Krugman is a masochist. I for one don't take a beating and come back asking for another. And I am growing rather weary of his endless negotiation with O'futility.

His entire premise - nominate Warren weeks if not years too late is fraught with error. Can anyone imagine accepting a nomination from Obama and expecting he would stand by them through any thick or thin. It's just not what he does... unless big money or Republicans insists upon it. I mean the empire is falling and the leader wont even nominate competence in one small nook and cranny. That's not worth voting for.

Obama is just not (and never will be) that into you, Mr K. If you want another beating dial 1-900- SPANK ME or something, but don't call the rest of fools for refusing to do so.

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Eureka is right. It's time to disdain Obama and put the Republicans back in charge.

There is no third way in America.

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No, its time for Democrats to grow a pair and not try to suck up to the bluedog pearl clutchers. I can't stand the neo-cons/Repiglicans and their pro-fascist policies but the me-too "Democrat At Any Price Mentality" is wearing thin with me.

I'm not voting for Blanche Lincoln (but John Gray)
I'm not voting for Mike Ross (but Joshua Drake)

When is the DPA going to wake up and realize that homophobic, conservative-lite candidates just don't cut the mustard.

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“Why . . . does [Obama] continue to alienate friends while attempting to woo people who'll never stop hating him.”

Because he’s like Bill Clinton, that’s why. And as everybody knows, Clinton had no political savvy and couldn’t get anything done. He left the country in financial and moral ruins, didn't he?

Indeed, Eureka and Silverback66 are right: I say impeach Obama! Now! Before he inflicts even more damage. Put Sarah, Newt, the Huckster, and all our other great Republicans back in charge!

And while we’re at it, let’s put Jim Keet in the Governor’s Mansion!

Yeah!

Wooooooo Pig, SUEY!

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Meh. Progressives think the next Democrat will clean up the environment, conservatives think the next Republican will outlaw abortion. Both would just prop up the corporate-controlled scheme currently in place.
I worked for Obama but had no illusions. I wonder how real the "disappointed progressive" meme is. Fits in with the MSM view of the US political scene, I guess.

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Durango, DINOs like Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor are voting with the Republicans in many case on important issues. Why should I reward Lincoln for her less than stellar voting record. I damn sure am not voting for that GOPuppet John Boozman.

Mike Ross my "rep" votes with the Republicans most of the time and sounds like one. He throws a bone out occasionally, but he's the second-most Republican House member (behind of course Boozman). I wish the guy would just change parties and be honest with himself.

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Durango, you O'defenders simply cannot rebut my arguments with fact or on any merit without putting "impeachment" type words in my comment, creating straw men, and that oldest of canards... fear of Republicans. Boo!

If you don't mind the D party being nothing more than a soft seller of neo oligarch decline that's one thing, but you and many others should quit pretending this party is remotely interested in representative governance, rule of law, common good for the common citizen.

Lessor of two evils is still evil.

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I thought he might be the Democratic Dubya but I've decided he is the second coming of Jimmy Carter, confused and ineffective. I was a Carter apologist so I guess I will continue to support him. Besides, the crazies have taken over the nuts in the Republican party, it's a bit scary. Can you really see Sarah in charge?

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Here's an idea: Maybe we should just all hold our breath and stamp our little feet until the political world begins to show some common sense and agrees with us. That should do it.

Make no mistake, anything other than a vote for Blanche Lincoln is a vote for Boozman. Doesn't matter whether you waste your vote at the polls or stay home and watch porn on the Net, it's the same type of self-indulgence.

Sometimes you have to stifle your gag reflex.

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Dem presidents and Rep both run to the middle when they get elected. Its just a trend throughout political society. They say what they need to get elected, then in order to make everyone "like" them, they try to be all things to all people on both sides, left and right, which puts them squarely in the middle. Middle ground usually means do nothing except maintain the status quo.

Sure both big lib Dems and Rep spend all they can like drunken Boston democrats, they really are no different in that regard. Any politician Dem or Rep never says no to any government pork for their district, and if they do say no, their opposition next election will blast them with all the money they didn't bring back to the district, so they are all afraid to not say no.

