Several days after the 2004 election, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson was interviewing long-time Clinton supporter and adviser Paul Begala and asked him what sort of candidate would be competitive for the Democrats in 2008. Begala said he thought it would be a governor, someone from the west and someone who is Hispanic. When Carlson said that could only be Richardson, Begala just laughed and said, “I love the guy!”
In every national poll that I have seen since Kerry’s defeat, Richardson has come in third, behind Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards. Given that Sen. Clinton, despite a generally moderate voting record in the Senate, tends to alienate as many people as she attracts; and that Edwards may have seen his fortunes decline with a less than convincing effort on behalf of the 2004 ticket, that may mean that Richardson is in many ways the actual front-runner.
When one contrasts Richardson’s style of campaigning, which leaves no hand unshook and no baby waiting for a kiss, with the distant and cold Brahman style of Kerry, the Democrats could do a lot worse.
Holy Roman Empire!
Payne'S Allegience
Well 15 minutes of Web searching turned up the whole story. It seems a born again Christian teacher was bringing religious material into his classroom. The teacher had been repeatedly warned by his principal to stop it. The teacher was told that he must clear any handouts with the principal before distributing them to students. The teacher continued trying to push his beliefs on students and was bringing in narrow excerpts from our founding fathers (and mothers) where they mentioned God, including the Declaration of Independence. In context the controversy was not about keeping the Declaration out of the classroom but rather protecting students from narrow religious preaching.
The right loves to portray our public educational system as run by nothing short of godless communists. But I think most teachers and progressives would love to see a serious class on religion offered in our public high schools. A class that covered all religions, including, Christian, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Native American, tribal religions and others. To study their history, their beliefs, their origins, their roles in culture and history. A class that talked about religion's good and bad points—i.e. the Spanish Inquisition, the persecution of Galileo for suggesting that the Earth revolved around the sun. The problem is, the extreme conservatives would not support this. They want nothing less than to teach their beliefs, only their beliefs, that only their beliefs are right and if you do not accept their beliefs you will go to hell.
It is ironic that this issue should come up with our founding fathers. They were very sensitive to religious persecution. Many different Christian groups came to America fleeing persecution by other Christians. The Puritans came to Massachusetts, Quakers to Pennsylvania and Catholics to Maryland. We are seeing the same thing today, one group of Christians forcing their narrow views not only on other religions but on other Christians.
Blog Rant O' The Week
Come on, stretch a bit. … We were in a huge and bloody battle in Falluja. It’s an immensely unpopular war, after a terribly disappointing election, and, on Veterans Day, ABC planned to run one of the most heart-wrenching war/anti-war movies of all time.
You think the federal government is putting pressure on the “liberal” media because of the word “Fuck”? Janet’s nipple had nothing to do with this Orwellian ploy.
Sure, they ran Return to Mayberry. They also hoped we would watch Turner Classics where they featured John Wayne WWII movies all weekend. You know, movies about war where Americans were the good guys, always saved the day and mother’s didn’t cry.
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