Lou dobbs for president

Another self-important conservative media clown getting into retail politics? 

Yet another right-wing candidate for candidacy who’s eschewing both political parties?

Hell, yeah- Bring on farty old Lou Dobbs, (KKOL m-f, 6-8p) and let’s throw him a tea party!

Dobbs claims to be “reaching out” to Latino groups, but put him on a ticket and his campaign would look like the Alamo. Hispanics would come out in droves to defeat the friend of Minutemen, the blithe, birther-agnostic idiot who now denies ever saying that undocumented immigrants are bringing leprosy to the US.

Glenn Beck is also making big third party noises. He's having, he says, a series of “conventions” next summer to educate us using those cryptic white papers with all the big words he can pay somebody to write for him.

The carnival that is Sarah Palin is up on the same horse. She and Beck are scrambling for ownership of the tea-baggers who are already split into at least two fractious factions.   

The White House must be gleeful.

While we view the anger of the right as a serious development, the third party impulse could marginalize them even faster than nominating a Lou Dobbs, Sarah Palin, or a Glen Beck for anything.

We love the 2-party system only because, it’s what is, and it ain’t going to change. That’s more than conventional wisdom, it’s as near to a political truism as you can get. (We do love to shit in the hat of conventional wisdom, because conventionality is boring; but at the end of most days… it’s wisdom).

Never successful nationally or presidentially, third party jousts at the good order (at least in recent decades) help Democrats. Think Ross Perot, Al Franken, Pat Buchanan, and NY-23.

Comments

[AuthenticAndrew]

Our voting process lends itself to a two party system because if you have three parties and the split is 30%/30%/40% and the two 30%'s are more similar to one another than either is to the 40%, then the 30%/30% will be the least represented even though collectively their viewpoints are more popular.

We're lucky to have only two major parties because if some sort of complex primary system allowed either Evangelical Conservatives or Secular Libertarians to hold power as independant entitites, they'd just give eachother the finger and would have no incentive to compromise to form a single Republican Party, and that same would be true of religious versus secular liberals. Smaller parties would work to define themselves rather than to define the greater whole. Intentionally making it difficult for walls to be erected between ideologies forces dialogue and cooperation.

It's common for party factions to drift apart after a major election, then in the primaries in rally behind ideological candidates but then once their party's main candidate is selected they figure that he's better than the other major party's candidate so they all rally behind him. I want to believe divisions in the Republican party will be long lasting but that's just not how it works. They will break out into spontaneous orgies around elelction time.

[KS]

It's a waste of time if he runs as a third party candidate - duh ! I'll look at it seriously if he runs as a Democratic or a GOP.

[joanie]

Wish I could agree with you, Andrew and Michael.

I think I'm one of a growing number of people who feels fatigued and defeated by both parties. Neither is doing anything that deserves praise or reward.

We have a corrupt government whether. One may resemble the keystone cops but I respect neither of them.

[joanie]

please delete "whether" - changed my mind mid-sentence obviously.

[blathering michael]

I didn't opine that the two-party system is a good or bad idea, but that the system is entrenched legally, and a million other subtle and not so subtle ways. And the power to change it is in the hands of Democrats and Republicans who have no interest in changing it up. It has never been successful in American history. It's a waste of time for activists of either side.

[todd cory]

Priority voting would open the door to viable 3rd party candidates.

[Brian]

Sources say Dobbs is seriously considering running for Senate in New Jersey. The seat he is aiming for is held by Robert Menendez which sounds Hispanic, oh how ironic.

[AuthenticAndrew]

I don't have much problem with celebrities running for senate. It's definately more modest than seeking the presidency or a governorship. At least in the senate they're weighted against all the other senators and they have to talk once in a while, they can't do much unilaterally.

I think the fact that politicians receive big contributions from wealthy interests and that lawmakers seem to pass laws written by lobbyists without even reading it is the biggest problem, and is common to both parties. If some third party gained traction I have no doubt they would have a price tag of their own.

[David Tatelman]

I actually heard Lou Dobbs say that illegal immigrants have been spreading leprosy. I don't know how he is going to deny something he said in front of a camera and microphone.

[NancyDrew]

All of the characters you mention will fall by the wayside and not be a factor in the next election.
Even the Republicans have learned that they must pose a serious candidate and in that regard a truly thorough vetting system will be made. Likely on the Republican side (unless they somehow self-distruct in the interim) will be Mitt Romney or Pawlenty, at least that would be the likelest at this point. All the characters (and I refer to them that way, because it's all they are) mentioned are just getting their 15-minutes of fame and stirring interest for selling books and/or other media products.
The real question that I'm seeing is if President Obama fails, who will the Democrats run. Quite frankly, I don't think Hillary will give it another go, Al Gore's creditability is diminishing every day and I don't believe the country would ever tolerate VP Biden, so he would be unlikely.
A fresh new face on the horizen is obviously Al Franken, who despite his newness seems to be received very well.
Our president's speech next week on our country's plans for what to do in Afghanistan is critical.
I'm afraid he will commit more troops to that unwinable scenario. Kudos to him for slow deliberations and thinking it out instead of shooting from the hip. Omniimportant is an easily definable exit stradegy lest we fester there forever. If in fact he does commit more troops (and news is reporting he will) I hope there's a strict declaration of time line. It's really sad that we have to lose lives (on both sides) in this venue with really nothing to gain.
If Pres Obama makes the wrong choice in this, or doesn't follow up will his promises, he's toast.
Then who? I couldn't even consider voting for Ms Pelosi or Mr Reid. All else being equal at this point I would have to say I lean toward Mitt Romney.

[juandos]

Well the witless LIBTARD that posted this drivel about Lou Dobbs is yet another shining example of why liberal bitches shouldn't ever be allowed to say anything until their grip on reality is proven...

[AuthenticAndrew]

I agree completely Mr. Jackass I mean juandos.

[KSR]

Geez. You libs didn't have any problem pushing Franken into office. He's just a comedian-turned-talk-host-wannabe, and not a very good one at that.

[AuthenticAndrew]

Franken's performance thus far has been outstanding.

[joanie]

Well, he could take up winking, I suppose, KSR. Would that make him more credible?

Hmm, I sort of like his politics sans winks, of course.

[joanie]

I know that, Michael. But it is depressing. It's not even fun anymore. We are owned by the corporatists and American aristocracy.

Everyone should listen to Journalists Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald discuss Afghanistan and how US foreign policy and military decisions are based on miscalculated and misunderstood Afghanistan politics, history, and culture. This is the eleventh installment of the Boiling Frogs interview series, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.

Gould and Fitzgerald talk about the “real” history of Afghanistan; how the media misled the public by not laying out the fundamental facts about what was really going on, and the consequences; the differences between Pakistani Taliban and Afghani Taliban, and how our policy since 2001 has been emboldening them; the role of Pashtuns; and more!
Fitzgerald and Gould, a husband and wife team, began their experience in Afghanistan when they were the first American journalists to acquire permission to enter behind Soviet lines in 1981 for CBS News and produced a documentary, Afghanistan Between Three Worlds, for PBS. In 1983 they returned to Kabul with Harvard Negotiation project director Roger Fisher for ABC Nightline and contributed to the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. They continued to research, write and lecture about the long-term run-up that led to the US invasion of Afghanistan. They are featured in an award winning documentary by Samira Goetschel. Titled, Our own Private Bin Laden which traces the creation of the Osama bin Laden mythology in Afghanistan and how that mythology has been used to maintain the “war on terror” approach of the Bush administration.

and then the LBJ tapes

If Obama would hear/watch these programs, he'd know what to do in afghanistan. But, he is doomed to the American tragic flaw: greed and the military. Rather than learning from history, we repeat it and repeat and repeat it. And always at the bidding of the greedy corporatocracy and the military.

Well, I guess it is one form of population control.

And whoever it was that responded to my post that there is no oil in Afghanistan has never played chess . . . and never should.

Afghanistan sits next to the richest oil supplies in the world. Unbelievably stupid was that poster.

[chucks]

Everybody that does not agree with, or questions Joanie is unbelievably or incredibly stupid. She tells us that with virtually every post.
Today is the day for all to give thanks for not having to wake up and see her every morning (or any morning for that fact).

[joanie]

This is why you are stupid: I didn’t ask anybody to agree with me. I asked people to get informed and gave two sources for them (you) to accomplish that.

In your case, it is easier to attack me than to get informed. Sad but true. You are a lazy STUPID idiot.

And so is the poster to whom I referred. If the shoe fits…

Now, take yourself away from the stupid T-day parades and listen to Thom Hartmann who is providing a history lesson for those of us who care about our country.

[Coiler]

Thom' repeat was good today, he asked if americans thought they were overpaid or ignorant of economic policies.

[chucks]

Football, Family and slaughter and consumption of mass quantities of poltry flesh, freshly smoked on the bar-b-que in sunny Arizona.
No radio.

[Crystal from the old KIRO chat]

The only way to stop the status quo in politics is instant run off voting.

[KS]

From an editorial by Peggy Noonan.
This should lay to rest the alibi about the urgency of passing health care reform "pig" in its present form. A thoughtful piece that Democrats/liberals ought to heed. The progressives (i.e the far left) ought to consider this, even though it will be difficult for them to swallow.

"Mr Obama is in a hard place. Health care hangs over him, and if he is lucky he will lose a close vote in the Senate. The common wisdom that he can't afford to lose is exactly wrong--he can't afford to win with such a poor piece of legislation. He needs to get the issue behind him, vow to fight another day, and move on.

Afghanistan hangs over him, threatening the unity of his own Democratic congressional base. There is the growing perception of incompetence, of the inability to run the machine of government. This, with Americans, is worse than Obama's rebranding as a leader who governs from the left. Americans demands baseline competence.

If he comes to be seen as Jimmy Carter was, that the job was bigger than the man, that will be the end."

[joanie]

Srangely, I think she may be right. We'll see if he brings out the big guns: his bully pulpit. If he doesn't, he deserves what he gets.

Unfortunately, the rest of us who believed he meant it when he said "change," don't.

[Sensor]

Be careful joanie, you don't speak for all the LP's on this blog you know. Some will follow and support our President no matter what. You don't want to give the impression that you are bucking the talking points you know. LMAO

[joanie]

I always speak my mind. You know that. Besides, progressives are not sheep and you know that, too.

I liked you better in your last incarnation.