03-11-2004 22:31									#1
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Terry McAuliffe's term ends. He presided over a series of disastrous elections, failing completely to articulate a coherent message against one of the most inept Administrations, ever. The grass roots were entirely responsible for pretty much the only thing he successfully "did" (raise lots of money).

So, who will replace him?

I thought that Howard Dean would be a longshot if Kerry won, but now that he's lost, I think Dean could very well become Chairman of the DNC. And that's exactly what the Party needs if it ever wants to stop being a minority party. Contest every election, and reorient the Democratic Party on democratic principles.

	03-11-2004 22:32									#2
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Dean might be good.

	03-11-2004 22:33									#3
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Teh Dennis

It is the only way to get the endorsement of the little animals of the forest

Hoping that teh Dennis runs again in 2008 after a heavy dose from the orbital mind control lasers, and really, what's keeping him from running?

	03-11-2004 22:38									#4
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John Edwards is looking for a job right about now........

	04-11-2004 00:54									#5
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Joe Trippi would be the best choice.

	04-11-2004 00:56									#6
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Whoever it is should rebrand the Democrats as a regional party and focus on winning state elections. They cannot win in the US for cultural reasons.

	04-11-2004 01:01									#7
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Dean

	04-11-2004 01:07									#8
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quote: Originally posted by Ramo Terry McAuliffe's term ends. He presided over a series of disastrous elections, failing completely to articulate a coherent message against one of the most inept Administrations, ever. The grass roots were entirely responsible for pretty much the only thing he successfully "did" (raise lots of money). So, who will replace him? I thought that Howard Dean would be a longshot if Kerry won, but now that he's lost, I think Dean could very well become Chairman of the DNC. And that's exactly what the Party needs if it ever wants to stop being a minority party. Contest every election, and reorient the Democratic Party on democratic principles.

See...That's the problem with most Democrats...and why they keep loosing elections. Find someone near the center and your party will begin to rebound. When you polarize the country by going with leftist leaders then the "silent majority" will knee jerk conservative. If the Dems would go more to the middle then the "silent majority" would stay home and watch TV during elections.

Dean is just more of the same...and the Dems will get more of the same results.

	04-11-2004 02:12									#9
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quote: Originally posted by PLATO See...That's the problem with most Democrats...and why they keep loosing elections. Find someone near the center and your party will begin to rebound. When you polarize the country by going with leftist leaders then the "silent majority" will knee jerk conservative. If the Dems would go more to the middle then the "silent majority" would stay home and watch TV during elections. Dean is just more of the same...and the Dems will get more of the same results.

Yep, exactly.

	04-11-2004 02:33									#10
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Agree. The Dems win with Centrists. Southern Centrists.

Meh.

-Arrian

	04-11-2004 04:21									#11
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If the only way to win is to become Republicans, then why bother winning? Democrats need someone who can better articulate their message, i.e. Dean. Either that, or someone ambitious enough to look for and address the root causes of their failure, and perhaps seek a major re-alignment.

	04-11-2004 04:32									#12
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It is very, very important that the DNC send a message to the American people that the New Democratic Party will be a cnetrist party of Clinton and not the left wing party of LBJ. Terry McAuliffe is an old 60's style leftist who's still trying to fight the battles of the 1960's so he needs to be put out to pasture and a young Clintonian centrist (hopefully a Dixicrat) needs to get the top spot.

The real danger is that the left takes this opportunity to put in another Nacy Polosi (the house minority leader) type left winger and then the party is truly set to lose again in 2008. Right now the Dems are losing because they are to far to the left and they need to move to the center. If Republicans stay far right then the centrists will pull the rug out from under them.

	04-11-2004 04:33									#13
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quote: Originally posted by Agathon Whoever it is should rebrand the Democrats as a regional party and focus on winning state elections. They cannot win in the US for cultural reasons.

Please, they won nationally 8 years ago! They just had a centrist instead of a leftist candidate. They can do it again if the smarten up and take the center.

	04-11-2004 04:39									#14
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quote: Originally posted by OzzyKP If the only way to win is to become Republicans, then why bother winning?

