.
Tonight I went to, not one, but two meetings arranged through meetup.com. The first (pictured) was for users of Movable Type, the software that runs this blog. The second was for supporters of drafting General Wesley Clark for President. Due to the fact that both meetings were at the same time, as well as that we needed to go home to put Adah to bed, I didn’t get to spend much time at either meeting. Hopefully I will get another chance to meet my fellow bloggers, all of whom seemed to be genuinely nice folks.
As for the Wesley Clark meeting, it was enormous, and showed that many people have great enthusiasm for a Clark Presidential run. Me, I’m supporting Clark, at least for the time being, because I think he has the best chance of actually being able to defeat Bush. Among the Democratic contenders, Kucinich and Sharpton are the two with whom I am most in ideological agreement, but neither of them has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning either the nomination or(if one of them did, by some fluke, get nominated) the general election. As for the party hacks who are in the race – Lieberman, Gephardt, Edwards, Kerry – they are all tired, and spell worse-than-Gore disaster in November 2004. That leaves Dean, who is in some ways admirable, and who is very popular in Seattle, but I don’t really believe he can defeat Bush either (not because he is too “liberal”, which he really isn’t, but because I think is appeal is too limited, and he is too unexciting a candidate; he could carry the northern tier of states, like New England and the Pacific Northwest, which more often than not go Democratic anyway, but not much else). Clark, however, is telegenic and smart – I really think he’s the only Democrat who could wipe the floor with Bush in a debate. I don’t know many of his stands in detail, but his defense of Enlightenment values and secular liberal democracy on Bill Maher last weekend was quite encouraging, and he can get away with it because he’s a General (no way Bush, Rove, and company will be able to impugn his patriotism).
So I guess you could say I am taking a Kierkegaardian leap of faith in endorsing Clark – just as Hunter Thompson did when he came out for Jimmy Carter.
Meetups
Tonight I went to, not one, but two meetings arranged through meetup.com. The first (pictured) was for users of Movable Type, the software that runs this blog. The second was for supporters of drafting General Wesley Clark for President. Due to the fact that both meetings were at the same time, as well as that we needed to go home to put Adah to bed, I didn’t get to spend much time at either meeting. Hopefully I will get another chance to meet my fellow bloggers, all of whom seemed to be genuinely nice folks.
As for the Wesley Clark meeting, it was enormous, and showed that many people have great enthusiasm for a Clark Presidential run. Me, I’m supporting Clark, at least for the time being, because I think he has the best chance of actually being able to defeat Bush. Among the Democratic contenders, Kucinich and Sharpton are the two with whom I am most in ideological agreement, but neither of them has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning either the nomination or(if one of them did, by some fluke, get nominated) the general election. As for the party hacks who are in the race – Lieberman, Gephardt, Edwards, Kerry – they are all tired, and spell worse-than-Gore disaster in November 2004. That leaves Dean, who is in some ways admirable, and who is very popular in Seattle, but I don’t really believe he can defeat Bush either (not because he is too “liberal”, which he really isn’t, but because I think is appeal is too limited, and he is too unexciting a candidate; he could carry the northern tier of states (like New England and the Pacific Northwest) which more often than not go Democratic anyway, but not much else. Clark, however, is telegenic and smart – I really think he’s the only Democrat who could wipe the floor with Bush in a debate. I don’t know many of his stands in detail, but his defense of Enlightenment values and secular liberal democracy on Bill Maher last weekend was quite encouraging, and he can get away with it because he’s a General (no way Bush, Rove, and company will be able to impugn his patriotism).
So I guess you could say I am taking a Kierkegaardian leap of faith in endorsing Clark – just as Hunter Thompson did when he came out for Jimmy Carter.