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You don’t need to order your copy from Howard Dean, just read the headlines of the NY Times - they do a great job of echoing it.</p>
<p>“So Thedad, how does Clinton look up close?”</p>
<p>I’m obviously not TheDad, but I’ve seen her up close locally and I don’t find her in the least unattractive. She’s also much warmer than one might expect. She is very serious about redistribution which is where we part company, but she is a bright, pleasant, warm-ish, hardworking woman.</p>
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<p>Sorry, but that is incorrect. Laffer has always been clear that lowering the top rates from 70% downward in the '80s did in fact pay for themeselves, since as he says: “These [rich] guys fire their lawyers and accountants and actually pay their taxes. Yay! Isn’t that what we want them to do?”</p>
<p>What Laffer does not opine on is whether lowering/eliminating taxes on the non-rich pay for themselves.</p>
<p>Sorry, bluebayou, Laffer doesn’t have a clue.
He can think all he wants but when push comes to shove, he doesn’t know and he knows he doesn’t really know.</p>
<p>I start assuming virtually any Democrat will win this election so I am looking for the least negatives and to me that’s Hillary. She is pragmatic, knows that business is important, and not too soft to handle foreign policy. 30 years ago she would be considered a moderate Republican.</p>
<p>I’m with Barrons. Watched the debate the other day and came away impressed with Clinton…even though I haven’t been a big fan. Smart lady. Knows her stuff. Tough. Experienced. Heart in the right place. She went from #3 candidate to #1 candidate in my book. I think more folks should give her a chance.
Obama was OK but seemed a little halting and not up on all the facts.
Liked Edwards…he’s good in debates…but don’t seem him moving forward.
As far as I’m concerned, all three are good candidates. MUCH better than the republican crew. It’s about time…</p>
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OK, in Romney’s defense, I will point out that this state law was enacted in 1980, well before Romney. It was enacted as a voter petition, and approved by the voters. (That’s why it’s called “Proposition 2 1/2”.) It became law without the efforts of the legislature or the governor.</p>
<p>First, I’ll vote for whomever the Democrats nominate - even if it is the donkey, but I like the fact that Hillary is smart and what she doesn’t know, Bill does. I like Obama but I think it best for him to wait. I also like Edwards but I think silly things like his hair and his former trial attorney career might make him hard to elect.</p>
<p>“Heart in the right place.”</p>
<p>just like Jack Haley’s famous character.</p>
<p>at least she’s not singing “if I only had a brain”.
Lots of Hillary haters out there. I know. As I said, I didn’t warm up to her immediately. But I am trying hard to be objective and choose the candidate that is best suited for the job…and for me, she’s it right now.
Smart women have it tough…they can come across as brazen and manipulative…when the same behavior would be viewed as courageous and clever for a man. Hillary is doing better at showing some balance. Go H!</p>
<p>“Smart women have it tough…they can come across as brazen and manipulative”</p>
<p>I think HIllary actually is brazen and manipulative, but I completely respect your right to disagree.</p>
<p>I hope she’s brazen and manipulative - she had better be if she wants to be president.</p>
<p>NEM: LOL, no, the photo and handshake didn’t influence me. I lined up behind Hillary over a year ago and the campaign as it has played out has only reinforced my initial thinking. Hillary was going to be the Establishment candidate. Barack Obama was going to be the rock star anti-Establishment candidate. And poor John Edwards was going to be caught in a cross fire and not get either enough voters or $$$ to break through. He needed to knock Obama out of the anti-Hillary spot and didn’t.</p>
<p>The Des Moines Register endorsement of Hillary put it pretty well: Obama inspires our vision, Hillary inspires our confidence. Or something closely akin to that.</p>
<p>As for Hillary: smart, tough, experienced, passes the Commander-in-Chief threshold. Game/set/match over Obama and I don’t really need to go any further. I found Obama’s latest remarks about hands-off management to be eye-roll inducing…we’ve had enough of that with Bush. I want someone who understands the machinery of government and isn’t afraid to work its parts. Obama sounds great but for me is the rhetorical equivalent of cotton candy. </p>
<p>And, as per ZM, Hillary is much warmer than many people expect. I think her negatives will go down as the campaign progresses.</p>
<p>DStark: Clinton looked pretty good up close. She’s short…duh. Looks don’t matter all that much too me. And some aspects of personality are overrated in looking at candidates. One person commenting on one of the political websites put it very well: I’m not looking for someone I’d enjoy having a beer with, I’m looking for someone I’d trust to drive me home after the party.</p>
<p>“I’m not looking for someone I’d enjoy having a beer with, I’m looking for someone I’d trust to drive me home after the party.”</p>
<p>Well, then that must be Romney, who as a good Mormon doesn’t drink. (Probably also true of Huckabee as a good Southern Baptist).</p>
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<p>Thanks for the smile, toneranger! All I can say is, thank heavens for the fact that she’s not singing that song! I was, once again, recently reminded of how anxious I am for Jan. 20 of next year. When I saw our CIC on the news, once again, making a fool of himself, in Bahrain last week as he waved a ceremonial sword, he’d just been presented, over his head like a 6 year old little boy, while all around him stood there smiling politely and not quite believing what they were seeing.</p>
<p>Thedad, I hope that you know, I was just kidding.</p>
<p>With Romney you wouldn’t have to worry about him drinking coffee whilst driving either, rofl.</p>
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That is all true … and in four years what did Roney propose to move Mass past this unworkable funding structure? It’s true he inherited it but he lived with. So if he inherits the social security mess, or health care mass, or etc as a Mass resident I’ve seen NO evidence he will do anything to imrpove the situation</p>
<p>“As for Hillary: smart, tough, experienced,”</p>
<p>I still want to know about the “experienced” part. All the experience I know of from her is negative. But was she in on the Big Lie of 1998 that eventually got us into the war in Iraq. Is that why she didn’t need to read the intelligence in 2002 before voting for the aggressive, hostile occupation? Did she know about her husband’s genocide in Iraq? Did she think, like Albright, that it “was worth it”?</p>
<p>Exactly where was this experience we are supposed to count on?</p>
<p>Clinton’s experience in a nutshell:</p>
<p>
[quote]
In the Senate, Clinton has gone a long way toward neutralizing skeptics and antagonists by working hard, deferring to seniority, and deploying her underappreciated personal charm. At the same time, she became a Democratic leader in the Senate in part because she understood the powers of the Presidency and the need for an overarching strategy in any major conflict with the executive branch—for example, Neera Tanden said, during the fight to prevent Social Security from being privatized. Presumably, she would turn her knowledge of Congress to her advantage should she return to the White House. </p>
<p>“Her Senate years are when she learned,” Holbrooke said. “How could she conceivably have been such a successful, bipartisan, reach-out senator, collaborating even with impeachment managers, if she hadn’t learned something?” In Holbrooke’s chronicle, her Senate career has instructed her in congressional power and filled the last conceivable holes in her r</p>