Master Index of Archived Threads


First look at the 2008 Presidential Election

Yancy Street Gang Nov 16 2006 03:54 PM

Candidates are starting to line up. Here's the latest: ]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Tommy Thompson, a former Health and Human Services Secretary under President George W. Bush, said on Wednesday he would form a committee early next year to explore a possible 2008 White House bid.

metirish Nov 16 2006 03:57 PM

Rudy Giuliani has set up some sort of committee to see about him running,I never thought him much of a politician.

seawolf17 Nov 16 2006 03:58 PM

I hate to go all Alec Baldwin, but if we elect Rudy to run this country, I'm moving to England.

metirish Nov 16 2006 04:02 PM

I don't think it will happen ,although the GOP apparently love him,but he's pro-choice,in favor of gun control and onced lived with two gay guys...not good for the image that.

Yancy Street Gang Nov 16 2006 04:11 PM

The New York tabloids love the idea of a winner-take-all New York grudge match between Rudy and Hillary. Between the real Yankee fan and the pretend Yankee fan. (Taking Rudy and Hillary themselves out of the equation, which is worse? Being a Yankee fan, or claiming to be? I'd lean towards the latter.)

seawolf17 Nov 16 2006 04:50 PM

Do you think, just like Mets-Yankees, that the rest of the country wouldn't care? That would be funny. You'd have 88% turnout in New York, and about 15% everywhere else. I love being a New Yorker. We rule the school.

soupcan Nov 16 2006 04:51 PM

metirish wrote: I don't think it will happen ,although the GOP apparently love him,but he's pro-choice,in favor of gun control and onced lived with two gay guys...not good for the image that. And he's Italian. Never underestimate the amount of prejudice and racism in this country.

Yancy Street Gang Nov 16 2006 06:40 PM

Catholic probably won't be a factor like it was with JFK. John Kerry's Catholicism rarely got mentioned. (Except for that one bishop or somebody who wanted to excommunicate him.)

TheOldMole Nov 16 2006 06:56 PM

[URL=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19651]Good article on Obama here.[/URL]

Frayed Knot Nov 16 2006 07:09 PM

Tommy Thompson was Wisconson Governor prior to running HHS and, while there, he was ahead of the curve on installing welfare-to-work type programs, years before the Feds got into it. I assume he's looking at getting into this as a voice for a smaller, less-centralized gov't, something no candidate on either side has been within miles of lately.

Nymr83 Nov 16 2006 10:34 PM

i like him already! but he probably doesnt have a prayer.

metirish Nov 16 2006 10:37 PM

It will be McCain versus who?....

Nymr83 Nov 16 2006 10:43 PM

in the primary or the election? the primary probably include McCain, Guiliani, and at least one more consevative serious contender, i'd think that right now mccain comes out of it the candidate, but thats a long time from now so who knows. in the democratic primary we still arent sure if obama runs, i'm not sure who else presents a real threat to hillary though i'm sure some far left lunatic with the support of the internet wackos and the most liberal areas of the northeast will emerge to threaten her in the early northeast primaries...she and mccain are both miles ahead of anyone in terms of their preparations and funding at this point though.

metirish Nov 16 2006 10:55 PM

Well right now I think Mccain will be the next President,of course two years is a long time in politics so who knows,Obama running in the primary would be IMO a good thing as it would set him up for 2012, as it stands right now Hillary and McCain go head to head..I consider myself a liberal but if I could vote I would have to think seriously about that one,I like McCain and think he is well versed on all issues and would make a good President/Statesman...Clinton I think gets high marks so far in NY, problem is the rest of the country...a question for those who do vote..do you vote along party lines or the candidate...even as a liberal McCain would make me want to vote for him.

sharpie Nov 17 2006 09:38 AM

If Giuliani and McCain are both running I would venture that a further-right candidate could well get the nod as those two are essentially going for the same ground. The GOP primary vote is well to the right of those two guys. Mitt Romney might be a possibility. Some nutjob like Sam Brownback might run but won't go anywhere. On the Democratic side, it'll either be Hillary or Barack. I can't see Joe Biden or Tom Vilsack or Evan Bayh making it and John Edwards is tainted by his lackluster VP candidacy.

Frayed Knot Nov 17 2006 09:58 AM

Hillary is also likely to command the lion's share of the money on that side making it tough for others to truly challenge her. The Repub side looks to be more wide open at this point.

Edgy DC Nov 17 2006 09:59 AM

Other Republican candidates include the secretary of state and freakazoid Congressman Tom Tancredo. A big part of the reason the immigration reform went through over the administration's objections is that Tancredo has been threatening to throw his hat into the ring in 2008 with a single-issue Immigration Sucks! campaign that will lose big but will threaten to undermine and embarass the party even more than the immigration reform package that they put through. Now that the Democrats are in congressional power, there's a good chance that the immigration reform package will be dialed back, as the administration is much closer on immigration to the main body of congressional Democrats than to their own party. What would suck is if Pelosi's caucus dragged their feet on reconciling, in order to maximize the negative effect the Republican package would have on the Hispanic electorate in 2008. Anyhow, two things that the administration would seem to have a lot of room for compromising with this Congress on in the next two years is immigration and educatoin. And what the candidates do when they get elected is more important than the elections themselves.