2008, Part I

Max Power
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2008, Part I

« on: June 22, 2005, 11:29:47 PM »

I am starting an election story about the 2008 presidential election. Here is the first part, the part about the Democratic Party:
In January of 2006, the 2008 presidential contest officially began. On the first anniversary of President George W. Bush's inauguration, Democratic Senator Joe Biden of Delaware officially announced that he would run for president, after over a year of speculation that he would do so. This came as no surprise to, well, anybody. He announced his platform would focus on these three issues:

* The troops in Iraq. They have been there for almost three years, and Biden wants them to withdraw gradually.

* Foreign Policy. Biden said that the U.S.A. should focus on improving its relations with its allies. "For the past 5 years, the president has destroyed our image overseas. We must do something immediately," he went on to say.

* Strengthening our military. "The current army is not enough to protect our selves against foreign countries and terrorists," Biden proclaimed, an obvious reference to the recent terrorist attacks on Beirut by Hamas, which killed over 10,000 people. "Hamas will not get a free ticket out of prison, we will not stop at anything to destroy them."

Soon after Biden announced his candidacy, Dennis Kucinich halted his house re-election campaign for unknown reasons. Kucinich had recently been moving further to the left. Many pundits claimed he was preparing to make a last minute run for Ohio's governorship against Jerry Springer. But they were shocked on the 12th of February when the domain name denniskucinich08.com was just registered by his campaign manager. Later that night Dennis Kucinich alerted local news stations that he intended to hold a press conference. Two hours later, at 9:45 P.M. Eastern Time, Kucinich approached the podium.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of Cleveland,
Throughout my life, I have served you on the city council, as mayor, as representative to the U.S. House, and as your candidate for president in the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. On every occasion, you have supported me. Now I asked for your support once more, as I make one last run for president,"
He later went on to unveil his platform, which was the same as it was in 2004-
Immediate withdrawal from the WTO and NAFTA.
Moving U.S. troops out of Iraq and replacing them with UN peacekeepers.
Ending the drug war.
Abolishing the death penalty.
Preventing the privatization of social security.
Ratifying the ABM Treaty and the Kyoto Protocol.
Introducing reforms to bring about instant-runoff voting.
Creating a single-payer system of universal health care.
Creating a cabinet-level "Department of Peace"
Legalizing same-sex marriage.
Repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.
Full social security benefits at age 65.

Two weeks later, a poll released by Gallop showed good news for Biden. The question was as follows:
If you had to choose between the current candidates for president, whom would you choose?
Biden- 55%
Kucinich- 40%
Neither- 5%
But the Kucinich camp was able to spin the poll in their favor. "Congressman Kucinich was in the single digits in the majority of polls in 2004. Now, he has improved greatly."
Yet the Biden camp released the following statement:
"This poll shows that a majority of Democrats support a real candidate for real change"

Two months later, a third Democrat entered the race. His name.... Former Senator John Edwards. His entrance was less extravagant. He announced his candidacy at the same place where he announced his last candidacy, his hometown of Robbins, North Carolina. This is his announcement speech, in its entirety:
"I'd like ta thank ya'll for comin' out here this fine mornin'. I invited you to this picnic 'cause I got an announcement to make. I have consulted with my wife, Elizabeth, and I am gonna run for president again."
He made this announcement in front of his parents, other family, friends, and supporters. He remained optimistic as always, and his campaign released a private poll that showed him ahead of both Biden and Kucinich. A poll released by Gallup in mid-April showed Edwards at 32% Biden at 35%, and Kucinich at 33%. Later that week, Edwards appeared on The O'Reilly Factor

But only a month later, on June 14th (Flag Day), two more candidates announced they were running. The first being Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and the second being Governor Mark Warner. The two made their formal announcements only 5 minutes apart. Warner was first, making this announcement at Vernon, Connecticut, where he grew up -
"Good Evening,
I am here to announce I am running for the nomination of the Democratic Party for president in 2008. I am doing do to the incompetence of the current administration. I believe we should focus on three things: taxes, deficits, and trade. If we continue to ignore these issues now, the effects could devastate our country in the future."
He continued to explain his stances on these issues. On taxes, he said the rich should pay a higher rate, and the poor should pay a lower amount; he also said we should eliminate the deficit as soon as possible, and that our trade with foreign countries should be restricted to only democratic countries and countries where child labor is illegal...
Feingold did not get into the specifics of his platform. He simply said he was running, and looked forward to a good race.

Hillary Clinton surprised many by saying that if she won re-election to the senate, she would be "100% certain" that she would run for president. But a poll released in mid-August showed that she was ahead of her rival, Ed Cox, by a margin of only 50-40%, with 10% undecided. Up until Election Day, the race was extremely close. In the end, the results where as follows:

Cox- 3.5 million
Clinton- 3.4 million
McReynolds- .1 million
Cox upset Clinton, which derailed her presidential ambitions. Serious presidential ambitions, that is. Clinton conceded the election. But she also announced that she would run for president on December 30th.

At the beginning of 2007, two more candidates announced they were running. The first one was Senator Evan Bayh, who entered the race on January 20th, exactly a year after Biden; he said that his platform was "An Even deal from Evan the real". The other was Wes Clark, whose platform was almost identical to Biden. By July, the last candidates announced they were running. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts announced that he was running once again with the same platform as he had in 2004. Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana announced he was running a favorite son candidacy, or, in other words, he was running just to win Montana.

MORE TO COME

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