Become Republicans? I don’t think centrist democrats like Clinton were Republicans. I see the modern Republican Party as being significantly to the right of the center not in the middle. A few like Schwarzenegger and McCain are in the middle but they're disliked by the right wing extremists who control the party.

Democrats need to position themselves as the party of the average American and the average American is right in the middle politically.

	04-11-2004 04:42									#15
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quote: Originally posted by PLATO See...That's the problem with most Democrats...and why they keep loosing elections. Find someone near the center and your party will begin to rebound. When you polarize the country by going with leftist leaders then the "silent majority" will knee jerk conservative. If the Dems would go more to the middle then the "silent majority" would stay home and watch TV during elections. Dean is just more of the same...and the Dems will get more of the same results.

Bingo!! Expect more of the same knee jerk 2002 response. We didn't go left enough will resound from the likes of Pelosi, Moore, and Franken. If and when they go centrist I'll be one of the first to give them a look see. Until then, forget it.

	04-11-2004 04:52									#16
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quote: Originally posted by OzzyKP If the only way to win is to become Republicans, then why bother winning?

Word

2000 showed the dangers of abandoning their base (Nader and all that), if the Dems decide to become simply Republican-Lite, they would still lose.

What is wrong is that liberals have come to be thought of as hand-wringing weenies. We need to bring back the old fiery progressive spirit.

	04-11-2004 04:52									#17
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Oerdin, I'm getting convinced that you don't know **** about politics (politics in general, not US politics).

When your rival pulls towards his side and you follow towards center and still lose, then next time they pull further to their side and you have to unwillingly follow, while watching your back for other parties filling the vacuum. If the momentum is towards the opponents side, you don't follow it because that way you enhance it. You oppose it, with force enough to maintain your position and perhaps manipulate your position so as to be seen as steady while all the jerkiness in policy is attributed to the other side. Then you try and get the chance to isolate them by making them take the extra step, the one which you're supposed to follow them into, but don't. Once they feel isolated, they will try to swing back, thus reversing their momentum. Once you achieve this, you start pulling towards your direction relentlessly and try to build momentum of your own.

You have to realise that it's not just the people's values that form the positions of the parties, but also that the positions of the parties form the people's values. Who will prevail relies on a game of nerves, where the party that's most confident of it' s capabilities will be the one to lead the curve. It also lies on being in control of opinion shaping channels (media, church, showbiz) but this is another issue.

	04-11-2004 05:29									#18
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Dean? Great idea.

	04-11-2004 05:39									#19
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Another possible solution:

Maybe there isn't a crisis at all. Sure the Democrats ran a centrist in 2000 and lost and Democrats ran a perceived liberal in 2004 and lost. But lost by how much? Not much at all.

I don't think the Democrats are radically wrong on the issues, but American politics have been dumbed down to a shocking degree that elections aren't really about issues anymore. Sadly, they are about personality. If Democrats want to win, they need one.

Bush didn't win because he was right on the issues, he won because voters decided he was "my kind of guy."

	04-11-2004 05:42									#20
	Re: Re: New DNC Chair? Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

quote: Originally posted by PLATO See...That's the problem with most Democrats...and why they keep loosing elections. Find someone near the center and your party will begin to rebound. When you polarize the country by going with leftist leaders then the "silent majority" will knee jerk conservative. If the Dems would go more to the middle then the "silent majority" would stay home and watch TV during elections. Dean is just more of the same...and the Dems will get more of the same results.

Right- you do know that McAuffile was "the center" - he was one of those Democratic Leadership Council clinton dems, and he has precided over an endless string of loses.

The dems need to counter the cultural class warfare Republicans have become masters at waging- there is nothing they can do or should do to try to convince voters more concerned about the life of some fetus or whether two people they don;t know of the same sex decide to be uin a union called family, but are willing to see their wages stagnate- Dems need to work more on florida and the Mountain states- screw the south.

	04-11-2004 07:14									#21
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quote: Originally posted by OzzyKP Another possible solution: Maybe there isn't a crisis at all. Sure the Democrats ran a centrist in 2000 and lost and Democrats ran a perceived liberal in 2004 and lost. But lost by how much? Not much at all. I don't think the Democrats are radically wrong on the issues, but American politics have been dumbed down to a shocking degree that elections aren't really about issues anymore. Sadly, they are about personality. If Democrats want to win, they need one. Bush didn't win because he was right on the issues, he won because voters decided he was "my kind of guy."

