YES WE DID!







  [Dec. 29,  2011] I have put pages about the 2008 and 2012 "Lesser Known Candidates" forums at  the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.  In 2012, all the Democratic challengers to President Obama are lesser-known.  One of them,  John Wolfe, is a pretty good candidate, but I am still In for Obama!

  [Aug. 9, 2010] I have rolled out my 2012 Presidential Election page, as well as my page about the 2010 New Hampshire midterm elections.

  [Jan. 19, 2009] I thought I was through with this election, but not quite. I added a couple of items during the last days of Bush II's reign:

  [Jan. 8, 2008] Barack Obama's election as President is now totally official: the Congress met in joint session on January 8, and certified the electoral college vote: 365 for Obama & Biden, 173 for McCain & Palin. Unlike in January 2001 and January 2005, this count took place with no major controversy. (The closest thing to controversy came from Cliff Stearns, the Congressman from Gainesville, who wanted the tally to be postponed so that members from Florida and Oklahoma could attend the 2008-2009 college football championship game.)

  [Nov. 8, 2008] The American people took their country back on November 4, 2008 by electing Barack Obama President, along with progressive majorities in both Houses of Congress. I am still in shock: this is the culmination of a long series of events which began way back in 1998, with Clinton's impeachment, and continued through two stolen elections, and Bush & Cheney's non-impeachment. Wow! When this whole mess started, Barack Obama was a little-known state Senator from Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, George W. Bush was a well-respected Governor, and Sarah Palin was the part-time mayor of a wide place on the highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

For the time being I will leave this page up as is. President Obama (I love the sound of that!) will doubtless run for re-election and Sarah Palin, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are all acting like candidates.





My 2008 Election Page

Copyright © Tim Horrigan 2004-2008

 [September 19, 2008] : I originally created this page on the day after the 2004 election, when it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Jeb Bush would follow his brother into the White House. Jeb actually did no such thing: indeed he even vanished almost completely from public view for a full year after his term as Governor of Florida ran out in January 2007. Jeb stayed out of the 2006 midterm elections altogether. Term limits prevented him from running for another term as Governor, but there was a Senate seat he could have run for. His friend Katherine Harris ran for the seat and this time she failed to steal the election. (The 2006 Senate races were not kind to GOP Presidential hopefuls: the initial frontrunner Sen. George Allen failed to win re-election, as did Sen. Rick Santorum. Sen. Bill Frist refused to run at all and retired from politics altogether.)

I gradually added a long "Enemies List" of the various candidates. The race was supposed to end in early February on "Super Tuesday" but it didn't.

Aside from the fact that it dragged on so long, the Democratic race ran pretty much according to form: the two early front runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton ran two-wide: Obama was slightly ahead the whole time, but only by a nose. Hillary refused to drop out until every last primary and caucus was done. I personally went with third-place finisher John Edwards, who did well in Iowa, not so well in New Hampshire at the polls (although he attracted a lot of casual interest), and was out of the race by January 30th. Many months after he dropped out, Edwards became notorious when it turned out that he had a mysterious girlfriend who gave birth to a mysterious baby not long after Hillary dropped out. Not coincidentally, the Edwards scandal blew up at a atime when he was being touted as a Vice Presidential choice. The nod eventually went to Joe Biden instead.

The Republican race was unpredictable. Rudy Giuliani was the early frontrunner after Allen disappeared (but he faded fast and ended up winning just one delegate.) Mitt Romney was eventually anointed as Bush II's presumptive successor, but he dropped out on the Monday before Super Tuesday. The mainstream media then reduced the Republican race to two candidates: John McCain and Mike Huckabee— ; although Ron Paul obstinately continued campaigning without the media's permission. (Paul passed up the chance to be the Libertarian party nominee, since he was still the Republican nominee for his U.S. House seat in south Texas. But he also refused to endorse McCain after dropping out of the Presidential race in March 2008.)

McCain suffered through a short-lived scandal in late February when the New York Times revealed the name of his girlfriend. (Her name is Vicki Iseman, and she is a lobbyist for the conservative lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay. She somewhat ironically works primarily on behalf of media companies.) The furore instantly morphed into an uproar over how awful it was that the liberal media had covered the story at all. The whole storm blew over quite quickly, even though McCain blatantly lied about his (non-)involvement with Ms Iseman..

On "Super Duper Tuesday" (March 4, 2008) McCain finally went "over the top" by officially winning a majority of the Republican delegates. His campaign was pretty dull until August 31, 2008, when he chose a female Vice Presidential candidate who no one ever heard of and who looked a lot like Vicki Iseman: Sarah Plain, the vivacious and capable— but laughably underqualified— first term Governor of Alaska. This is an insulting choice on many levels, even though she did help McCain in ther early polls. As a resident of New Hampshire, I am especially insulted by the fact that we are supposed to get so excited about someone who wasn't even Governor yet when the New Hampshire Primary race began back in 2006. (The official kickoff of the 2008 New Hampshire Primary campaign was a small but memorable town hall meeting with Joe Biden in June 2006— ; although other potential candidates found reasons to visit to the Granite State long before that. In particular John Edwards had been coming to New Hampshire since 2001.)



