I will feel bad for people living in states that opt out of a public insurance option. However it won't help them one bit if people in NO states are given the choice of a public option instead. Understand that I write this as someone who strongly supports establishing a Single Payer, or Medicare for All, public health insurance system in America; NOW. Sure I support that, but I also know that there isn't a prayer of a chance of making that happen, not now.
Call the system unfair, call the game rigged, unless someone has the power to change that system or nullify that game it will be go on being played under the rules in effect. I am not a defeatist, I am a fighter, and mine has been one small voice among many pushing the fight forward in the current session of Congress. I have witnessed our ability to move a mountain, against all seeming insider odds, to keep some form of a public option alive, to expose and reject the false promise of a "trigger to nowhere" being offered us as a sleeping pill instead. Our power is real. And so is the mountain. Our ability to move it slightly helped crack the aura of it's permanent invincibility. But that mountain is still there, pushed a few yards further down the road.
One of the primary ways to Expand the Map of competitive U.S. Senate seats in 2008 is to empower with resources Democrats in states that Republicans hope to take for granted, so that they can focus on more traditionally battleground states. Four such red states in 2008 are Mississippi, Kansas, Georgia, and Tennessee, where former Governor Ronnie Musgrove, former Congressman Jim Slattery, former state legislator Jim Martin, and former Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Bob Tuke are running to oust ethically questionable Roger Wicker, Bush-cover-up-artist Pat Roberts, Shameless Saxby Chambliss, and Lamar!, respectively.
$100 makes a huge difference. $10 makes a huge difference. We're now less than two months from Election Day. Supporting these red state Democrats at this critical juncture expands the map, makes the NRSC sweat even more, and increases Democrats' chances for overcoming historic Republican obstructionism in the U.S. Senate. Let's keep that momentum going!
Also Posted at Political Cortex:
Cody Lyon
So, when seeking to challenge his Obama friend, he asked him about the lopsided Clinton victory in West Virginia and the other wins in Pennsylvania and places like Ohio, places in America where progressives have work to do and trust to win, where aggressive attempts to prove to the economically disenfranchised or higher education denied and affordable universal health care starved people that government can do good things for people, the Obama supporter cut deep.
Note: I was pretty sick yesterday, and still majorly sub-par today. Hence the lateness of this post. But it's upbeat, people!
Already, Tsunami Tuesday seems so far in the past, as the prospects of a close, confused race, possibly lasting until the convention have come to the fore. But I think we're missing something valuable in not fully appreciating what happened that day, and so I want to offer a quick (if you don't count the length of the charts) look back at what was accomplished. And what was accomplished-at least for a day-was the virtual disappearance of Red State America. Which, of course, raises the question of what it would take to disappear it for good.
So, on the flip, we'll see just how thoroughly Democrats dominated in a state-by-state comparison, and we'll get to gloat a bit at just how weak John McCain may really be, as well as how divided the Republicans are.
Recent polls featuring head-to-head match-ups in several key red states show that Hillary Clinton will not have much problem winning a presidential election in red or reddish states. Let me begin by saying that her electability in a presidential race has never been my concern. My concern has always been what might happen to the rest of the Democratic ticket down ballot.
Hillary's presence at the top of our ticket will drive turnout in both parties by firing up our activist base and at the same time bringing all the Hillary-haters out of the woodworks to vote against her. I cannot tell you how many independents, apolitical types, and former Republicans I have talked to who just cannot stand Ms. Clinton. The thing one of my Republican friends back home likes to say is "Anyone who has ever even flirted with the idea of being a Republican is going to show up on November 4th 2008, just so they can say they voted against Hillary." Having roots in the South, I hear this kind of thing all the time.
Granted, this is all anecdotal evidence and the current partisan-ID spread suggests that we could nominate a horsefly and still win the presidential election. But we should never forget just how much passionate Hillary-hatred there is in this country. It may not be enough to stop her from winning the presidency, but it's more than enough to cause damage down-ballot.
What is this Hillary hatred going to do to us down-ballot? Anywhere purplish or reddish, we're probably going to suffer in state level races: for US Congress, state rep, the governorships, etc. I am deeply concerned that Republican candidates at this level could ride in (or avoid defeat) on anti-Hillary coattails.
One thing is for sure, red and purple state Democratic House and Senate candidates are NOT NOT NOT going to be running on the Clinton coattails, or coming out strongly behind the "Hillary Clinton agenda for America." If you think that's going to fly in rural America, in the South or the Midwest the or Rockies, you are probably smoking something that I would seriously like to try. Even if polls show a strong majority of the country supports her agenda, no sane Democrat in a close election is going to touch Hillary with a 49 and a half foot pole. Think about how long it took to get our party to come around on the war, a war that the country OPPOSED and had strong reservations about. Wanna see how long it takes to get Democrats in close elections to come around on one of the most polarizing figures in US politics? Good luck. Without a landslide victory in the primaries where she blows her competitors out of the water, Hillary is not likely receive support or backing from Democrats in close races. They'll probably ask her to kindly keep her distance, and "we'll talk after the election, but on a personal note you have my support."
I'm convinced we'll still pick up seats in the Senate and in the House, but Hillary's presence on the national ticket could be the difference between a net gain of 6 or 7 seats and net a gain of 20-25 seats. Close races that might tip Democratic might not do so without a very widely popular presidential candidate at the top of the ticket. Remember, there are still plenty of voters in this country who like divided government and will cast a split ticket to put a "check" on someone they are concerned about. (The logic sounds something like this: "Bush was awful and it's definitely time for a Democratic president, but I'm not so sure about Hillary. I'll go ahead and cast my vote for her because Bush has screwed up so badly and we need change, but I'm going to vote for Republicans in the Senate and the House because we've got to make sure she doesn't have too much power.")
Obama, Edwards, and Richardson are likely to have far stronger coattails than Hillary. How many Republicans or independents have you ever heard railing against the Richardson reform package or the dangerous Obama agenda? When I look at poll numbers and electoral trends, the electability argument just doesn't carry weight with me anymore. No matter which of our top 4 candidates we pick, we're probably going to win back the presidency. We would have to screw up quite badly AND the Republicans would have to look really attractive for us not to win back the White House.
To me, this Democratic primary is all about who is going to have the biggest coattails.
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