitle about the anti-terrorism crowds marching in Iraq only disgusted me the more. I guess those demonstrators chose to ignore the hundreds of innocent Turk Muslims and Jews that were killed and maimed the last few days in Istanbul, the Italian peacekeepers in Nassiriyah, the Lebanese families in Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi police, school children, UN and Red Cross workers in Baghdad, the Iraqis that were praying in Najaf, the Spanish tourists in Casablanca, the demonstrating students in Iran, and decided to spill tears for the poor Iraqi militants, the innocent Taliban, and the peace loving leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Why the hypocricy? Why the double standards? Someone seriously needs to teach these people the mechanisms of cause and effect. They are having it all jumbled up in their topsy-turvy view of the world. I can only say SHAME on you. Even Salam Pax describes Gaith's dissapointment with the demonstrators as 'wickedly funny', I fail to see what exactly is amusing Salam in Gaith's words, and I think Salam is only making a fool of himself by attending these demonstrations if it were true. While I agree with Salam about some points regarding the post war planning part, I don't see anything helpful in marching with people against Bush and who think that Saddam should have remained in power. Come one Salam, if it weren't for that jolly old chap you refer to as Georgie you wouldn't be enjoying your freedom in London writing for the Guardian now would you my friend? Nevertheless enjoy your trip and wish you a safe return. # posted by zeyad : 7:00 PM