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The Majority Party: The Roosevelt-Truman tradition is there for the taking. …
The Weekly Standard ^ | September 13, 2004 | William Kristol

Posted on 9/4/2004, 2:54:49 AM by quidnunc

President Bush can follow up on the success of his convention by moving to take it.

-snip-

Whose party was it in New York last week, anyway? Bush, Cheney, Miller, and McCain mentioned Franklin Roosevelt a total of seven times and Harry Truman twice — always favorably. John Kerry, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton, speaking in comparable slots at the Democratic convention, mentioned Truman not at all and Roosevelt a grand total of once, when the presidential nominee announced, "So now I'm going to say something that Franklin Roosevelt could never have said in his acceptance speech: Go to johnkerry.com."

So the break between the World War II/Cold Warrior Democrats and the post-Vietnam Democrats is complete. The Clinton-Gore-Lieberman tickets tried to bridge these two camps, and succeeded, at least electorally: In 1992, 1996, and 2000, somewhat hawkish and interventionist, more or less pro-first Gulf War Democratic tickets won popular pluralities for the first time since Vietnam (with the exception of the narrow victory Watergate gave Jimmy Carter in 1976). In governing, the Clinton-Gore team also tried to bridge the two tendencies in their party.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dems; kristol; majorityparty

1 posted on 9/4/2004, 2:54:49 AM by quidnunc
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To: quidnunc

"...mentioned Franklin Roosevelt a total of seven times..."The third party types are going to get very dizzy spinning that.


2 posted on 9/4/2004, 2:56:39 AM by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson
He could pay tribute to Scoop Jackson (say, in the swing state of Washington).

You know, Chief, Kristol has a point.

The hackneyed view of Washington State is a nest of Baghdad Jim McDermott's. But that's not accurate. There are a lot of "Scoop Jackson" Democrats out there who voted for Reagan twice. Those votes are up for grabs. All Bush has to do is go after them by isolating Kerry to the left on foreign policy and military issues.

3 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:09:23 AM by Publius (Mother Nature is a hanging judge.)
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To: Publius

I agree


4 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:34:02 AM by Clemenza (You've gotta love living, because dying's such a pain in the a-s! --- FA Sinatra)
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To: Publius

I felt he could win this state before, but hadn't seen the same emphasis placed here as on other swing states. Felt they had missed an opportunity.

The reality is in areas like King County we have the "nuDemocrats".

The rest of WA is either conservative or of the FDR/JFK/Reagan variety. Conceiveably this state could move Republican if intense effort were placed into raising the hopes of the faithful and appealing to the displaced lifetime Dems.


5 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:35:29 AM by Soul Seeker
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To: Soul Seeker
There is one other problem with western Washington politics. Libertarians.

Just last week one of our local Libertarians was here on FR again crowing how they taught Sen. Gorton a lesson for not taking them seriously. That "person" was incapable of comprehending what their lesson actually accomplished, Maria Cantwell.

The problem for us is that IF a Conservative President were to carry Washington it would be by a very narrow margin. The cast rejects from the cast of Deliverance that call themselves the Libertarian Party here can play spoiler again.

6 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:41:49 AM by CWOJackson
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To: Soul Seeker
The rest of WA is either conservative or of the FDR/JFK/Reagan variety. Conceiveably this state could move Republican if intense effort were placed into raising the hopes of the faithful and appealing to the displaced lifetime Dems.

And that's where Dino Rossi comes in. Dino's dad is a "Scoop Jackson" Democrat who has drifted to the Republicans because of the nuDemocrats. Understanding that there are not enough Republicans to elect him governor, the main scope of his campaign is to pull the "Scoop Jackson" Democrats away from the party that has deserted them and turn them into Republicans.

A number of "Scoop Jackson" Democrats who once held office in Washington have indicated that they will back Rossi -- but only up to the point where they don't have to publically condemn a nominee of their party. Their promise to Rossi is not to speak against him.

7 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:58:33 AM by Publius (Mother Nature is a hanging judge.)
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To: quidnunc

Bill Kristol is a freaking tool...


8 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:59:15 AM by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: CWOJackson
Just last week one of our local Libertarians was here on FR again crowing how they taught Sen. Gorton a lesson for not taking them seriously. That "person" was incapable of comprehending what their lesson actually accomplished, Maria Cantwell.

