Cuppa Joe's

Now for some good ol' US politics - just to bore the wee wee out of everyone!

Ive just been reading a fascinating article in the New Republic - one of the leading US political journals, talking about former Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman's failed primary election campaign to hold his seat in the Senate out of Conneticutt (sp? - im sure thats wrong anyway). Lieberman failed in his nomination for the Presidency in 2004, and was as mentioned Al Gore's running partner in 2000. Aside from these loses though, he has held a seat in the Senate for four terms, and was initially seen as a front runner in 2004 (before Howard Dean was endorsed by Gore, and John Kerry took the middle ground).

Lieberman's problem though, is that he is seen as pro-Bush, arguing that people shouldnt criticise the President at a time of war. Which if the country is under attack, or in a situation like WW2, then yes he is right - you don't need an opposition politicking at the sidelines. But the Iraq situation is different, there was/is no immediate threat and the Democrats were needing to act as an opposition (exactly the same problem for the ALP in Australia).

What is interesting though is how this Democratic Party primary could effect the main vote in 2008. Middle America were scared off by Bush's attacks on Kerry's indecisive - limp wristed "flip flop" nature in 2004. For the Democrats to abandon one of their senior players in such a fashion, could leave them open to the same attacks again in 2008.

In saying that Hillary Clinton is looking as solid as ever in the New York senate race, which is promising for 2008. However Howard Dean (avid Clinton hater), has taken over the running of the Democratic national body - the DNC, meaning that Hillary's ride will be rocky to say the least, and expect to see toes being tread on and blood spilt along the way.

The Democrats seem to almost be like NZ or UK Labour in the 90s, to busy fighting each other - therefore losing time and time again.

So looking to 2008, I expect to see the race being between Senator John McCain (Republicans) and Hillary (Democrats), to be honest - I could handle either, neither are nutbars of Bush proportions, and frankly from a New Zealand perspective McCain visits here a lot, and has been our biggest backer for a free-trade deal - he even referred to NZ as an ally, which we havent been called since ANZUS broke down over the Nukes issue in 1986. So while I will hopefully head over to campaign for Hillary victory, a McCain administration should suffice.