Jason
Pluto
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Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 16, 2008 15:40:23 GMT -4
If the eventual candidates by some miracle end up being Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Huckabee I probably would cast a third-party vote (and not my first, actually).
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 16, 2008 16:14:22 GMT -4
The problem with such comments like Huckabee’s is that they are vague. They are codes to play up to certain voting groups by saying ”I am one of you,” without committing to any particular policy. Commitment to a specific religious right agenda would be foolish but H is good at drawing conservative evangelicals to support him through such phrases. The problem there being that there may be enough evangelicals to allow him to win a few primaries, but there aren't enough to win him the presidency. The problem being that any such clarification by Mr. Huckabee wouldn't receive nearly the play that the comment itself has. He may very well have provided clarifying remarks - I wasn't able to find them (admittedly I didn't look too hard). I haven't even been able to find the full text of the speech he said in them. Political reporting these days is a game of sound bites and "gotcha"s. It's hard to find real speeches and the context for statements. I generally agree.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 16, 2008 16:18:13 GMT -4
If the eventual candidates by some miracle end up being Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Huckabee I probably would cast a third-party vote (and not my first, actually). Well I wouldn't say it would take a miracle for Clinton to get the dem's nod, she won what is this year a symbolic vote in Michagan and is ahead in a number of other key states. If she can dent Obama in Illinos and even wrestle South Carolina off of him (it's pretty much level pegging so could go either way) then she'd be very much in the box seat.
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Post by gillianren on Jan 16, 2008 16:25:46 GMT -4
I might vote for her myself, actually. I like her science policy, and I think she's got a lot of experience, if not necessarily direct experience. She's also developed quite a reputation for bipartisanship up on Capitol Hill. She's just been demonized by people who didn't like her husband, not unlike Eleanor Roosevelt. (Actually, of course, Eleanor was more liberal than her husband, whereas Hillary seems more conservative than hers. But the comparison's still there.) She seems to me to be a good politician, but in a place where "compromise" is a dirty word, people don't realize that.
But, more to the point, Huckabee's said he doesn't believe in evolution and Hillary wants to put science back in the hands of the scientists. This is not a difficult choice for me; US science is already being damaged by an anti-science administration, and we sure don't need four more years of it.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 16, 2008 16:25:59 GMT -4
True, Mrs. Clinton's chances are much better than Huckabee's. But if she's the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate is not Mike Huckabee then I have a good idea of how I'm going to vote. I might gritt my teeth while voting for McCain or Guiliani, but better one of them than Mrs. Clinton.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 16, 2008 16:27:38 GMT -4
I still suspect it's going to be a clash of the NY giants.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 16, 2008 16:30:13 GMT -4
But, more to the point, Huckabee's said he doesn't believe in evolution and Hillary wants to put science back in the hands of the scientists. This is not a difficult choice for me; US science is already being damaged by an anti-science administration, and we sure don't need four more years of it. Mrs. Clinton's position on science is the deciding factor for you? That seems a rather esoteric criteria to me. Do you think the President really has that much effect on how science is taught and practiced in the United States?
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 16, 2008 16:39:14 GMT -4
I'm a liberal so I like Clinton.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 16, 2008 16:43:54 GMT -4
I mean, the greatest damage wdmundt has been able to demonstrate that the supposedly anti-science Bush Administration has done to this point is that some of our bookstores in the National Parks might be selling books with creationist themes in their "inspirational" section.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 16, 2008 16:57:30 GMT -4
Personally I think that rewriting science papers because they don't agree with the administration's stance on the issue is far, far, far worse. Even if they didn't like the language and thought the writter was wrong, that isn't an excuse to do such a thing. Changing science papers for political reasons is just downright wrong.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 16, 2008 18:47:41 GMT -4
Personally I think that rewriting science papers because they don't agree with the administration's stance on the issue is far, far, far worse. Even if they didn't like the language and thought the writter was wrong, that isn't an excuse to do such a thing. Changing science papers for political reasons is just downright wrong. I am not convinced they have done so.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 16, 2008 23:53:29 GMT -4
I am not convinced they have done so. Try telling that to James Hansen
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 17, 2008 11:34:38 GMT -4
Hey James Hansen - I'm not convinced.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 17, 2008 11:47:13 GMT -4
Going back to the original subject of this thread for a moment, I heard a conservative commentator last night advancing the thoery that the reason this Mike Huckabee quote hasn't received wider play in the media is because they want Mr. Huckabee to become the Republican candidate first. Then the time will be right to go back to all the crazy things he has said on the campaign trail and destroy his chances of being elected, leaving the Democractic candidate to sail easily into the Presidency. Basically, they're saving ammunition like this for when they need it. It makes a certain kind of sense, in a paranoid conspiracy way.
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Post by wdmundt on Jan 17, 2008 15:17:00 GMT -4
The 'liberal media" is a myth. There is no grand media conspiracy against conservatives. Note that Hillary Clinton crying got lots of press (much of it negative). Huckabee and changing the constitution gets next to nothing.
"Stupid media" is not a myth, but "stupid media" is unbiased. It's stupid about everything and unable to focus on anything that doesn't come with video.
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