Conversations on Radicals in the 2008 Presidential Campaign

As an independent residing in New York, I won't be huddling with fellow citizens to show my support for any of the major party candidates on January 3 in the Iowa caucuses. (btw -- the word caucus, Iowa Caucus 2008 tells us, is a North American Indian word, thought to be of Algonquin origin, meaning a gathering of the ruling tribal chiefs.....)

But I'll probably be glued to the tv by 9:30 to see what the first voters have to say about these guys and gal. One of them will most likely be our next president....

Last week Fred Newman and Jackie Salit talked about Ron Paul's appearance on Meet the Press. [msnbc transcript and video] Newman pointed out that Paul is a longtime independent, and a "left-wing conservative".... Kucinich, says Newman, is the most radical voice in the Dem primary.... See Talk/Talk: Ron Paul and America's Sea Change.

The Hankster interview with Iowa voter and founder of Rock the Debates.org Larry Reinsch drew a favorable review from Ron Paul supporter boratFAN999 .... Larry interviewed Ron Paul and is one of the few major party candidates who gave an immediate and unequivocable YES to debating an independent candidate should he win his party's nomination-- see the RockTheDebates.org video here.

Likewise, the Hankster interview with New Hampshire Committee for an Independent Voice activist Betty Ward was applauded by Dennis Kucinich supporter clearchoice2008 -- personally I think this ad by clearchoice is very clever!

And here's what Newman had to say about Hillary Clinton's campaign:
In some ways, Hillary has to deal with the fact that she should have been able to articulate a message of “take a risk, put a woman in the presidency.” But she couldn’t because she chose to shape the campaign around the idea of being the inevitable nominee, as it were. Those two don’t fit together. You can’t put those together. I think that Howard Wolfson and Bill Clinton and the people who put her campaign together put her in a bad spot because they didn’t position her as part of the sea change. She was actually anti-sea change. And that’s turned out to be a tough spot. I know the official line is that her biggest chance of winning is being the most experienced. But I don’t see yet that’s been proven right.....

Obama made note of the rock and a hard place that Hillary is in when he said in his so-called Closing Argument speech that "you can’t at once argue that you’re the master of a broken system in Washington and offer yourself as the person to change it."

The speculation over whether Mike Bloomberg is going to run as an independent will end sometime in March when the requirements for ballot access for independent candidates raise their ugly heads. I don't think he's going to run. I think he's doing what he wanted to do--being influential without running.

There are any number of Draft Mike ploys out there that seem to want to capitalize on the speculation. Maybe they actually think Bloomberg will run and give them all big jobs with bigger salaries, who knows? Political hacks can be found under every rock. But the black and independent alliance that got the Mayor re-elected in 2005 with a landslide knows what it takes to go up against the Dem and Repub machines and win. It takes an electorate organized to act on its own behalf. That's radical.