I like to wait for the primaries and letting the candidates duke it out. My favorites are Clinton, Obama and Edwards. So far they all have the potential.
Or should I say the media and behind the scene people duke it out and pick the candidate, then I just vote for the president..

Thanks again, Rob; I always appreciate the opportunity to vote early, and often (here) for our next President, Wes Clark.

Steve

...as of late Sunday night, Clark is in the lead, again.

Let's see now... I suggest Clark/Obama '08!

Can it get any better than that?

Let me help:  No, it can't.

Period, paragraph.

Thanks!

Steve

NY NY its a wonderful town...BUT wouldn't DENVER be a nice change of venue ? Denver is in the heart of the rising blue West (MT !) land of Dem Gov Ritter, Sen Salazar...and (R)Congressman (build a fence) Tancredo. Immigration issues will undoubtedly be front and center in 2008  Also rumor has it that Mr. Dick Wadhams is considering top CO GOP position! While NY is "flush" with funds to host the DNC convention, Denver and Western Dems need to "pony-up"  to bring it to Denver.  As the advertisement says lets "Cheat on NY" and go to Denver ! 

I would most likely support any of the following as the  Democratic Nominee.
(my order of preference)
1. Gore
2. Edwards (I voted for him in the poll)
3. Clark
4. Biden

I would most likely not vote if any of the following were to win the Democratic Nomination.
Clinton
Kerry
Obama

Why wouldn't you vote for Obama?

I would vote for Obama in 2012 or 2016, but I feel he is too inexperienced for the next election.

After much thought, I have decided that Barak Obama is the right person for me to support in 2008.  I have been close to several campaigns.  I have worked closely with Jim Webb, and the folks who started "Draft Jim Webb" and actually went to Jim's apartment in December 05' to beg him to run for Senate, promising to set up the campaign apparatus.  By the time he decided to run, we had 2,500 volunteers.  Obama is not the most articulate person.  He has trouble getting his thoughts together sometimes.  He says "um" and that bugs me.  But overall, he has a charm.  He has intelligence.  Harvard educated.  Thoughtful.  He is the best candidate.  Some say a black man can't win.  I don't necessarily believe that.  I think that the failure of Iraq and the rise in health care costs and fuel prices have scared Americans.  We don't know how to hope anymore.  I think Barak Obama has that message.  I think he has the name recognition.  He should run.  Even if it turns out that he isn't up to the challenge.  If that is the case, and he fails, he fails.  But he deserves that opportunity to disappoint us, because he may just surprise us instead and be the greatest politician since Bill Clinton - w/out the sexual baggage.  I support Barak Obama in 2008.

the only people running are Obama, Clinton, and every once in a while Edwards.  I listened to four political talk shows this morning and heard no mention of alternative candidates.  I mean, Vilsack's already announced and his name did not come up once.  I listened to one group of talking heads discussing Obama's lack of foreign policy experience, and not one suggested that if he gets the nod he might opt for someone with significant foreign policy knowledge and experience, such as Clark, for his running mate. Someone actually suggested he'd pick Edwards.  Can't see that happening.  If Edwards is going to be someone's running mate, it would have to be for someone who needs that entre into the Senate, in other words, a candidate who's an outsider to the Senate.

I don't know all the candidates for 2008, and thanks to the media's penchant for picking two or three front runners at the very beginning and talking only about them I may never learn much about any of the others.  So far, the one I've managed to learn something about whose positions I like the most is probably Clark, but there was not a single mention of him anywhere in today's discussions either. 

The Moderate and Centrist Dems are dropping out like flies!  Any time I get my support behind a solid centrist, the guy drops out of the race!  Warner, then Bayh.  Who am I to support.

Clark isn't REALLY a centrist on the social issues, which is where I am Conservative.  Still, I agree with him 100% on FP.  While I still think he's not experienced enough for the job, I'm leaning towards him right now.  I respect him, and I think he has the best shot at winning of all the people mentioned.  To counter Clark's lack of elected office, I say you put in Bayh, who's held elected office of some sort for two decades.  Clark-Bayh is where I'm at right now.

I'll admit, I want to see what Gore does.  If he runs as a Moderate Populist, I may shift to Gore-Bayh.  If he runs as the liberal commentator we've seen recently, I'm sticking with Clark-Bayh. 

In a General Election-
I would vote for:
Clark
Edwards
Gore
Obama
Vilsack
Richardson

I would not vote for:
Hillary
Kerry
Kucinich

not now.  We have far too much on our plate here in Virginia for 2007.  Please tell me what any of the national candidates are going to for us in our quest to take back the General Assembly.

As far as 2008, I will offer the following

1) anyone serious about the nomination will opt out of matching funds, as did Dean and Kerry last time, and as did Bush 43 both times.  Otherwise you run the risk of being outspent, and also of being out of money in April even if you get the nomination

2) both major parties will forego the federal funds for the next general election.  Last cycle it was only 75 million, and even if raised to 100 million, they have to believe they can raise more by going back to their donors.

In other words, we are heading for a major spending war.  And it will not be who can hit the most people at 2,100 / pop, but who can do the best job of mobilizing the 25-200 donors.  Remember what Dean said, you can raise 100 million for a million people at 100/each, or you can raise the same amount from 50,000 people at 2,000 each.  But people who give money are going to vote for you, and it is better to use modern tools to reach out to more people.

Last thought on this -  given the direction our campaigns are going, they are immoral.  I had this discussion with a prominent politician in Virginia yesterday (I promised our conversation was off the record) who commented on precisely this fact - given all the horrendous needs in the world, from health care, to clean water, to food - what we will spending on our elections is realistically obscene.

I expect the total expenditures in the presidential race may well exceed a half billion dollars.

That's another reason I'd rather focus on Virginia.

