TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REFORM
After closing commission primary, GOP write-in drops out (Ocala Star-Banner) Libertarian Damien Ober compared his campaign to "a piece of art or a song."

CAMPAIGN

• Where Does the GOP Go From Here? (Wall Street Journal) But the party's problems are not confined to disaffected Republicans. The GOP has a problem with independent voters. As one analyst told me privately at the convention on Monday, in 2004 President Bush became the first president in the history of polling to win the White House without winning Independents. The bottom line is this: With the changes in party identification in the last few years, if Republicans, Democrats and Independents vote by party with 2004 proportions in 2008, Barack Obama will win.
• Republicans Are Mean (OpEdNews) Let’s see, how to appeal to all those wavering independents and disaffected Hillary supporters? Let’s insult those stupid Democrats and Obama people reeeel good and kick ‘em in the teeth, sneer at their efforts to be inclusive, to work toward unity and rehabilitate America’s damaged image around the world, or to help people in great need, and then make a shameless plea for their support at the polls. Scoff, especially rudely, at their community organizing efforts – the ultimate and most effective hands-on grassroots outreach programs that help people in need directly where they live – especially if government has turned its back.

THIRD PARTY NEWS

• More Choices for Voters in November-Third-Party, Unaffiliated Candidates on Ballot (Washington Post)
• Taking on the War Machine: An Interview with Cindy Sheehan (by Joshua Frank, Dissident Voice) "I became only the sixth non-partisan candidate in California history to qualify for ballot status, and the first Congressional Candidate since 1996!"
• Free Paulistine! Brother Ron's travelling salvation show (David Weigel, reason magazine)

Conversations on What's Becoming

As The Nation pointed out this week, the Economist ran a cover story earlier in August called "Is America Turning Left?" "The American people seem to be reacting to conservative overreach by turning left," says Katrina vanden Heuvel, but she seems to be nervous about the Dems being able to make hay while the Repub barn rots.

Andrew Kohut and Carroll Doherty wrote this week in a special to The Washington Post: "Leading this nationwide left turn are independents, who've always been the pivotal voting bloc."

Fred Newman commented this week, "Well, in a two party system, in a two party situation, you can't separate out what moves this country to the right from the failure to move to the left." He says the "new left" has been centrist and even "wishy washy", setting the stage for Clintonism and opening the door to Karl Rove's "compassionate conservative" Bush presidency...

Independents "turned left "(most pundits talk/explain things in terms of ideology, but whether left/center/right ideology has any bearing on what the American people think and do is questionable...) on the issue of the war in Iraq. It was independents who moved against the war leading up to the 2006 midterm elections that put the Dems in control of Congress. Now grassroots Dems are taking credit for that shift... And while the certain difference between grassroots Dems and party elites is the subject of another post, grassroots Dems are Dems nonetheless, and one of the parties will always try to co-opt the issues raised by independents and try to turn those issues into votes.

Significant public figures from Michael Bloomberg to Cindy Sheehan to many local candidates, as well as just regular people are increasingly leaving the parties to become independent.

Is America becoming independent? We don't know. I hope so.

Conversations on Independence

• Here's a catchy way for the Dems to avoid alienating independents: open the primaries! (Drudge Retort)
• The debate between the Dem netroots and the DLC is alive and... here on Left in Alabama...
• Daniel Ellsberg comments on Cindy Sheehan's independent candidacy...

Conversations on Independence

Cindy Sheehan will announce her Independent candidacy for Congress in San Francisco on August 6th. I read it on the Smirking Chimp...

Conversations on Independence

• Peggy Noonan sees a role reversal going on between POTUS and American people as the ghost of Richard Nixon haunts a new era...

• Seaportsfinest in Savannah Georgia says The Two Party System Has Outlived Its Purpose

• Gail Collins, the ex-brains behind the New York Times editorial page, thinks Hillary could have done a better job of CYA after the live mic hoopla between her and John Edwards. Describing the "overcrowded debate platform" (Irony is Gail's best feature...) as "one of those minor, nagging irritants in American democracy..." she downright waxes poetic: "Let America Decide," cries the guardian of the Fourth Estate...