That would be me. And I'm a person, not a "person".

And you totally missed my point. I believe I said that I, among the 75,000 Libertarian-candidate votes (Gorton lost by about 6,000 total) refused to vote for Gorton for being such a sleaze during Sh#$head Clinton's Impeachment. He persisted in voting Not Guilty to an obvious perjury.

No way will I, and apparently thousands like me, reward obvious back-slapping sleaze like that. And I hope you would be principled enough to refuse to reward sleaze, as well. I hope you don't drink the Koolaid, put on the blinders and just vote (R) without understanding who/what you're voting for.

Yeah, Gorton lost, Cantwell won. Do you suppose the old bastard (and the Pubbie party in general) got the message and learned anything? They got thousands of emails explaining why he didn't get the votes.

So let's see if they listened.

9 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:08:18 AM by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Hank Rearden
Actually I wasn't talking about you. If you go back to that thread you'll see who I was talking about. You almost sounded reasonable compared to them.

"Yeah, Gorton lost, Cantwell won. Do you suppose the old bastard (and the Pubbie party in general) got the message and learned anything?"

Oh yes, they got the message...Libertarians aren't to be trusted or pandered to. They are also the enemy.

10 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:10:42 AM by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson
Libertarians aren't to be trusted or pandered to. They are also the enemy.

Translation:
"Libertarians take the time to think things through and try to cast principled votes. They can't be trusted to just fall into line whenever someone from the R party tells them to. They are also the enemy of conformity and toeing the Big Stupid Republican Government line."

11 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:31:12 AM by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Hank Rearden

Translation: PT Barnum was right, you can fool a Libertarian all the time.


12 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:33:21 AM by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson
Translation:
"I hate Libertarians. In fact, the very idea of liberty scares the hell out of me. I can't heeeaaar yooooooo. Lalalalalalalalalalala!"
13 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:36:23 AM by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: quidnunc
I agree with the theme of this article that despite the dress-up act the Democrats have essentially repudiated the strong-on-defense cold war policies of Roosevelt and Truman.

But lets not go to far in praising FDR. Yes he lead the country in WW2 well, but he also created the bloated and failing socialist transformation of the USA that we pay for every day. He also, as a sick old man, was too proud to turn things over to someone with more vigor. He shamelessly agreed to give Poland and other Eastern European countries to the evil Communists of Russia. For that he can never be considered truely great, in my opinion.

14 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:38:52 AM by Jack Black
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To: Hank Rearden

LOL! You do have an inflated opinion or yourself and your importance. I sure do hope you aren't paying attention to how well you Looneytarians are doing this year. Seems folks aren't falling for you BS this time around. Unlike some of the hardcore brainless, they learned an even bigger lesson the Sen. Gorton.


15 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:38:55 AM by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson
You do have an inflated opinion or yourself and your importance.

It's not "me". It's "we". Go study up a bit. Libertarians provided the margin that took out Wyche Fowler and Slade Gorton in recent years. Equal-opportunity balance of power, I'd say.

16 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:41:24 AM by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Hank Rearden
"It's not "me". It's "we"."

That echo you hear when you say "we" isn't caused by the crowds lining up to support the Looneytarians this election.

17 posted on 9/4/2004, 4:42:38 AM by CWOJackson
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To: ApesForEvolution

"A minority party becomes a majority party by absorbing elements of the other party, changing them and itself. On taxes and crime and welfare, the GOP has won over much of FDR's working class, while adjusting its stance to the welfare state."

Christ-almighty. It's almost enough to make one believe what Pat Buchanan has to say about the likes of Bill Kristol. (Too bad PB likes Nixonian big government too.)

The New Deal and the welfare state are what brought all the socialist policies in. People like Roosevelt and LBJ are NOT to be admired, if you're Republican. What the hell's wrong with the GOP these days?


18 posted on 9/4/2004, 9:58:59 AM by Frank T
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To: Frank T

The first step is denial, followed by anger I believe...are you in denial or anger? lol


19 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:20:28 PM by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: Frank T

Kristol and McCain, sitting in a tree...remember that pair 4.5 years ago? Both sheerly brilliant men and GOP treasures.../sarcasm


20 posted on 9/4/2004, 3:21:49 PM by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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