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Regardless of which candidate you may support for the Democratic Presidential nomination, a number of positive signs that point toward a strong future for the Democratic Party have emerged over the past several weeks.
A survey by Rasmussen Reports released April 3 found that the percent of self-identified Democrats has reached record levels, and the Democrats advantage in party identification over the Republicans is the second highest ever recorded.
“In February, the number of Democrats in the United States soared to the highest level ever measured by Rasmussen Reports—41.5%. In March, despite the squabbling among their leading Presidential candidates, the Democrats held on to those gains–41.1% now consider themselves Democrats. The partisan gap now shows the Democrats with a 9.1 percentage point advantage over the Republicans. While that’s down half-a-point from a 9.7 percentage point advantage last month, it is the second largest advantage ever recorded.”
Democratic voter registration in Pennsylvania in anticipation of this month’s Presidential primary has surged past the four-million mark for the first time ever, leapfrogging registered Republicans and boding well for November’s result in this swing state. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported April 1,
“Democrats in recent weeks topped the four-million-voter mark for the first time ever. Their totals now stand at 4.1 million, compared with about 3.2 million Republicans.On the last day to register, about 33,300 first-time voters signed up as Democrats and another 46,000 Pennsylvanians switched to the blue party. By comparison in the same period, Republicans picked up about 6,000 new registrants and just 1,800 others switched to the Grand Old Party, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.”
Voter turnout has also toppled records in states that have held primaries thus far. In battleground states, additional Democratic voter turnout could shift the election results in November. According to the Dayton Daily News, in Ohio, turnout in the state’s primary last month was up nearly 83% from 2004’s primary turnout. Additionally, almost 17.5 million more voters have shown up to vote in their state’s primary election than in 2000. In Florida, nearly one million more voters showed up to vote in this year’s primary than in 2004, even as neither candidate campaigned in the state and the Democratic Party threatened to unseat the state’s delegates. In Iowa, the perennial battleground state that went for George W. Bush by only 10,000 votes, nearly twice as many voted in the state’s Caucus. In Wisconsin, voter turnout was up 32.7%. In Michigan, where Senator Obama’s name was not even listed on the ballot, turnout was a stunning 3000% higher than in the 2000 primary, and an impressive 363% higher than in 2004.
Even rural counties, which George W. Bush won by 19 percent in 2004, may be shifting towards the Democrats. “A poll conducted this summer by the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that nationwide, rural voters tilted Democratic 46 percent to 43 percent,” reported Mother Jones magazine.
This all bodes well for the future of the Democratic Party. A large number of newly registered voters are young people such as myself. We represent the next generation of the Party, and we hold more progressive values on nearly every issue and tend to vote Democratic. In the 2006 Midterm Elections, 18-29 year-old-voters went for Democrats by a nearly 20% margin. Mother Jones also notes that 56% of “millennials” support gay marriage, 62% favor tax-financed, government-administered universal health care, and nearly twice as many consider themselves “liberal” than the general population.
Though political apathy still runs rampant on college campuses, the race for the Democratic nomination has electrified voters across the nation. Either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton would represent a remarkable and long-overdue first for our nation: the first African-American or first female President. If the aforementioned trends continue, the Democrats have the real possibility of not only taking back the White House in November, but also radically shifting the direction of our government for the foreseeable future.
This entry was originally published in the Knox County Democratic Party Blog at http://www.knoxcountydems.org/?p=15
This weeks battle is to get an Ag Bill through with an expanded food stamp allocation.
sorry I was second but I'll repeat Howard Dean is first.
I would say, that the STRONGER party will be the eventual Independent Party, name it what you will........................if the last 8 months have been any indication just how "strong" the Dempcrats are.....................I consider them weak..........so so alot of other people, and we have basically had enough................Howard or no Howard.
People give Ironman Mike a hard time, here, but he predicted McC would win their primary when he was polling in single digits. HE WON.
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Thanks chal............dont wrry, I consider 99% of these folks here, well friends............we all want basically the same goal................my predicting I consider a , well, gift you might say.............actually it is based on common sense and rationale.........throw in a dose of fact based history, knowing Americans as I do and just plain intuitive insight.............................
I want to be proven wrong come Novemeber...............then can shut up about all this......time for some spaghetti now....................cheers
"THE MOTHER OF ALL BUBBLES"
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=56820
Ecological overshoot whereby humanity exceeds the Earth's carrying capacity is the mother of all "bubbles". Within the current sub-prime mortgage and financial bubbles, and food and energy price increases, we are witnessing the logical and inevitable economic consequences of over-population, resource scarcity, inequitable and unreasonable consumption, and unsustainable economic growth. The global growth machine is seizing up because it is hitting ecological limits, and as a result of its own greed.