I'm a lot more concerned about the GA in 2007 than I am the presidential race in 2008. My sig says it all :)

I saw something on one of the morning shows today about D's holding their noses and voting for our nominees in past years. I definitely could relate. I'm hoping that somebody comes out of the pack that I don't have to hold my nose for in 2008. If this list is all inclusive, I foresee another nose-holding vote coming on.

I'm curious as to why you're so pessimistic on this list.

That was on MTP by 1 of 2 Times reporters. Spin from a Republican news paper that lets out the leaks for this president's agenda so he has a sounding board. How coud anyone really believe such spin. Just what does anyone expect from a Republican spin machine. I would suppose Limbaugh can fill their head with bull as well.
I never once held my nose in 00 or 04. They were great candidates.
And let me say Gore would have never left 911 happen just so he could go to war in Iraq.
Lastly Half of this country is made up of stupid people who voted for GWB, which histroy will show as a traitor to American values.
Tkose same 2 reporters talked about all the blunders, but then said GWB was of high values. This president has no American honest values.
He is lost in Prescott Bush's story to his mother of what a great war hero he was. Living in a fanasty story that made his family move from Ohio. With all of the present lies where will they go from Texas? Mexico?

At the risk of raising your bp even more, there are rumors about him buying 100,000 acres in Paraguay. 

Sure it's interesting to speculate but getting in a spin this early on who might decide to run for President (both Dem and Rep) in 2008 is pretty much a waste of energy.  An awful lot of choosing the best candidate is going to depend on what's going on at the beginning of 2008. If we're still in Iraq (Sigh. Even a cloudy crystal ball sees sand in our future.) and Palestine and Lebanon are writhing in civil wars, then we as a nation are going to need someone who has a chance of steering the ship of state deftly between Scylla and Charybdis, difficult courses and choices, most of them bad.  I'm not talking about who has the most foreign policy experience. One thing you can say about both Cheney and Rumsfeld.  They have foreign experience out the kazoo and look where they took us.  We as a nation are desperately going to need competence and a clear world view.  We need it right now, in fact, but we sure aren't going to get it from the present Presidential incumbent. 

So, we focus on what we can do.  The wanna-bes are going to be doing a whole lot of behind the scenes maneuvering to lock in big money support but as individuals we're on the edge of that...my idea of a "big" donation to a candidate tops out at about $100 at a time.  What we down here in the volunteer trenches need to focus on is the Virginia cycle of state elections in 2007.  In this cycle we can work hard to elect Delegates, State Senators, Supervisors, all of the network of offices that will turn our state that lovely shade of blue.  Let's hone our GOTV efforts and fertilize our local roots in 2007 and then we can go all out in 2008 and get this country back on track nationally. 

I agree with Teacherken.  My first priority is to take back the General Assembly in 2007.  Right now, in the State Senate, I'm more interested in supporting Chap Peterson and Janet Oleszek.

Also, I feel a little bit like the Grinch who told the kiddies that Santa Claus and the Easter bunny don't exist, but Gore isn't running.  Has no plans to.

He has said it before and I don't think he's just being coy to ratchet up interest.

He told a bunch of labor leaders at an event recently that he's definitely not running for president again.  If he had any ambition to run, he would not be sending out that message now to the very people whose support and money he would need.  All those leaders are going to have to commit to support a candidate soon.  If Gore had any plans, even if he wasn't ready to divulge them, he would at least hold the door open to those union heads.  He basically shut that door for this cycle.  So I wouldn't count on his running this time out.

Of those running, I could go with Edwards, Obama, Vilsack, or Hillary.  About the only one I truly would have to hold my nose to support would be Kerry.  That's not because of his positions but because I think he's a poor campaigner; and win, lose, or draw, we at least need somebody who can articulate a Democratic platform and make it a real contest.  Democrats, Republicans and the nation deserve a real competition and a real debate on the direction this nation will take. I hope we get good candidates who can state their case on both sides of the aisle.

And I believe all those mentioned are capable of doing so.

But for now, I'm concentrating on 2007.  First things first.

(Flipper, just back from guiding a lost sailboat into port, states the following)

I agree with some of the post above that it is important to concentrate on our 2007 races; having said that, now that Bayh has dropped out, I think I'll just sit back and wait for the '08 race to flush itself out over the next 10 to 12 months.  However, Bayh would make a great V.P. Candidate, hopefully putting Indiana into play

As far as the 2007 races are concerned, our party certainly has the opportunity to fix those things that did not go  well in 2006 - are you listening DPVA?

A GOTV program needs to be developed statewide NOW so it can be implemented in 9/06.  The state paty needs to get its website and blog updated to begin communicating more effectively.  Training programs need to be set up by the DPVA to train our local committees to budget, fund and effectively run a GOTV program in their county of city.  The database the DPVA has needs to be updated and local commitees need to access it to begin buidling a volunteer database.  The DPVA bragged at the last State Central Committee Meeting that they had made two million calls and identified one million Webb supporters.  Are these Webb supporters marked in the database?  Can local committees access them?  What is the best method of contact for local committees to contact these folks to volunteer/contribute - telephone calls, mail?  What is the DPVA doing now to raise the funds it will need to run an effective program?  And the Governor, rather than raising money for his PAC, needs to raise more money for the DPVA to help fund our GOTV efforts statewide; ditto for Warner as well. 

2007 is all about running quality candidates and getting our vote out.  Remember, Ed Gillespie is now at the helm of our opponents and say what you want about him, he's a bright guy and he is going to be gunning for us big time.  It would be unfortunate to underestimate him.

So, we all need to get up off our duffs after the first of the year and get moving.  And for those of you who visit this site and are not on a local committee in your area - sign up!  WE NEED YOU!