-=> Quoting Mike Angwin to Walter Luffman <=-
 MA> There is a political reality we must consider though.  The
 MA> national parties nominate the candidates selected by those parties and
 MA> the gain the nomination of a national party one must almost certianly
 MA> not only be highly skilled in the art of insider politics, but one
 MA> must also have saved up a lot of favors from other politicians.  Then,
You're right and I know it -- but I don't have to like it, and
I don't.  I still hope for a political climate in which someone
with a relatively short, but distinguished, political career
can become a serious contender for the presidency.  And it
could happen; after all, Tennessee's two sitting Senators had
no history as officeholders prior to 1994 -- in fact, one had
not even voted until a few years before his own election!
 MA> of course, comes the issue on money which, itself, is an insider game.
 MA> Occasionally someone with strong ideals will break trough the
 MA> insider game and run on strong personal convictions, but when this
 MA> happens the politicial elite, seeing itself challanged, cross party
 MA> lines and rally around the opponent rather than backing the rebel. 
 MA> The two most notable examples of this wer the campaigns of Goldwater
 MA> and McGovern and even then they were, to some degree, themselves
 MA> political insiders.
Then there's Steve Forbes.  He didn't need either party for
campaign funds, and wasn't beholden to any powerbrokers for
anything.  No, he didn't come all that close to winning the
GOP nomination in 1996, but I think he did influence the
party as a whole.  And that was his first attempt for high
public office -- if he tries again in 2000, he'll have
a much higher recognition factor in his favor.
 MA> Sure Dole was flawed, Reagan was flawed, Bush was flawed, all
 MA> were, and remain, subject to critisism for having abandoned the values
 MA> they were elected, or campaigned, to support, but none were as bad as
 MA> Clinton or, almost certianly, the nominee the Democrats will come up
 MA> with to follow Clinton.  
Considering the most likely Democratic contenders for the
2000 nomination are Gore and Gephardt, I don't think there
are words strong enough to express my agreement with you.
 MA> I keep casting votes, in every election, for men of principle
 MA> who I know have no chance at all of being elected, in fact, men who
 MA> have no chance of carrying even one state, but I cast my vote becuse I
 MA> beleive these men will make the best president of those available.  I
 MA> lose, I'll keep losing, but I'll continue to vote for the man who I
 MA> beleive is right. 
I don't go quite this far...at least, I haven't so far.
In general elections, I almost always vote for the
candidate *with a reasonable chance of winning* whose
positions most closely parallel my own.  It usually takes
more than just one or two issues, no matter how important
they are, to turn me against every candidate with a
reasonable chance of winning.  (By "reasonable chance", I
mean a chance of getting a plurality of the vote in a
general election.  In a three-way race, this might mean as
little as 34 percent of the popular vote.)
... I have to go home now.  My brain is beginning to fizz.
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]
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