If there's a Progressive future, the Democrats won't be the ones to deliver it. They're solidly in the grip of the DLC Republicrats (despite the best efforts of progressives like Phil).
The Dems are the 21st Century Whigs, beset by corruption and internal contradictions.
I predict they will suffer the same fate--and like Mike, I hope I'm proven wrong!
Jane Smiley's got a point.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/here-we-go-again_1_b_96374.html
i think what she's forgetting is that the audiences Hillary is greeting today have no idea what happened yesterday. They're no as in tune to the process and they still have to get new info three times. It takes the MSM six months to get a handle on some stories. It takes a long time to undo two decades or more. It's taken us a good long while to realize that Bush Two was a continuation, not an aberrration.
Chew on that for a while. Then come to grips with the apparent reality that Hillary was an enabler.
Actually, Huron, I'd argue that we are seeing the consequences of gross waste and the failure to maintain the natural cycles of nature.
There's no reason why there should be starvation in Africa. The problem there is that the environment has been worn out (wasted) and the people have been weaned off subsistence agriculture to make them available to prepare resources for export.
Jeez - I've been gone all day and I just scanned the news stories and it's still all about Obama's truth-telling. Hillary's response is just plain sickening. She is now officially a has-been hack. McCain seems like an old man (meant with no respect to anyone over 70). I think my dad who is 82 seems far younger and more with it than McCain.
Phil from last thread... Obama doesn't have to win PA, he has home court advantage in game seven of this playoff and this happens to be game three on her home court which makes it a must for her but not for him.
=chuckle=
eh, or maybe it's this way...
Obama doesn't have to win PA, he has home court ice advantage in game seven of this playoff and this happens to be game three on her home court ice which makes it a must for her but not for him.
It is a bit ironic to hear Hillary (the Clintons made over $100 million in 7 years) and McCain (married a wealthy beer heiress) call Obama 'elitist'.
cC
If you get here tonight on this thread:
I also predicted McCain would win while in single digits simply because he was the only viable candidate. It thought it was an easy pick and no sh*t here either!
I think John Huron will vouch for that as he sought to take me on in that match which I didn't go for.
I'm absolutely amazed at our country's lousy press corp. Hillary can lie through her teeth, as well as Bill -- Bill can earn 800K for speeches for an organization essentially lobbying for the trade deal that she supposedly doesn't support (yet the money sits in their joint account) and the Clinton's earned 109MM in seven years and yet they aren't elites. This whole episode is absolutely insane. I'm so tired of this - I just want the primary season to come to an end. Enough of this gotcha garbage.
Hubby still isn't back from the WA caucus. He left at 9 AM. He'll probably be fairly cranky too. At least he got an early morning bike ride in today.
Bitter and angry in rural Pennsylvania.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4...
This is a mighty fine diary. Please read!
It is a bit ironic to hear Hillary (the Clintons made over $100 million in 7 years) and McCain (married a wealthy beer heiress) call Obama 'elitist'.
Karen,
Someone on a previous thread described it something like this: If you're an elitist who believes there are only two classes of people -- elitists and subordinates -- and a subordinate refuses to be subordinated, then he/she must be an elitist.
Made sense to me.
The Dem turnout has been almost double the Repubs in most of the already decided states too. I hope it's that way right up to, and including, election day!
THIS IS BREAKING NEWS FROM THE SCOTSMAN:
Carter and Gore to endorse Obama and ask Clinton to concede. Holy Smokes!!!!!!!!!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4...
8:37 PM EDT
12.Karen
Sat, 04/12/08
Reply to this
It is a bit ironic to hear Hillary (the Clintons made over $100 million in 7 years) and McCain (married a wealthy beer heiress) call Obama 'elitist'.
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Karen -
Indeed.
McCain's selling point: I'm not elitist -- if I get elected, it will be free Buds for a year to everyone who voted for me (courtesy of the spouse's father's beer empire).
Clinton's selling point: I'm not elitist -- if I get elected, it will be no free tax preparations for a year to everyone who voted for me (courtesy of the spouse's past dealings with Bahrainis, etc.)