• It's all in the family: Dan Gerstein on The Politico talks about the debate within the debate within the Democratic Party between the DNC and the membership, with Pelosi and Sheehan up next. (By the way, Cindy Sheehan left the Family... )

• And Cindy Sheehan has something independent to offer and she's getting support...

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• New Hampshire independents choosing Dem primary since McCain's defection...
• Georgia independents coming out of the woodwork
• Indiana Elections board removes Highland town councilman from fall ballot
• Cindy Sheehan to lead rallies in Charlotte (News 14)
• Arnold's independent card, California's voters
• Minnesota Independence Party's Dean Barkley toying with the idea of running

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independent voters have been saying "no" to John McCain, now his top aide quits (Detroit News) and waiting in the wings - who else? Rudy Giuliani (Newsday)
• In the year of the Independent, small political donors become a badge of good campaigning (USA Today) but Sen. Majority Whip Richard Durbin doesn't think Obama's small donors end the war in Iraq any time soon... (Washington Post)
• Nicholas von Hoffman (the mondoweiss) wants Mike Bloomberg to run (NY Sun)
• Cindy Sheehan Will Need 10,198 Signatures If She Runs (Ballot Access News) and she is set to to Lead Rally in Charlottesville, Va July 20 (Scoop - New Zealand)
• And speaking of the impeachment movement -- Vermont activists are targeting Peter Welch for an independent challenge next year (Montpelier Times Argus)
• Other independent challenges coming from Camden NJ police chief Venegas (Courier Post Online) and Macon GA's Veronica Brinson for mayor (13 WMAZ.com Eyewitness News Local-Macon GA )
• Ballot access fights for independent candidates continue in Oklahoma and Ohio...

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Sheehan Threatens to Run Against Pelosi (Washington Post)
• Antiwar Mom Issues Challenge to Pelosi (By Michael Falcone, The Caucus-NY Times blog)
• A Third Party President: The Twenty Year Countdown (Andrew Evans, chair of American Centrist Party-American Chronicle )
• No incumbent. No favorite. Anything could happen (US News & World Report)
• Issue of healthcare heats up (by CEO of Kaiser Foundation - Boston Globe)
• Obama's views not always what some expect (By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY)
• Obama out-fundraising Hillary (Newsweek)
• IN: Two independents, one Libertarian running for city office (Terre Haute Tribune Star)
• MI: Independent redistricting commission (Michigan Live)

Welcome to the independent movement, Cindy Sheehan!

Cindy Sheehan announced on Sunday that she will run as an independent against Dem Speaker Nancy Pelosi if Pelosi doesn't move for impeachment against President Bush. (Washington Post) And if she decides to run, I think Cindy will find plenty of support among independents, grassroots Dems and probably Repubs as well. My advice to her is to run as an independent whether or not Pelosi files for impeachment. Welcome to the independent movement!

Conversations on Independence

Worth a look:

After the South Carolina debate, Mike Gravel was the 15th most popular search on the Internet. (Stories in America)


Cindy Sheehan does well to recognize that the American two-party system is a sham and a snare (The Seminal)

Here's an interesting take on the recent increase in Obama's poll numbers … which counters mistakes in methodology as an excuse. Hint: Independent voters are the key. From Keith's Blog on Zaadz. Pro-Obama without reserve, but a good round-up.

Conversations on Independence

Some Dems continue to shun her, but Green Party activist Myles Hoenig on Dissident Voice applauds Cindy Sheehan for leaving the Dems.... and Jack E. Dunning over at The Dunning Letter takes it a little further: we need an Independent Party, he says... speaking of which, think Michael Bloomberg should run for President as an independent? Jackie Salit, president of the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, has some thoughts on that very thing.... And The Angry Independent on Mirror on America reminds us that a lot of folks just stay out of politics... If the independent movement speaks on behalf of -- and organizes -- the left-out, locked-out, all the people that the Dems and Repubs don't want -- we can change the direction our country is going. Let's get busy!

More on Cindy Sheehan: UPDATED 5/31/07 Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org, responds to relevancy issue in a CNN interview on Raw Story..... and here's a link to a long but interesting interview with Cindy Sheehan on Democracy Now. She's not quitting, she says. She's going to come back and do something "independent".