The political climate breeds weenies like a shark grows teeth. That's why its not a good idea to keep sending professional politicians back to office. Non-politicians act and try and do something, be it an up hill battle no matter what. Professional politicians just do what they need to do to cover their own behinds. Obumble was and is nothing more than a professional politician. Clinton Nixon LBJ, all pro politicians, Bushies and Reagon not, but Bush II was in his own category as just spoiled rich kid lucky enough to have a rich daddy to put him in office. And all though Bush senior acted exactly like a pro politician, he in reality wasn't, being an oil baron. So he was an anomaly. But Professional politician = disaster in most cases.

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LinCo_Progressive, I share your frustration with Miss Blank. And with Pryor and Ross, too. And, like you, I could never vote for Boozman or any of the other R candidates out there. I’d vote Green, but at this point, just feel that’d be throwing my vote away.

On a non-political note, I enjoy your posts. Always think of Twinkle Town, The Village (love th’ steakhouse and bakery), and Cane Creek State Park when I’m readin’ ya.

Oh, and before I forget, thanks for the Greenville Bridge update the other night. The new suspension bridge is a beauty. Can't wait for it to open. Crossed the old bridge coming home from Yazoo City the other day and figured it was for the last time. Wish I had a dime for every time I’ve crossed Big Muddy at Greenville.

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I'm with you Linco_Progressive.

I am tired of Democrats feeling like they are entitled to our vote.
People continue to vote for Democrats because they are afraid of Republicans...or hate Republicans...whatever. It's time for those of us who have been taken for granted start putting our money, time, etc. into the Green Party.

Democrats and Republicans are one in the same. They will sell us out to the highest bidder. The sooner more people wake up to that, the better off we may be in the future.

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Perhaps Silverback is right, and voting for the Green candidate is a vote for Boozman. But if Boozman gets elected, then in six years perhaps a real Democrat will run for the job. If Blanche gets reelected, the job is probably hers until she dies. Either way we get at least six years of Republican votes, but if I don't vote for her, there's at least a chance that we get a change in six years. So, count me out. I'll go ahead and vote for John Gray.

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Arch,

Six years of John Boozman is a heckuva price. See Florida and Ralph Nader. Protest votes have consequences. Sometimes more than one election.

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I thought "change you can believe" in meant a change of course, not a small correction in the course toward disaster. If Blanche Lincoln is re-elected it will have to be without one vote of help from me. Of course, I would never vote for John Boozman. Yes, I do understand that not voting for either helps elect the greater of two evils. I just think that, if we cannot alter our course toward national disaster, having Republicans in charge comes a bit closer to placing the blame where it belongs. Maybe, just maybe, that will foster real change in the future, if it is not too late. Real advocates of government of, by, and for the people do not deserve to be blamed along with fake leaders in the "Democratic" party who actually advocate governmental power and control in the service of unregulated and limitlessly accumulaated wealth -- same as the modern Republican Party.

If the meme for greed and exploitation is going to survive as the fittest government anyway, I'll not have been among its carriers. In a million years, perhaps fewer, it won't matter anyway.

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I am with LinCo_Progressive. Durango, you may call it wasting a vote, but all you have done is perpetuate being offered candidates whose sole positive characteristic is calling themselves Democrats. You allow the National and Arkansas Democratic Party to claim victory, but lose out on almost all needed progress in legislation because the candidates fear losing the support of the opposition party members?

That's disfuntional, if not insane. Perhaps its time to assert to the Democratic party, both National and State that having candidates that run past Barry Goldwater to Reagan/Nixon after election is no longer acceptable to the Democratic core in Arkansas. So we go through four/six or more years of automatic no votes. That's exactly the same outcome you receive from Markie Mark, Blank, Ross and Boozman, now.

Face it, the only time any of those voted with the Democratic party was when their vote didn't matter in the outcome. If that's the representation you want then vote that way and you will receive what you deserve. For me, voting Green is to send a message that I want representation of my views, not Nixon's or Gerald Ford's speech-writers' talkers. I never liked Ben Stein's and Pat Buchanan''s lines and inspirational thoughts anyway.

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I know I can't change any minds on this, but I'd still invite devoted anti-Blanche protest votes to look at the Americans for Democratic Action scorecard. This reliably liberal group gives a broad assessment of Lincoln's voting record. Bad as she is on some issues -- estate tax and the credit card company bonanza and welfare for corporate farmers, to name a few -- she has a decidedly different voting record than John Boozman.

