Campaign '08: Feingold in Clinton
The first in what will no doubt be a nauseatingly long series of coverage of presidental campaign events.
The hopefuls are already starting to troop through. Outgoing Gov. George Pataki, of New York was in Maquoketa stumping for LaMetta Wynn a few weeks back and he is staffing up already. Senator Evan Bayh also has a staffer on the ground already. He was in town two Fridays ago and I couldn't attend as we were on our way out.
Russ Feingold, the Junior Senator from Wisconsin, was in town Sunday for a small gathering of Democratic Party leaders which included your humble reporter. Feingold represents the progressive wing of the party from a state where being progressive has meant something for going on a hundred years now. Feingold has voted against almost every centerpiece of the Administration's agenda: from No Child Left Behind, to the Iraq Force Resolution, the Patriot Act, and Medicare Part D. However, he's not just a "No" man. He co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act, deeply flawed as passed but a much needed start to campaing finance reform. He has had a strong record of introducing interesting legislation, while never mincing words about the Administration's failures of vision and policy. All of this has led him to become the darling of the blogsphere and of progressive Democrats in general. Among online party activists he is polling in the number one or two position in all the straw polls and interest in him among the legacy rank and file membership is very high.
I literally rolled out of bed to go to this event and ended up walking in the door with him. I didn't take any notes. He stayed for about an hour and took seven or eight questions. Most were on the war and the Lebanon kerfuffle the rest on meat-and-potato stuff like education, healthcare, etc. He mentioned energy policy but never gave any details.
Feingold is advocating (along with a number of Democrats) pulling American forces out of Iraq on a schedule to take place one year from date X. There are a lot of things wrong with this idea. However, as we continue down the road in the region with no real improvement or potential for improvement in sight, this looks more and more like the least terrible idea available.
He did not exude or display much of the wonkish, knows-the-issues-inside-and-out quality that gets geeks like me all hot and bothered. But that's all right because, what he does have in spades is the Democratic version of what George Bush has (or had); a very down home manner (in a Midwestern sense as opposed to the faux-Texan of Bush) that inspires confidence that this is a person with a strong moral compass who means what he says and does what he says. But, you know, more warm and cuddly and liberal-like.
Loyal readers will assume that I asked a question about energy, but I didn't. I wanted to but couldn't get a second question in. Instead I asked him about what he thought of the increasing sophisitcation of terrorist groups like Hizullah with regards to Israel and Lebanon and if he had any knowledge of things like Fourth Generation Warfare and how that might fit into his plans to get us out of Iraq. To his credit, he admitted that he wasn't familliar with 4GW (see previous post) but did say that we had to begin to rely more on soft power than on the military to deal with these brutes and that a lot of the problem in Israel is due to the fact that a) the Administration can't walk and chew gum at the same time (my words, not his) and that b) Iran and Syria know this and that is why they are getting frisky.
Otherwise, he was pretty much all about what we will expect from (the competent) candidates in 2008; fix the healthcare system, fix or repeal No Child Left Behind, balance the budget, clean up the culture of corruption, etc.
One original idea that he mentioned that I thought was interesting was a bill he will introduce that will allow proposals for experimental pilot programs -- he mentioned three -- for statewide universal healthcare programs to be partially financed by the federal government, presumably through existing Medicare transfers funds. That's just the kind of persistent experimentation that I like to see.
That's about it. I think most of the pundits will be trying to write him off as a Kucinich-esque no-hoper from the left wing of the party. As a twiced-divorced jewish man, he's got a bit of a cultural bunker to play out of. But, I don't think any of that is going to matter with regards to the strength of his candidacy. Feingold has LOTS of grassroots support and he is far more intelligent and serious a candidate and legislator than Kucinich was. His campaign will rise or fall on his message and his strengths as a candidate. Right now, I'm saying I like what I see but it is too soon to tell.
The hopefuls are already starting to troop through. Outgoing Gov. George Pataki, of New York was in Maquoketa stumping for LaMetta Wynn a few weeks back and he is staffing up already. Senator Evan Bayh also has a staffer on the ground already. He was in town two Fridays ago and I couldn't attend as we were on our way out.
Russ Feingold, the Junior Senator from Wisconsin, was in town Sunday for a small gathering of Democratic Party leaders which included your humble reporter. Feingold represents the progressive wing of the party from a state where being progressive has meant something for going on a hundred years now. Feingold has voted against almost every centerpiece of the Administration's agenda: from No Child Left Behind, to the Iraq Force Resolution, the Patriot Act, and Medicare Part D. However, he's not just a "No" man. He co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act, deeply flawed as passed but a much needed start to campaing finance reform. He has had a strong record of introducing interesting legislation, while never mincing words about the Administration's failures of vision and policy. All of this has led him to become the darling of the blogsphere and of progressive Democrats in general. Among online party activists he is polling in the number one or two position in all the straw polls and interest in him among the legacy rank and file membership is very high.
I literally rolled out of bed to go to this event and ended up walking in the door with him. I didn't take any notes. He stayed for about an hour and took seven or eight questions. Most were on the war and the Lebanon kerfuffle the rest on meat-and-potato stuff like education, healthcare, etc. He mentioned energy policy but never gave any details.
Feingold is advocating (along with a number of Democrats) pulling American forces out of Iraq on a schedule to take place one year from date X. There are a lot of things wrong with this idea. However, as we continue down the road in the region with no real improvement or potential for improvement in sight, this looks more and more like the least terrible idea available.
He did not exude or display much of the wonkish, knows-the-issues-inside-and-out quality that gets geeks like me all hot and bothered. But that's all right because, what he does have in spades is the Democratic version of what George Bush has (or had); a very down home manner (in a Midwestern sense as opposed to the faux-Texan of Bush) that inspires confidence that this is a person with a strong moral compass who means what he says and does what he says. But, you know, more warm and cuddly and liberal-like.
Loyal readers will assume that I asked a question about energy, but I didn't. I wanted to but couldn't get a second question in. Instead I asked him about what he thought of the increasing sophisitcation of terrorist groups like Hizullah with regards to Israel and Lebanon and if he had any knowledge of things like Fourth Generation Warfare and how that might fit into his plans to get us out of Iraq. To his credit, he admitted that he wasn't familliar with 4GW (see previous post) but did say that we had to begin to rely more on soft power than on the military to deal with these brutes and that a lot of the problem in Israel is due to the fact that a) the Administration can't walk and chew gum at the same time (my words, not his) and that b) Iran and Syria know this and that is why they are getting frisky.
Otherwise, he was pretty much all about what we will expect from (the competent) candidates in 2008; fix the healthcare system, fix or repeal No Child Left Behind, balance the budget, clean up the culture of corruption, etc.
One original idea that he mentioned that I thought was interesting was a bill he will introduce that will allow proposals for experimental pilot programs -- he mentioned three -- for statewide universal healthcare programs to be partially financed by the federal government, presumably through existing Medicare transfers funds. That's just the kind of persistent experimentation that I like to see.
That's about it. I think most of the pundits will be trying to write him off as a Kucinich-esque no-hoper from the left wing of the party. As a twiced-divorced jewish man, he's got a bit of a cultural bunker to play out of. But, I don't think any of that is going to matter with regards to the strength of his candidacy. Feingold has LOTS of grassroots support and he is far more intelligent and serious a candidate and legislator than Kucinich was. His campaign will rise or fall on his message and his strengths as a candidate. Right now, I'm saying I like what I see but it is too soon to tell.
posted by -cman- at 7/16/2006 11:30:00 PM
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