Quote Originally Posted by MasterBlaster
Rudy is a democrat who calls himself a republican. Same with McCaine.
I don't know about Democrat, but not quite Republican, either. I know what you mean, though (at least I think I do). The leading Republican candidates don't really have any track record of toeing the party line. The dems don't have that problem, as there never has been a party line to toe.



It's the only way Clinton and Obama can get into the white house. It's also the only way McCaine will ever get into the whitehouse.
Doesn't matter. No major candidate has become second banana in so long you forget when it happened. It won't happen this time, either. You need a fantastic ego to be willing to subject yourself to the sheer abuse of running for office, and that type of person will not suddenly take the #2 spot.

I don't think the center is going to like any of them in particular. I personally wouldn't trust any of those morons running the country. As usual it's going to come down to voting for giant douche or terd sandwich again.
I'm not nearly that pessimistic. Frankly, we have a crusader in the White House now, and he's the least popular president in a long time (ever?). He has his supporters, but they are a fringe group by definition. Several of the people running would actually be pretty good simply because they are NOT idealogues. Hillary would be fine, McCaine would be fine, Rudy would be fine, Obama would be fine. Sure, none of them will lead us to greatness, but then again, nobody could. We, as a nation, can't decide what greatness is. Some folks want to suppress any criticism of the nation, some want to answer any criticism, others want to address the causes of the criticism, and still others want to deny that there IS any criticism.

The truth is that a huge number would be adamantly opposed to "doing the right thing" depending on whoes "right thing" we are doing. If you felt that going after carbon emission was the "right thing", we all know there are legions howling against any such thing. If you feel that the christian right agenda is the "right thing", I would be one of the voices in opposition simply because I think the agenda is evil. Take any position and you will have a large and vocal group arguing strongly against it.

Thus, we all talk about dynamic leadership, but our leaders are followers, and it would be best for the majority of people if those following leaders followed the will of the majority. They can influence the will of the majority, but they won't really go against it. At best, they will have their one or two pet issues, and they make real progress on them, but modern American presidents can do no better than putting their foot in it, unless they work with a consensus of support.

Many of these candidates would be fine simply because they are not idealogues.