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I voted for Regan the first time I voted....have not voted Republican since.
God forgive me, but I voted for Nadar instead of Al Gore.
After that I decided never ever, ever again would I let "principle" direct my vote when the outcome is some bastard Republican in office.
Never.
Blanche (who does get shit done for Arkansas) or a fucking Republican for six years.

MCain or Obama...it is that simple.
Obama or Palin, Romney, Huckabuck, Newt...the scare list goes on and on and on.

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Dott,

John Gray wants:

♦ everything Americans need to be produced in America (That would be nice.)

♦ Medicare for all. (Me, too!)

♦ a return of the U. S. tariff system. (sounds good.)

♦ no “personal rights” for corporations (see the U.S. Supreme Court.)

♦ enforcement of our anti-trust Laws (who doesn’t?)

Great platform! But, do you REALLY think John Gray could achieve even one of those lofty goals were he elected?

I don’t, either.

Thus, the wasted vote. And just to send a message? I don’t think so, thank you.

And then there’s this, Dott: Bill Halter was my man. I voted for Bill Halter. Bill Halter lost to Blank. But Bill Halter is going to vote for Blank. If I trusted Bill Halter’s judgment before, why should I question Bill Halter’s judgment now?

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I grow weary of Republican apologists claiming that Gore lost because of Nader. Go back & look at the numbers, when the United States was ended by illegal judicial fiat, Gore had won.


“Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without planting up the ground. They want rain without thunder or lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. The struggle may not be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.”
Frederick Douglas

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Republican apologists?

I agree. Gore would have won had the Supreme Court not stopped the recount. But Nader made the recount battle possible (along with the butterfly ballot).

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"I grow weary of Republican apologists claiming that Gore lost because of Nader."

Wha?
If those of us who voted from Nadar had not then there would have been no recount.

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Here is the issue. If Barack Obama wants to have a Senate majority that includes Blanche Lincoln next year, and if Blanche Lincoln wants to be part of that majority, then they must separately and together persuade progressives to vote for Blanche Lincoln. We do not owe Blanche Lincoln our votes, and we do not owe Barack Obama anything. We elected him to lead the nation away from the abyss that George W. Bush marched toward. Instead, he has done his best to try to negotiate with the very people who enabled Bush in his worse ways.

When Obama's administration mistreats its own employees (the Sherrod fiasco), negotiates to pay disaster aid to white farmers while refusing to push money to pay long overdue discrimination settlement payments to black farmers, and offends workers, teachers, and peace advocates, while supporting Lincoln, progressives have little reason to hold our breath and vote for Lincoln. Lincoln and Obama may be more interested in the politics, but progressives are interested in different results caused by different policies. It's hard to see much difference in the results between the policies advanced by Lincoln and her Republican opponent, which means neither of them deserve support from progressives.

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"Six years of John Boozman is a heckuva price." Posted by Max

Max, one can make an equally good case that: "Six years of Blanche Lincoln is a heckuva price."

I'm not willing to pay that price in either case.

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Max and Durango,

Yes, "Six years of John Boozman is a heckuva price." Max; and Sound Policy is correct "Six years of Blanche Lincoln is a heckuva price."

One other factor to add. I and a lot of ARTime Bloggers lived through five years of Nixon, three of Ford, eight of Reagan, and twelve of the Bushs, Elder and Younger. "Twenty-eight years of Nixon, Ford, Bush and Bush is a heckuva price, also."

You know what? I, the ARTImes Bloggers, Arkansas and the United States survived. We will survive six years of Boozman or Lincoln.

If a significant percentage of normally core Democratic voters reject supporting the incumbent Democratic candidate, 'Blank' Lincoln, and the Democratic Party of Arkansas and National Democratic Party fail to develop candidates to regain our vote. Then it might be longer and more of a loss than just one Senator.

You see, for me, Halter vs. Lincoln was still a choice of the lesser of two evils. I am still opposed to Halter's benchmark success of the Arkansas Lotto; and believe it is a mistake. A mistake, we are paying the price for now and will pay more in the future. Lincoln has been and would be worse. So Bill Halter can vote for Blanche all he wants and have no effect on my vote.

The situation could change, but I highly doubt it. So you better hope people do not believe that Blank voted Democrat when the majority was so big that her vote did not matter as I do. But the ADA scorecard doesn't mean much to me, especially when I compare the ADA score for Lincoln, Pryor and Lieberman.

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