John Kerry 112,639 votes (69.7%)
John Edwards 26,074 votes (16.1%)
Howard Dean 7,948 votes (4.9%)
Wesley Clark 7,091 votes (4.4%)
Bill McGaughey 3,161 votes (2.0%)
Dennis Kucinich 2,411 votes (1.5%)
Lyndon LaRouche 2,329 votes (1.4%)
Further comments 1/13/08:
"Bill" - Bill Richardson, Governor of
New Mexico - has now dropped out of the race. Another "Bill"
- former U.S. President Bill Clinton - is heavily involved in his
wife's rebounding campaign. So how does the 2008 presidential race
look to the "Bill" of 2004 - Bill McGaughey, the fifth-place
finisher in the Louisiana Democratic primary? As
if anyone cares! But here goes.
On the Democratic side, I like Barack Obama. True,
he lacks high-level administrative experience, but experienced assistants
can be hired. Obama had to run in 2008, even if his resume is thin,
because a unique opportunity presented itself then. He has formidable
personal qualities as a campaigner and has put together a solid
campaign. His message is upbeat and uplifting. So that's good enough
for now.
I hate the politics of racial and gender discrimination.
In 2002, as a candidate for U.S. Senate with the Independence Party
of Minnesota, I ran on two planks, one of which was "dignity
for white males". For this, I was excoriated as a white racist.
The "legal department" of the Star Tribune newspaper in
Minneapolis rejected my paid campaign ad because it contained that
phrase. The paper refused to report anything about my campaign,
even the election results.
I did not campaign on the racial theme in Louisiana
because I thought it would look too much like a northerner coming
down to a southern state pandering to white-racist sentiment and,
also, because I had something important to say in the economic area.
Better to keep the message undivided and simple.
Ironically, the "dignity for white males"
position plays better with African Americans than with white liberals.
One black male offered to help me convert my car into a "white-male-mobile"
for the 2004 campaign. Another drove down with me to Des Moines
to participate in August 2003 to stage my only campaign activity
in Iowa.
In January 2003, I made a point of approaching
some well-known African American political figures at a meeting
of the Committee for a Unified Independence Party in New York and
telling them that my campaign was partly based on "dignity
for white males". I was pleasantly surprised to hear the response
from former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney - or was it Lenora Fulani?
- who said: "I'm for that, too." I was elated. But, of
course, we remain mired in the politics of white and male oppression.
A white man like me doesn't have enough political fire power to
get past that barrier. Barack Obama does.
Obama achieved national prominence at the 2004
Democratic national convention with a keynote speech advocating
that the nation come together racially and in other respects. Sure,
he's black and proud; but he also had a white mother - someone who
raised him. So I think he's quite sincere in preaching racial reconciliation.
He doesn't hate or despise white people as a race as many blacks
(and even whites) do.
As for Hillary Clinton, I view her as a candidate
of the old-style politics of racial and gender discrimination. She's
a candidate of the Democrats' special interests. Her husband, President
Bill Clinton, pushed through NAFTA even though I personally handed
him a book in the spring of 1992 urging him not to. And her campaign
manager, Terence McAuliffe, is the guy who got me kicked off the
ballot in South Carolina in 2004. But, I must admit, my wife likes
Hillary and intends to vote for her once her citizenship application
is approved. I, too, must admit that Hillary is a disciplined person.
The way she stuck with Bill after his sexual shenanigans is a point
in her favor.
John Edwards strikes me as someone who made lots
of money as a lawyer and who views the campaign as an opportunity
to wow the voters with skilled rhetoric as he once approached juries.
His message is sound, but I'd feel better about Edwards if he offered
some plausible, specific proposals on how to improve the economic
situation of the middle class.
On the Republican side, I admire John McCain's
long and distinguished record of public service, his bipartisan
tendencies, and, of course, his gritty experience as a POW in North
Vietnam. Stylistically, however, he must watch occasionally becoming
too preachy. Ideologically, I'm closest to Ron Paul who is campaigning
against the American "empire" in Iraq and elsewhere. Good
luck to him! But personal loyalty trumps ideology in politics, so
that's why I'm going with Mitt Romney.
My dad worked with Mitt's father, George Romney,
for more than twenty years. They car pooled to work together. Together
they helped organize the mobilization of the U.S. auto industry
to production of tanks and aircraft in World War II, put on the
automobile industry's "Golden Jubilee" celebration in
1946, and used the Disneyland television show to pitch the Rambler
automobile successfully and spark the "compact car revolution"
of the late '50s.
