Things we need to do before 2008
We had a pretty good chance to beat GW in this years elections. His approval rating was low, people thought the war in Iraq was going badly, that the economy was going badly and that the country needed to go in a new direction. But somehow we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So he are my thoughts on what we need to do before 2008 to have a chance:
1) Disown Michael Moore - Too many people hate the man. You know how we feel about Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, take that and double it. And it definitely doesn't help when he goes to France and bashes us. If you really feel the need to own a copy of Farenhiet 9/11, hide it with your porn or somewhere else it can't be found. Don't flaunt something that pisses people off so much.
2) Quit getting out the Hollywood stars - It just goes to further the idea that we're elitist and out of touch. Barbra Striesand knows about as much about the middle class as a bunch of things I know nothing about. When you've spent most of your adult life being pampered and having your ass kissed it's kind of hard to relate to regular people.
3) Pick a candidate with some charisma - Kerry was monotone, unemotional, rambled to the point he was hard to follow and except for the constant hand gesturing was like a piece of cardboard. It was like being lectured in college. I WANTED to hear what he had to say and I found him boring. About the only good thing you can say is he had more charisma than Gore. Remember Clinton, how he connected and "felt your pain", we need some of that.(Though not from Hillary)
4)Don't take the high road - In this election the campaign says they decided to try and keep Kerry "above the fray and try to let Edwards do the dirty work. A campaign is a fray. It's a knock down, drag ouy, bitch-slappin' cat fight and you aren't ready for that you're gonna get hurt. By the time the Democrats started agressively responding to the Swiftboat Vets it was too late, you woulda thought Kerry was in the back of his boat mapping out some sinister 30 year plan to be President.
5) Don't ignore states - We pretty much always win California and New York. That's nice, but you still have 184 electoral votes to go The campaign wrote off the South (except for Florida) and most of the Midwest. You know there are people there too, right? They're not all Republican robots. If you give them a candidate and issues they can get behind it could just happen. And as a side note don't take minority groups for granted and assume they're going to vote for you.
6)Stand for something - "Bush Sucks" isn't a platform. Example - Bush screwed up Iraq? Fine, how are YOU going to fix it? "I'll bring in help from other nations". France and Germany won't magically change their minds. Republicans had tax cuts, terrorism and "morals", we had "I'm a veteran" and "Bush Sucks". What was up with Kerry's Healhcare plan? I never understood it, It sounded like Universal Health Care whether it was or not. People don't want to pay for that. Why didn't we talk about Social Security? Bush is going to do some damage more than likely. Why didn't we mention Bush is considering a National Sales Tax? It will be a tax that affects the poor who don't have to pay taxes now.
In conclusion, this campaign couldn't have gone worse unless we nominated Alan Keyes or something. The leadership of the party needs to take a long look at the country and within the party, decide on a course of action, begin working on the 2006 races and find appealing candidates or we may be doomed to repeat our mistakes."