Sorina S wrote:I like McCain as well but he's so moderate I don't think he'll get a nomination even though I'm sure he could win. I don't agreee at all they he's the opposite of Clinton. But I'm pretty sure Hilary hasn't a snowballs chance, way too much baggage.
Frist v Biden, or something simular is prolly what it'll come down to. Gore and Kerry are old news, Kerry could prolly run on his own money, Gore is done. Frankly if the Dems don't get themselves a strong platform based on more than finger pointing out the missteps of the current administration, they won't see power for a very long time. I don't think the Republicans will lose this year either. Maybe a seat here or there but nothing significant.
I'd vote for McCain against anyone else I see now though. He's a good man.
Kerry is done. He and his wife basically did him in. He can't undo his "approval from the UN" shit or the damage he did to himself a la swiftboat bullshit.
Hillary, on the other hand, is going to win that god damned election if the Reps can't pull a rabbit out of a hat. And by rabbit, I am not referring to that fuckin buck toothed mouth full of shit goody-two-shoes McCain. As a patriot, he did a fine job and endured hardships I couldn't even begin to imagine, but as a politican he sucks the cock.
Guliani may be their only hope. He's a household name. He gets shit done. I think he can do it.
Got this from somewhere: (long read so if you're not interested, don't read it and save your bitching for another day)
Within days of his inauguration, it became clear that the Giuliani’s approach to crime was going to be radically different from the previous mayor’s. On January 8th, the police received a 911 call reporting a robbery at Louis Farrakhan’s mosque in Harlem, Muhammad Mosque No. 7. Two police officers rushed to the scene, unaware that the call was a hoax. When they entered the mosque, they found their path barricaded by Muslim security men angered that cops were entering a house of worship. A fight broke out between the mosque members and the police, each side calling for reinforcements and each side suffering injuries. In the struggle, a police gun and radio were left in the mosque. Finally, a standoff ensued and the two sides began negotiating a truce.
According to the new Police Commissioner, William Bratton, who had just arrived in New York but had not yet been sworn in, the negotiations were frequently interrupted by telephone calls from the new mayor. Ignoring the racial tension in the city following the defeat of the city’s first black mayor, Giuliani demanded action: “You have police injured. You have stolen police property. Why aren’t you going in?”4 He yelled at Bratton, “I want arrests.” He seemed, Bratton later told Giuliani biographer Wayne Barrett, to be trying to show “how he was going to be different from Dinkins.”5 The officers chose to follow their commanding officer’s orders and resolved the incident without further violence. The precedent, however, had been set: Giuliani was tough on crime and expected results immediately.
The incident at the mosque was only the first of many crises into which the mayor intervened. During severe snowstorms (17 in one year), he could be spotted driving through the city in his signature Chevrolet Blazer SUV. When a subway fire broke out, the mayor raced to the scene to support the emergency staff and reassure the injured. If a police officer was injured, he or she could count on a visit from the mayor. Rarely was there an emergency in the city without the mayor being there.
Giuliani not only responded to emergency situations, he anticipated and planned for them. “I assumed from the time I came into office that New York City would be the subject of a terrorist attack,” he said.6 The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center was, he believed, a harbinger of worse to come. He established the Office of Emergency Management to ease turf battles between agencies and improve preparedness. Consistent with his modus operandi in actual crises, the mayor was an active participant in the drills played out by the office. “With our mayor, you forgot it was a drill,” recalled Richard Sheirer who became the Director of the Emergency Command Center in 2000. (See Exhibit 2 for background on Office of Emergency Management and Director Richard Sheirer.)
Giuliani even reached beyond New York City boundaries to respond to crises that deeply affected its citizens. In July 1996, when TWA flight 800 crashed into the Long Island Sound, hundreds of anxious friends and relatives of the victims arrived at the airport searching for their loved ones. The mayor, who had a friend on the flight, followed the crowd to a nearby Ramada Inn to wait for information from the airline. TWA sent grief counselors to meet with the assembly of concerned family and friends, but still could not confirm who exactly had been on the flight. As time passed and no official information was forthcoming, the gathered crowd became increasingly distressed and the mayor increasingly angry. Demanding at least a preliminary list of victims, Giuliani took it upon himself to personally break the news to the families, one at a time, that their loved one was believed to be on the flight. He stayed with the families through the night. The next morning, when TWA had still not produced a final list, the mayor decided to make a point. Appearing on four morning talk shows, Giuliani criticized the airline’s failure to take care of the victims’ families. A few days later, empathizing with the pain that he knew the families were experiencing, Giuliani spoke movingly at a memorial service in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The mayor’s capacity for kindness and compassion was widely recognized among his friends and colleagues. Giuliani was known to take time out to visit sick children in the hospital and to attend funerals of friends’ relatives. In one instance, he stayed with the mother of a staff person until 4am after her husband died. In public, however, polls in 1995 indicated that while 60% of the city felt the mayor was doing a good job, more than 50% found him dislikable.
By the end of his first term, Giuliani’s accomplishments were impressive. He had chased the mob out of the Fulton fish market, and the commercial garbage hauling industry, and the Feast of San Gennaro. New York institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other business reported reductions of as much as 40% in their garbage bills. The economy was improving, budget deficits were declining, and unemployment rolls were shrinking. The reduction in crime was the most spectacular. The murder rate in New York City had fallen by 40%. Car theft decreased by 35%. To a certain extent, Giuliani had been lucky. His first term coincided with a national economic boost and crime slump in major American cities. But, as Giuliani was always quick to point out, New York had led the statistics and contributed significantly to national crime rate averages.
The success of Giuliani’s zero tolerance crime policy was not achieved without negative side effects. Concern about police misconduct was mounting among minorities and liberal city residents of all races. Suspicions that the New York Police Department was out of control appeared to be confirmed when the police abuse case of Abner Louima broke in August 1997.