Anyone But Jeb

The anti-Bush forces' battlecry changed from "Anyone But Bush!" to "Anyone But Jeb!" even before Dubya was finished stealing the 2004 election.

Until recently, the presumptive successor to the current President Bush was his brother, Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida. Jeb Bush is best known for delivering Florida's electoral votes to his brother in 2000 and 2004. In 2000, he was successful even though his brother's opponent actually got more voters to the polling places. His efforts in 2004 were just as remarkable!

In 2005, Jeb attracted international notice for his leadership of the fight to bring Terri Schiavo back from the dead.  Also in 2005, Hurricane Katrina passed over Jeb's home state and did relatively moderate damage before gathering strength over the Gulf of Mexico and devastating the Liberal Democrat-ruled state of Louisiana.

The plan was for Jeb Bush to use the scheduled 2008 Presidential election process to ascend to power in his brother's stead. Presently, Amendment XXII to the US Constitution limits George W. Bush to two four-year terms. Therefore the election of Jeb Bush would have been the most expedient means of continuing Bush rule in a time of ongoing crisis. (The 22nd Amendment could theoretically be repealed. However, that would be virtually unthinkable because any new amendment repealing the old amendment would have to also allow Bill Clinton to run for additional terms.)

Jeb opted out of the 2006 midterm elections altogether (which destroyed George Allen's and Rick Santorum's candidacies) by not running for the U.S. Senate. (He couldn't run for a third term as governor thanks to term limits.) The Republican candidate was his close friend Congresswoman Katherine Harris, who was instrumental in preventing Al Gore and the American people from stealing the 2000 Presidential Election from the Bush family. She lost to the Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.

Jeb returned briefly to private life when his term as Governor of Florida expired in January 2007. He was planning to begin running for President in response to public outcry for him to pick up his brother's torch. However, there has been little or no outcry on his behalf.

Jeb's and W's Enemies

Here are some web links to a few of Jeb and W's enemies, who are—even in a time of war— still scheming to interfere with the orderly handover of power from brother to brother:


Barack Obama in my hometown of Durham, NH, Feb. 12, 2007

Barack Obama, Columbia Class of 1983, Senator from Illinois:


Joseph Biden, Senator from Delaware:



Paris Hilton, World's Second-Biggest Celebrity:
Candidates have left Presidential races because of attack ads, but Paris Hilton is the first to enter a race because of an attack ad. She was the subject of an attack ad from a candidate whom she refuses to name and describes only as an "that wrinkly white-haired guy," so she jumped into the race to defend herself. She is doing a fine job of defending herself, and her announcement video featured a surprisingly sensible energy plan.





Bob Barr, former Congressman from North Atlanta:
Bob Barr has spoken out in favor of the impeachment of George W. Bush, but he was vastly more outspoken in favor of Bill Clinton's impeachment. In fact, Barr was already calling for Clinton I's head back when Monica was still in college. Unless Jeb Bush or Mike Bloomberg jumps into the race, Barr will have been the last (at least semi-) serious candidate (aside from Paris Hilton) to enter the 2008 race. He didn't announce the formation of his exploratory committee until April 5, 2008— ; after several other candidates (including Barr's fellow Atlantan Newt Gingrich) had already begun their 2012 runs. He was one of the first candidates however to become a real rather than presumptive nominee: the Libertarian Party nominated him on the sixth ballot on May 25, 2008. He chose Wayne Root (see below) as his Vice Presidential running mate.

Barr was the first serious candidate to be nominated on 2008: Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party (see above) is not really prepared to serve as President. Barr, even though he is highly unlikely to win, is a plausible President. (Or, at least, he is no more implausible than some who have actually won.)






Wayne Allyn Root, Columbia Class of 1983, Las Vegas oddsmaker & author:

(Root was a classmate of Barack Obama's: they were both poli sci majors.)


CBaldwin08.jpg

Dr. Chuck Baldwin: Theologian, Chat Show Host and Former Vice Presidential Candidate:
Well maybe the relatively unknown Baldwin is "relatively" unknown just to me: he did run for Vice President in 2004 on the Constitution Party ticket alongside Presidential nominee Michael Peroutka. And now, he is following God's will by running for President this time around. He was the first Presidential candidate to actually be nominated by a national party, albeit the tiny and ridiculous Constitution Party.




Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from East Atlanta, and USC Class of 1978:
I had almost forgotten about the Green Party and even about Cynthia McKinney (although she is an unforgettable personality.) They are both still around and she is their nominee.


Rosa Clemente in the Lower 9th Ward

Rosa Clemente, Hip-Hop Activist
Rosa Clemente, the Greens' VP nominee, is the first Hip-Hop Activist to be on a national ticket. I am not sure what a Hip-Hop Activist is, but the Hip-Hop community is excited. What is exciting for the rest of us is that a national party (albeit one which will get about 0.1% of the vote) chose a black woman to serve as another black woman's running mate. This is a sign of social progress.