8:37 PM EDT
typo - Clinton's selling point: I'm not elitist -- if I get elected, it will be no free tax preparations for a year to everyone who voted for me
s/b - Clinton's selling point: I'm not elitist -- if I get elected, it will be free tax preparations for a year to everyone who voted for me
Thanks for the last two links. The first was a great read. The second.....Holy Smokes is right! I sure hope this is true!!! JM in NY
As did I, given that I was praying fervently that it would be so. That it IS so, is simply an indicator that the Universe is tired of Republican hacksters. And given the strengths of the Democrats at large (lol!), there was simply no way to better facilitate their taking this election. . . .
MY PREDICTION: MCCAIN IS GOING TO BLOW HIMSELF UP IN SOME REALLY PUBLIC, OBVIOUS AND HUMILIATING WAY.
(please don't forget this is the man who called his wife, who finances him, a c*nt in public. . . .)
poblano is a first rate guy over at Daily Kos so I don't think he'd diary a *Drudge-type* report. I hope so too, Jeff.
From seashell :Thank you for some objectivity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Appreciate it very much, seashell
I have learned to respect poblano's posts too, but remember, he did open with a disclaimer:
This report is from the Scotsman, the same paper that published Samatha Power's "monster" comments.
It is a credible paper, but as a foreign source, it probably deserves an extra level of scrutiny.
Note that all sources in the article are anonymous.
EDIT: It's also not clear that the Scotsman's sources believe this would happen before Pennsylvania. In fact, the implication more seems to be that this is how the endgame might play out after Pennsylvania.
I just don't want to be set up for a disappointment. My feeling is that the Clintons (don'tcha just love the idea of "two for the price of one,"....like getting two rotten tomatoes for the price of one) will never quit their misbegotten race. I forsee Hillary running up to the podium to accept the party's nomination even after Obama's name is announced.
She might try to elbow Obama out of the way at his inaugaration too, saying "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Chief Justice."
Joan In Florida
Sat, 04/12/08
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I commend your pick of Mccain for the nomination........but quite honestly, i fail to unerstand how it could have been anyone else.............now, put your talent to the test and go for the big kahuna, the Presidential election....................this is where one puts up or shuts up..........my cards are on the table and I say, like Ive said al along for quite some time now.............Mccain...........many ingredinet sof rthis recipe to disaster are there, and the ones that are missing the Democrats will kindly hand him.....................arent we seeing this already?
Like I said, the Liberal revoluation Fred speaks about is another mid east war and major economic upheaval or depression here at home away yet..........................in street terms, many people have not smartened up yet.......................they will, eventualy................Ive been waiting since 1980.
I bet you picked New England in the Super Bowl......................
OBAMA wants WHO? for VP.
Stillman writes that a rumor from a friend at DNC reveals that Obama is impressed with Daschle.
Well, why not, didn't we read here that Daschle and Durbin sort of hatched his presidential run right after the '04 convention. This was the plan? I hope not. kos
donna - You're so right. I've got my hopes up though...
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JedReport is out with another winner. Hillary clinton: I'm more American than he is.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4...
Michael Ellis
Sat, 04/12/08
Reply to this
13.
Joan In Florida
Sat, 04/12/08
MIchael,
I'll put my cards on the table for Nov. I say Obama. I don't think a guy who supports Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest and his Iraq policy can win. After two disastrous Bush terms and the now radioactive label that accompanies the Repub party because of Bush, my money will be on Obama. I also picked the Giants in the Super Bowl, though admitted it was loyalty and hopeful wishful thinking that guided me, not logic. JM in NY
It's 6:52 PST and my husband just walked in the door from the caucus. He's rolling his eyes. LOL
Catch y'all later.
If the missiles are flying into Iran before Nov., and the empty ships are evacuating our troops from the bases, and McCain is standing in front of a dozen flags with hand over heart and imploring real Americans to protect America, does anyone here think the women voters are going to vote for a woman for president or vice president?
33.
audrey.nc
Sat, 04/12/08
If the missiles are flying into Iran before Nov., ….. does anyone here think the women voters are going to vote for a woman for president or vice president?
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That’s, imo, the only scenario that has a chance of bringing McCain..., it wouldn’t hurt if Demos “preemptively” talked through it over and over again. I’m not surprised Clinton did not do it..., I’m surprised Obama done neither.
Jeff Morris
Sat, 04/12/08
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I hope youre right................heres my record since 1976..................
Carter, Reagan,Reagan,Bush, Bush (wrong), Clinton, Clinton,Bush, Bush.........................Mccain?
new one
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