Teresa Heinz Kerry screwed up yesterday, and actually spoke the truth about the idiotic Democrat debates (and I have no doubt if there were nine Republicans, it would be just as idiotic):
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, says nine-way presidential debates are “silly” and a waste of time for the candidates and the voters.
“I don’t think it really helps the American people, I don’t think it helps the candidates,” Heinz Kerry told the Boston Herald in an interview published Tuesday, the same day her husband was to face his rivals in a debate in his home town.
Heinz Kerry said debates have become about scoring a punch with quick soundbites.
“It’s just silly,” she said. “I think those debates are really unproductive and they made it hard for all of them to (get their message across).”
Speak it, sister. These debate formats are absurd, and the winner every time they have held one is George Bush. These formats, as she has stated, are all about souindbites, and that is the only reason every time they have had one of these debates it has been all about the vile Al Sharpton. In fact, it appears the Rev. Al was up to his usual tricks tonight:
A heated exchange between the candidates erupted when Cooper asked former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to clarify his recent remark that he wanted to be the candidate for “guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks.”
“Martin Luther King said that it was his dream that the sons of slaveholders and the sons of slaves sit down around a table and make common good,” Dean said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said, “First of all, Martin Luther King said, ‘Come to the table of brotherhood.’ You can’t bring a Confederate flag to the table of brotherhood.”
Sharpton went on to address Dean: “You are not a bigot, but you appear to be too arrogant to say, ‘I’m wrong,’ and go on.”
Dean did not back down: “We’re not going to win this country, and even worse, Democrats, if we don’t have a big tent.”
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina later said, “Unless I missed something, Governor Dean still has not said he was wrong. Were you wrong, Howard?”
“No, I wasn’t, John Edwards, because people who vote who fly the Confederate flag, I think they are wrong because I think the Confederate flag is a racist symbol,” Dean said.
“But I think there are lot of poor people who fly that flag because the Republicans have been dividing us by race since 1968 with their Southern race strategy.”
Those wascally wepublicans and their southern strategy. Actually, idiots, you have been dividing yourself with your own southern strategy for the last 20 years. At any rate, tersea Kerry was right- and her husband will probably pay the price.
BTW- All the candidates were asked if they ever used pot, and Lieberman, Clark, Sharpton(good thing they didn’t ask about any failed coke deals, right Al?) and Kucinich (who I think is on acid) said no, only Mosely-Braun had the dignity to refuse to answer (good for her- and I am as shocked as anyone to be praising CMB), and Dean, Edwards, and Kerry said yes. Assholes- that was the perfect opportunity for all of you to say “It is none of your damned business, and it is none of the government’s business either.”
Farmer
LMAO
good one
henry
“But I think there are lot of poor people who fly that flag because the Republicans have been dividing us by race since 1968 with their Southern race strategy.”
Dean must be thinking of the Southern race strategy of George Wallace (a Democrat).
drew
“Dean must be thinking of the Southern race strategy of George Wallace (a Democrat).”
Don’t play that frickem game, Wallance was a conservative Dixicrat. Most of the old time Dixicrats like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmund left the Democrats to join the Republicans.
Remember the 60’s civil rights legislation??? Who didn’t support civil rights then??? Conservative Democrats (dixicrats) and conservative Republicans (see Barry Goldwater).
Kimmitt
Oh, give it the fuck up already.
The Republican Party is the Party with the antiblack and antigay bigots in it. You may not be a bigot — in fact, you probably aren’t if you’re assiduous enough to be reading blogs. But when the CCC and the Klan come out to vote for Federal offices, they come out for the Republicans, because the Federal Republicans give them what they want. It’s that simple.
(State and local Dems and Republicans both give bigots what they want in some areas, and they both give non-bigots what they want in others. It’s more complicated there.)
greg
Considering that there is a blatant bigot–Sharpton–in these debates and no other candidate has called him on it for fear of losing black voters, Democrats sure as hell don’t have the high road when it comes to this stuff.
In fact, when Sharpton rather arrogantly told Dean “you are not a bigot”, Dean should have said “you’re right sir, I’m not, but you are”. And then gone on to list Sharpton’s greatest hits, like Freddy’s Fashion Mart (let’s get rid of the white interlopers), Tawana Brawley, and his numerous anti-semitic statements.
Had Dean said that, I’d have sent his campaign a check five minutes later, and probably pledged to vote for him.
And it’s nice to know that all you have to do to get a rousing round of applause from young Democrats is admit to smoking pot.
Maybe I’ll switch party affiliation, run for office, and tell them about all the weed I smoked back in ’88 when i skipped school and went to a Pink Floyd concert.
Moe Lane
“Had Dean said that, I’d have sent his campaign a check five minutes later, and probably pledged to vote for him.”
No on the voting, yes on the check. Just for the pleasure of seeing a major candidate finally calling Sharpton on his cr*p.
Ripper
“when the CCC and the Klan come out to vote for federal offices, they come out for the Republicans, because the federal Republicans give them what they want.”
Like the proverbial stopped clock, Kimmitt, you can sometimes have a decent point. But I see this thread and the Southern thread (with your oh-so-superior sneer of “have you ever BEEN to the South?”) brings out the usual tinfoil-hatted, foamy-mouthed partisan we all know and love. When ANSWER, ELF and NARAL come out to vote Democrat, can we presume that it’s because the federal Democrats give them what they want? Or is this another of your usual anti-GOP slurs without a shred of factual evidence?
Kimmitt
ANSWER and ELF vote Green — they hate the Dems.
And you can assume that when NARAL comes out to vote for the Dems, they’re getting what they want, yes.
Kimmitt
To be more precise, ANSWER votes Green and in the various splintered Socialist parties.