I think there is a LOT of truth in that. And seeing that, I wonder if now Edwards would have been a much better candidate. He's much more personable and more "my kind of guy". Our Presidential elections have seemingly stopped being about the issues.

	04-11-2004 07:28									#22
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Hilary certainly has a lot of personality. This is all going according to her plan. Of course, I think her personality is nasty, but she certainly has plenty of it.

	04-11-2004 08:12									#23
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quote: Originally posted by GePap screw the south.

That strategy seems to be workng like gangbusters thus far.

	04-11-2004 08:22									#24
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McAuliffe should have been ousted in 2002, along with Daschle from the Senate leadership position. They have both been disasters for the Democrats, whether it be Daschle's craven spinelessness or McAuliffe's oily used car salesman m.o. Good riddance to both.

	04-11-2004 08:25									#25
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Al Sharpton

	04-11-2004 08:57									#26
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quote: Originally posted by axi Oerdin, I'm getting convinced that you don't know **** about politics (politics in general, not US politics). When your rival pulls towards his side and you follow towards center and still lose, then next time they pull further to their side and you have to unwillingly follow, while watching your back for other parties filling the vacuum. If the momentum is towards the opponents side, you don't follow it because that way you enhance it. You oppose it, with force enough to maintain your position and perhaps manipulate your position so as to be seen as steady while all the jerkiness in policy is attributed to the other side. Then you try and get the chance to isolate them by making them take the extra step, the one which you're supposed to follow them into, but don't. Once they feel isolated, they will try to swing back, thus reversing their momentum. Once you achieve this, you start pulling towards your direction relentlessly and try to build momentum of your own. You have to realise that it's not just the people's values that form the positions of the parties, but also that the positions of the parties form the people's values. Who will prevail relies on a game of nerves, where the party that's most confident of it' s capabilities will be the one to lead the curve. It also lies on being in control of opinion shaping channels (media, church, showbiz) but this is another issue.

I respect your opinion but after reading your post I feel you are off base. You win elections by having your positions and values coincide with the majority of voters. The Democratic Party has a great history of being centerists under Clinton, Kennedy, and FDR so it makes historical sense for them to return to their historical rootes. If the Democrats have a southern centrist of the Clinton model as the candidate in 2008 then they will win. If they opt of a leftist like Kerry or Dukakus then again then they will lose. Such candidates cannot win national office.

I assure you that the last 30 years of political experience says that Democrats need centrist southerners to win the Presidency.

	04-11-2004 09:01									#27
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Do the politicians serve the people?
If you answered yes, then Oerdin's approach appears to be the correct one.
Are the people sheep to be led by right minded politicians?
If you answered yes, then Axi's approach appears to be the correct one.

	04-11-2004 09:08									#28
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quote: Originally posted by Oerdin I assure you that the last 30 years of political experience says that Democrats need centrist southerners to win the Presidency.

Yet, presumably, a northern Republican can still win. And a decidedly non-centrist one can still win.

What you suggest puts the Democrats in the rather unpalatable position that they must always nominate someone from a red state to win. The wiser action is do what the Republicans have done: reframe the issues to give them more viable electoral coalitions that don't rely so much on the given home state of the candidate, nor the nuances of his ideology (I defy you to find that much difference in policy between Clinton and Kerry).

Virginia is ripe for Democrat picking, thanks to the influx of progressives into the DC suburbs. North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio are also places where the Democrats can start working on building a winning combination of electoral votes.

	04-11-2004 09:13									#29
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quote: Originally posted by Oerdin The Democratic Party has a great history of being centerists under Clinton, Kennedy, and FDR so it makes historical sense for them to return to their historical rootes.

	04-11-2004 09:13									#30
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quote: Originally posted by pchang Do the politicians serve the people? If you answered yes, then Oerdin's approach appears to be the correct one.

Hmmm.... I vote for this one as it was the intention of the founding fathers.