To paraphrase Bill Murray in GroundHog Day??

"Yea Rita... They're politicians.."

:D

Michale

I find that Bowdlerization of the Declaration of Independence very troubling. The Declaration doesn't say all of us are created equal. It says "all men are created equal." From the historical record we know that the word MEN was not used synonymously with HUMAN BEING, it meant Caucasian males with property.

"No fine print. No expiration date." says O'Malley, but he's of Irish extraction, so he knows better than that ("no dogs or Irish"). Plenty of fine print (starting with the original Constitution) and if there was no expiration date to the US Constitution (Jefferson advocated one) the much broader definition of American Equality (more or less recognized today) required more than 200 years of ripening.

I get what O'Malley is doing. He's preaching a platform of economic fairness, and he's framing the topic in a way that makes white middle class Democrats feel comfortable. But, it's intellectually dishonest pandering. It makes him seem look like he's auditioning for the role of VP (balancing pole for a wire walking Hillary), which I think is likely true.

More perfect union. That's they concept Dems need to focus on.

Ahem... FDR... Democrat... Internment camps...

Let's be fair here...

Many MANY Democrats are intimately familiar with the concept of "barbed wire fences", metaphorically speaking..

In addition to the FDR example, Obama's drone and domestic surveillance programs surely come under the (metaphorical) heading of "barbed wire fences"...

I know ya'all just LOVE to blame the GOP for all this country's ills...

But look to your own house before casting stones, eh??

I'm just sayin....

Michale

"Because the enduring symbol of our nation is not the barbed wire fence... it is the Statue of Liberty."

That's something a lot of politicians, especially republicans, seem to have forgotten.

Since it is still early in the game, I think it would be a great idea to revisit this series again.

In addition to giving the candidates more time to refine their positions, it would also allow some time to (mercifully) whittle down the number of candidates, assuming we revisit after Iowa and the first primaries.

Besides, we have other things that require a careful reading, after all ...cough Iran deal cough ...

I noticed that when I did this back in 2007, it was actually right around Thanksgiving. In other words, much further along in the campaign.

So my question to readers is: should I revisit this series later this year? That would give the candidates time to have a lot more speeches to choose from, and it would be a lot closer to when everyone is getting ready to vote.

So let me know, should we do another series later in the year, maybe around the holidays?

Also, one note for my Twitter followers: tomorrow's column is pre-loaded and should appear roughly 24 hours from now, but I may not be able to tweet it. Or I may tweet very late tomorrow night. Either way, just wanted to warn folks.

-CW