I never thought I would say this, but right now I am just so burnt out on politics I didn’t even watch the NH Primary coverage. I see that Kerry won by large numbers, so here is my quick take on the candidates so far:
1.) Kerry– He won by a convincing margin, so congratulations are in order. I would post some of he things I don’t like about him, but it is so hard to take shots at him while he looks so cozy wrapped up in the American flag. Did you know that he was a VietNam veteran?
2.) Dean– Despite losing his second primary in a row, the Dean camp declared victory. I guess this is good news for the Panthers and the Patriots, who meet Sunday in the Super Bowl. Guess what, guys! No matter the outcome, you are both winners.
3.) Edwards– Probably the best candidate in the race right now, he seems to still be tied with Clark for third place. Edwards’s staple stump speech for the past month has been the ‘Two Americas’ schtick that seems to impress everyone so much. If he intends to be the Democratic nominee in 2004, one of these Americas better start voting for him. I guess he can take some consolation in the fact that if he does pull this out in the long run, the Northern Democrats will vote for a southerner in the General Election (see Clinton, Bill). The real trick will be for Kerry to get the south to vote for him, should he win.
4.) Clark– DOA. Skipped the Iowa cacus, and the best he could do is come in third or tied for third (or perhaps fourth- the numbers are not in yet). This guy is a loser, a crackpot, and a liar, and even with the Clinton lackeys (including the despicable Chris Lehane) and money machine, he is coming up short. Also, I have noticed he looks remarkably similar to someone from the past. You make the call:
Both of these men, I might note, are not going to take their followers anywhere.
5.) Al Sharpton– It says alot about the Democratic party that this race-baiting huckster is even allowed on stage, let alone taken seriously. Unfortunately, none of what it says about Democrats is any good. Therefore, I officially endorse Al Sharpton.
6.) Dennis Kucinich– Think of someone with as much chance as Al Sharpton to become the next President, but think skinny, white, and vegan.
Thus concludes my NH Primary Coverage for 2004.
*** Update ***
It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to mention Joe Lieberman. I guess I share something in common with the voters of New Hampshire.
keith edge
You must be really burnt out. You forgot the 5th place finisher, Joe Lieberman. Not feeling the Joementum?
HH
Look for Lehane to come home to Kerry and start viciously attacking Clark…
CadillaqJaq
Kerry is a VietNam veteran?
Stentor
The voters clearly don’t take Al Sharpton seriously — he came in behind Dick Gephardt, who is not actually running for president anymore.
jack
Not to put too fine a point on things, but the lineup was
Kerry
Dean
Clark
with Edwards and Lieberman tying for a truly dismal fourth.
Dean pulled up, Clark pulled up, and Edwards went back to the obscurity he enjoyed before the Iowa caucuses.
The Mighty Reason Man
“It says alot about the Democratic party that this race-baiting huckster is even allowed on stage”
I assume then that you voted straight Democrat in 1996 due to the fact that Pat Buchanon and Bob Dornan had a go at the GOP nomination?
“let alone taken seriously”
Please show me one person of any consequence that takes Sharpton seriously.
He has accumulated enough power on his own over the years to jump through the easiest hoops required of a Presidential candidate (enough signatures to get on a few ballots, funds to run a minor campaign), and it’s not like the DNC can kick him out. If it were possible for the people controlling the two parties to kick people out of the primaries, Bill Bradley and John McCain would never have seen New Hampshire.
Go ahead and make your Sharpton jokes, but pretending that the Democratic Party is in any way responsible for him is just cheap.
Gary Farber
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the regular schtick on the Conan O’Brien show where Conan “interviews” certain folks on a tv? I happened to flip into one last night, where he “interviewed” “Kucinich,” who appeared as a tiny little figure on the bottom of the tv screen, about a tenth the size of a normal person, gabbling away in a high-pitched, utterly unintelligible language of his own, until finally a hawk swooped in abruptly and carried him away.
I don’t regularly watch O’Brien, because I find many of his tics and regular schticks very annoying, but sometimes he can be very funny, and I nearly busted a gut laughing at this one.
He also interviewed “General Clark,” who suddenly had his backdrop light up with the fires of hell while the voice of Satan proceeded to speak through him. (Or was that Joe Lieberman?)
Dean
TMRM:
Did the Dems take Jesse Jackson seriously? Evidently, since in ’88 he actually won a number of primaries, and walked in w/ enough delegates to get a prime-time speaking spot.
Are you sure Sharpton won’t do the same? Why?
And why IS Sharpton up on stage w/ the rest of the Dems? Simply b/c he declared? Ever talk to NYC Dems? THEY take Sharpton quite seriously–they can’t afford not to.
andrew
Dean,
Pat Buchanan won New Hampshire in 1996!!! He is enough of anti-semite (or Nazi defender, take your pick) to get his own report on the ADL’s website. Sharpton gets a brief mention on the ADL’s website. I really should compare Sharpton and Buchanan since Sharpton got less than 1% of the votes in New Hampshire.
You would agree that Jesse Jackson isn’t as bad as Al Sharpton, wouldn’t you?
Dean
Well, Jackson (and Buchanan, for that matter) never claimed that a District Attorney had personally helped rape a woman, nor helped stoke fires that led to a deadly riot, so no, neither Jackson nor Buchanan, in that regard, are quite like Sharpton.
And Jackson won several primaries (iirc), which was more than either Buchanan or Sharpton have done (so far, although Jackson’s victories were farther down the pike than any thus far seen).
But, hey, if you wanna compare Sharpton to Buchanan, be my guest. Good riddance to both of ’em.