Posted on 01/05/2008 1:23:09 PM PST by Graybeard58
All that for one stinkin' delegate? Final totals won't be known until Jan. 31, but Sen. Christopher Dodd easily spent more than $10 million on his vanity presidential campaign and comes home to Connecticut today, his tail between his legs after his Iowa Waterloo, with a single delegate (out of 2,501) to the Iowa Democratic convention, and this understated headline Friday in The Day of New London: "Dodd A Dud In Iowa."
According to his Federal Election Commission filings, Sen. Dodd had raised $13.6 million through Sept. 30, more than a third of which he got by shaking down the financial, insurance and real-estate companies he oversees as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Of that total, he had spent $9.7 million and had $3.9 million on hand. Obviously, he raised and spent millions more in the last quarter of 2007, but whatever millions he has left over he simply will transfer to his 2010 re-election campaign. What a racket.
Reading the Iowa tea leaves:
Sen. Dodd suffers from acute Barbara Kennelly Syndrome. Liberal Connecticut Democrats win in landslides in their dark-blue home state, but get their clocks cleaned when they venture out of their cozy confines.
As voters in presidential elections have been saying since the 1970s, the heartland dislikes Northeast liberals. Not only did Iowa voters dash Sen. Dodd's presidential dreams, they sent Joseph Biden home and rebuked Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and honorary Northeast lefty John McCain.
Neither party has a front-runner because the field is singularly uninspiring. Are there no John Kennedys or Ronald Reagans left in America?
The polls were wrong again. The last CNN-Opinion Research poll, for example, predicted Sen. Clinton and Gov. Romney would win, but they finished third and second, respectively. In addition, the polls all along had Sen. Dodd getting 1 or 2 percent of the vote; he got 0.02 percent — the equivalent of 44 votes out of more than 222,000 cast. Rounding off, that makes him Sen. 0 Percent.
The big question Friday among liberal journalists, politicians and bloggers in Connecticut was: Who will Sen. Dodd's supporters back now?
Does it really matter? After all, they're not exactly legion.
I'm a vet and I suspect you are too but I have to disagree with you on that one. A lot of patriots haven't served in the military, for various reasons.
I’m not a vet, but I think that even though there are weasel veterans, for the most part, the rule would screen out more weenies than patriots. Those patriots who didn’t serve can just learn to live without being president. Would anyone on the DEM side even be qualified? On our side, I think it’d come down to Hunter vs. Paul if I’m not mistaken. Like I said, some weasals gets through under my plan, but I think a military service component would make some career politicians think twice.
With all due respect to the Republican Party, I'd say the same is true about most of the GOP candidates, too.
Good heavens -- you must be joking. This would mean that John Kerry would be qualified to run for the White House, but Fred Thompson would not.
My biggest problem with this is that the upper ranks of the U.S. military is filled with "yes-men" who are pathologically ambitious but have never had an original thought in their lives.
But you never voted for the 'rats, so it's not your fault.
That's OK with me. We disposed of John Kerry. I'm sure there would be other political aspirants attempting similarly shady and quick tours of "duty" to pad their political resume. America still knows what to do with them, I believe. And maybe Fred would be out, but then, like I said, that would leave Hunter and Paul, thus making Hunter the viable conservative candidate. I think most Thompson supporters are OK with Hunter.
My biggest problem with this is that the upper ranks of the U.S. military is filled with "yes-men" who are pathologically ambitious but have never had an original thought in their lives.
Wesley Clark comes to mind. I hear ya. But again, I think Americans can figure that out. I just think that anyone who desires to be CiC should put up or shut up: serve, preferably in combat, like George Washington did. I think it would weed out a lot of hacks. Maybe I'm wrong. It's just a thought. I'd also like to repeal the 19th amendment :-)
Yeah...Jimmy Carter, good...Ronald Reagan, bad.
</sarc>
Ronald Reagan's Military Service
/history lesson
Sorry..bad link...here’s the correct one...
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/military.html
LOL. Good luck wit' dat!
Just don’t tell my wife!
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