Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 25, 2005 Action out of office may be key to winning it You know things are pretty bad for the Democrats if all they have to do these days is start thinking about how to do better in 2008 - what they couldn't do in '04, and couldn't do in 2000. If you get right down to it, they couldn't do it in any one political campaign since 1976 with the exception of one bright star in the '90s (see today's commentary by Susan Estrich as just one example). Most of the rest of the world knows that we simply can't sweep away our involvement in the next four critical years of American history. Or at least we hope they do, because so much is on the line. In the next four years, the battle for the future of social security will be fought and won, by someone. It looks eerily similar to the Hillary Clinton-led attack on socializing health care. The difference was the Republican-led opposition was so mobilized, so early, that Mrs. Clinton's agenda never had the chance to get rolling, much less earn genuine scrutiny or victory. Now, the social security box is decidedly unlocked by the man that beat Mr. Lockbox in 2000. In that box is a tremendous cache of American wealth, stored for nearly two generations, that may be soon tossed around as petty cash. That is not to say that there isn't merit to the idea of the privatization of retirement savings. Perhaps some new ideas can allow Americans more control over their investment and retirement. But we have a sneaking suspicion that the current administration wants a good deal more than that, starting with the absolutely dismantling of the safety net system that millions of Americans have earned. Throw this in the hopper of current events along with an ongoing, deadly war in Iraq, a shift in the possibility for some type of peace in the Gaza Strip, and an administration that is still talking tough to sovereign countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea, and you have an agenda that makes who will run in 2008 seem not only trivial, but petty and self-serving. If the only thing the Democratic Party can offer its constituents is some new plan (or in the case of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, an used plan) to win back the White House, then the party is missing its role in doing its job better for the next four years while out of office, to finally prove its capable of doing the job in office. And Ms. Estrich, while we are anointing candidates, you would do well to take a longer look at the governor from Virginia. He didn't win a senate seat in a handpicked Blue state, but left his Blue state roots to win a southern state so solidly red that Democrats had lost every statewide election for a decade. If your professional advice is to ignore a man who has proven he can win where even a southerner like Al Gore was destroyed, then perhaps its easy to see why the Democratic Party is in the tattered shape it currently is. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams