Clark supporters, why did Max Cleland lose?

Max Cleland was in the military, he lost 3 limbs in Vietnam. He was also running in a Southern state, where supposedly they worship the military. He voted for the war, the tax cuts and the Patriot Act, and still LOST to a chickenhawk Republican.

So Clarkies tell me, if our candidate has military experience, and arent "too liberal" they are electable, why did Max Cleland lose? to a CHICKENHAWK? How can Clark avoid that fate? McGovern was a freakin' medal winner, WWII war hero, on top of that.

Posted to respond to the constant litany of "Dean is unelectable"

all-around, not just for Cleland.
He voted against the Homeland bill (for good reasons) and he got smeared for it. Whats ridiculous is that Democrats were for a Homeland Security department even before 911, but once 911 happened, the GOP took the issue and filled the bill with CRAP. Cleland voted against it.

that having a candidate from the military is not by itself the panacea for Democrats this year?

heard a Clark supporter state that to be the case.

. . . different from Clark's (alleged) opposition to the popular Iraq War?

If Cleland could get bounced and drowned out of the race as an experienced politician who lost limbs in Vietnam, how can Clark hope to survive an onslaught as an inexperienced campaigner?

Cleland opposed the union-busting provisions in the bill. Cleland voted for LOTS of alternate bills and amendments that provided the same or more in budgeting for Homeland Security, but didn't attempt to break the Federal employees Union.

georgia is full of rednecks like Alabama. Other southern states aren't as red.

John Lewis and Cynthia McKinney represented rednecks. For that matter Cleland won the first time.

Dean has no answers to either.

voting machines in gop favor. saxby chambliss even said that we should make sure voting is as fair as possible, unless he is in the race.

because he is simply the best candidate for the job. :)

Clark won't take the crap

Just curious.

Oh, that's comforting. A career military man proclaiming that "he will beat the shit out of them". Somehow, that sounds kind of hot-headed and...angry...and frankly, violent. But then, that may just be me...

I wonder what will happen in the general election?

... Clark has zero track record in electoral politics, running a campaign, getting elected, or keeping promises to the electorate. Clark is no more qualified to be pres than Al Sharpton.

A foreshadowing of this year, unless we prevail over e-vote fraud.

Clark is from Arkansas with Louisiana right next door.

DTH

plus, there is so much more to Clark than his military record. He is brilliant, articulate, has worked with world leaders, is a great negotiator, he can nail someone's butt to the wall without coming off as arrogant.... the list goes on and on

is a pigfucker!

Kosovo and the NATO Command was just a few years ago.

In part, it's a stupid answer, but we are dealing with severe Attention Deficit Disorder here.

Dems further down the ballot won their races by the same margin Cleland supposedly lost by. No way did people vote against a disabled vet for Senate and then go on to vote for a bunch of other Dems for statewide offices. It makes no sense. That was a Diebold test case -- and they got away with it.

the election...NOT re-certified as required by law. the BFEE make their own laws and mindless Americans allow it. :mad:

As his latest example, he lied about Dean, claiming he "ran from the draft".

This lame charge has been disproven a thousand times by now. If Max Cleland does not want to be known as a liar, then he should stop lying. Lying has a way of losing you elections.

Just a suggestion.

Tax cuts, patriot act, the works. That, and the vote fraud.

... in his speech at a repub fundraiser in 2001.

Just wondering.

...nice or agreeable things to say about W?

Think about it before you answer.

-- cheating by Diebold's machines and the smear job on Senator Cleland are correct, I think.

Diebold has a lot to answer for. A lot. Senator Boxer's bill will be introduced this year; it requires written documentation for electronic voting machine transactions. Write to your Senators in support of her bill. In fact, ask them to co-sponsor it.

As for Ralph Reed, the GOP Georgia mudslinger, he personally directed the smear job on Max Cleland on completely false grounds. I am not kidding when I say Ralph Reed should be jailed for treason.

Diebold's deceit and Reed's smearing -- that's why Max Cleland lost.

But the GOP might have to encounter Cleland again: he'd make a sensational VP nominee. From the podium in Boston, Max could cry out: "I may be in a wheelchair for serving my country in battle, but I can still throw tea into the harbor!"

and dems need the numbers at the polls to win.

the GOP had a strong party push to get out their voters and the dems didn't.

i live in georgia and saw it, and never believed democratic leads in the polls before the election about either barnes or cleland, the latter had problems because he was a democrat, not because saxby chambliss was a chickenhawk who ran an ugly campaign.

but its your absurd analogy that is really funny. are you really that goofy to relate the two campaigns and not to see the fundamental differences between them?

sometimes around here i think i wandered into a jr high school debating group full of self important idiots.

but I gather that Cleland didn't fight back; I don't think he was expecting the vicious campaign they ran against him.

Also I heard somewhere that the Confederate or Georgia flag was a big issue, & helped defeat Dems across the state. Didn't a popular governor lose in Ga?

Like to hear from someone with more facts than I have.

Roy Barnes changed the confederate, I mean, state flag. MANY dems in Georgia lost in that election cycle - and several state level dems switched parties in 2002.

state. The climate down here is CRAZY! There are people down here who hate liberals so much they say in public...My mom has heard them say that they'd go home and get their SHOTGUNS and shoot liberals.

So you wonder? GWB, Zell, Perdue have enabled the hate down here.

How do I know? I LIVE IN GA!

He's not Clark. :)

It was because he didn't put up a sufficient fight. he was intimidated by the Republicans, and tended to roll over for them. He didn't really understand the nature of what he was up against and was utterly unprepaired for the kind of attacks that he got.

I don't believe that Wesley Clark has any of those weaknesses.

I also don't believe that Dean is unelectable. I believe that Clark is more electable than Dean, but I think that Dean is more electable than the other seven candidates.

in 1984 and 2002?

Why did Dukakis lose?

McGovern?


(by the way, I think your "clarkies" reference is a rules violation.)

Georgia is trending Republican, and no 'mainstream' Democrat is going to win statewide there for a while.

the imaginary idea that having been in the military gives him an advantage. We get stuck with Clark and we not only have a democrat for reasons of convenience (couldn't beat bush in the republican primary)but one who is completely untested.
His business ties since he retired are not exactly appetizing either.

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