John McCain, Senator from Arizona:






Sarah Palin: Governor of Alaska

I was caught off-guard by this one. She is a relatively obscure Governor of Alaska, first elected just two years ago in 2006, with a very thin resume. Her only previous elective offices were Mayor and City Councilor of Wasilla, an Anchorage suburb. Her name was. however, mentioned this spring and summer as a possible Veep, since she was one of the few available Republican women. She is a good-looking woman —luv them glasses!— though not nearly as sexy as Hillary Clinton. She seems to have been nominated primarily in reaction to Hillary's defeat— even though Hillary herself strongly supports Obama— and even though Palin's (and McCain's) political positions are anathema to most Hillary supporters.


Dr. Alan Keyes: Former Reagan Adminstration Official, Chat Show Host, and Serial Candidate:
I met Alan Keyes during one of his previous Presidential runs. I vividly remember the event, which was at Dartmouth College's Collis Center, but one detail has slipped my mind: the year! It was probably during the 1996 cycle, but he also ran in 2000. He has run for many offices, carefully choosing only high-visibility races which he has no chance of winning. His most recent run was against Barack Obama: Keyes lost the 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate race by a mere 43 points. (But maybe that's not so bad considering that he only entered the race 86 days before the general election, and also considering that he was— and still is—from Maryland.) This time around, he has made even Hillary Clinton look like a defeatist: he has been turned down by not one, not two, but three political parties, so he is now running as an independent.

Not in the Race, but Not to Be Forgotten:


John Edwards, 2004 Vice Presidential Candidate and former Senator from North Carolina:


Al Gore with the Earth's lifeless sister planet Venus.
(This is what the Earth will look like someday if we don't heed his words.)

Al Gore, ex-Vice President, 2000 Presidential Candidate & 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate:
(In 2000, Gore went down to total, utter and absolute defeat even though he got more votes than George W. Bush in the presidential election. Nevertheless, in spite of this unprecedented humiliation, he has refused to retire from public life.)


Hillary Clinton in Hampton, New Hampshire, April 14, 2007

Hillary Rodham Clinton, former First Lady and current Senator from New York:
(It took her long enough but she finally conceded and endorsed Obama on Saturday, June 7, 2008.)




Kucinich yard sign in New Hampshire snow bank, December 2007

Dennis J. Kucinich, Congressman from Cleveland, Ohio:


Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico


Mike Gravel with Channel 9 news team; Concord, NH; June 2007

Mike Gravel, Colunbia Class of 1956, former Senator from Alaska:
Sen. Gravel played a huge role in ending the Vietnam War back in the '70s: he was the Senator who read the "Pentagon Papers" into the public record. It's a shame that he was not in the Senate during the '00s.


Dr. Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas:
In some ways (though definitely not in others!) Paul might fit in better with the Democrats. On the key issue of the war, he is blunter even than Dennis Kucinich in saying that the war was totally wrong, and he started saying so just as early. He even challenges the orthodoxy on 9/11, and he is the only candidate on either side who worries about the fact that our government (and even our private sector) is going bankrupt. But he is running very much as a Republican— so much so that his official campaign bio glosses over what he did in the mid-1980s. It says: "In 1984, he voluntarily relinquished his House seat and returned to his medical practice." In the next sentence, 13 years have passed and he is back in Congress. The bio skips over the fact that he ran for President as a Libertarian in 1988 (finishing 3rd in the popular vote, with 0.5% of the vote, just 45.1 percentage points behind Mike Dukakis)— and didn't rejoin the GOP until 1994.


Rev. Mike Huckabee: Former Governor of Arkansas and Bass Player
I actually forgot to put up a section about Huckabee till March 2008. In fact I didn't do it till the day he dropped out. He is, like Hillary Clinton's husband, a musician from Arkansas. But he is much more conservative, though I guess he is a better musician.



http://www.cafepress.com/mittsincere1
Willard Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts and 2002 Winter Olympics CEO:


Part of Willard's campaign strategy was to buy ads on extreme rightwing blogs — such as GOPBloggers, which posted racist comments on February 9, 2007 to the effect that Barack Obama is using "the so-called 'racial debate' nonsense" as "a shield from criticism." I posted a remark about GOPBloggers.org on my DailyKos diary, and the head writer for this blog saw my post and went to the trouble of rebutting "this moron from DailyKos."


Daniel Imperato with Maltese cross necklace

Daniel Imperato, Businessman, Philanthropist and Knight:

Imperato was the only 2008 candidate to openly admit to being a Papal Knight as well as a Knight of Malta. He also says he is a member of the Orden Bonaria and serves as the organization's representative to the United Nations— although it is unclear if the Orden Bonaria in fact actually has an official UN representative. If he had won the Presidential election, his knighthoods could have proven problematic, since Art. I Sect. 9 of the US Constitution states: "no person holding any office of profit or trust under [the United States of America], shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state."

See Also: My 2016 Presidential Election page

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