I didn't know Mitt that well when I was growing
up - he was just a kid - but I did know his older brother Scott.
We went to the same camp together in the summer of 1953 and in the
summer of 1956 took classes at Detroit's Cass Technical High School
in electrical wiring and welding. Then, when we had completed the
courses, George Romney took us both to a Detroit Tigers baseball
game.
Mitt Romney has had a lot of junk thrown at him
in his presidential campaign starting with the Hollywood film that
portrayed the Mormon patriarch, Brigham Young, as someone who orchestrated
or condoned mass murder. And then, on the eve of the crucial Iowa
caucus, Mitt's chief rival, Mike Huckabee, was given a chance to
appear as a guest on the Tonight show and showcase his guitar-playing
skills. Now, after Mitt finished a close second in the Iowa caucus
and in the New Hampshire primary, all the pundits are saying Mitt's
finished as a candidate. He was the big-spending "Goliath"
who was beaten by the little guys, Huckabee and McCain, who just
happened to enjoy media favor. No tears for him.
If I were in Mitt's shoes, I'd probably break down,
mutter an obscenity, and in an angry withdrawal speech say, like
Dick Nixon in 1962: "Now you won't have Mitt Romney to kick
around any more." But, of course, that's not Mitt's style.
He'll keep slogging along with an upbeat message so long as he has
any chance of winning the nomination and the election.
I felt so bad about this after listening to the
media pundits on the evening after the New Hampshire primary run
down Mitt Romney's chances that I couldn't sleep that night. In
my delirious nighttime thoughts, I hatched a plan to campaign for
Mitt Romney in the upper peninsula of Michigan so he might get a
few extra votes from there in the forthcoming Michigan primary.
It was a 300-mile drive from Minneapolis on Thursday
afternoon (January 11th) to my first stop, Menomenee, Michigan,
fighting snow on the last leg of the trip. Then, the following day,
I visited three newspapers and two television stations showing reporters
and editors the same clay dinosaur that George Romney once held
in his hand while doing commercials for the Disneyland television
show. (Remember the line about the competitors' cars being "gus-guzzling
dinosaurs"?) The media people were interested or amused, but
the bottom line was I got no coverage. In Marquette, a newspaper
editor pointed out to me that there aren't many Republicans in the
upper peninsula. Mitt Romney himself canceled plans to campaign
there last weekend.
Apart from the personal associations, I would recommend
Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate because of his administrative
and political competence. As manager of a capital-investment fund,
he was instrumental in the launch of several successful companies
such as Staples and Domino Pizza. He rescued the Salt Lake City
winter Olympics after a scandal tarnished its reputation. As governor
of Massachusetts, he was effective in working with a Democratic
legislature. We need a competent manager - Republican, Democrat,
or otherwise - to lift this country out of the mess left by the
Bush-Cheney administration. Romney has had more junk thrown at him
than any of the other candidates. So far, he's survived.
Well enough about the Republicans. With respect
to candidates of other parties, I would mention first my old friend
Brian Moore of Tampa, Florida, who is the endorsed candidate of
the Socialist Party. Socialists are quite long-shot in this country
but maybe they can stage a revival with our collapsing economy.
A prospective candidate with the Green Party is former Congresswoman,
Cynthia McKinney, with whom I swapped contact information at that
gathering in New York five years ago. The sleeper, however, or should
I say "800-pound gorilla", is New York mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Will Bloomberg run for President in 2008? Rumor
has it that he will; and, if Bloomberg does run, he may pour some
of his billions into the campaign. In other words, Michael Bloomberg
could actually win the Presidency regardless of who the Democrats
and Republicans nominate. Being an active member of Minnesota's
Independence Party, that prospect is quite interesting to me.
Bill's earlier comments on the 2008 race:
The "Bill for President"
in 2008, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, is a good candidate.He's
experienced, intelligent, and even-tempered, and would certainly
make a better president than the incumbent. But there are other
good candidates, too. I would say, in fact, that this year's crop
of presidential candidates is better than four years ago, when I
ran. Sen. Dodd is thoughtful and experienced. Barack Obama has the
makings of a phenomenon. While she has some personality problems,
Hillary Clinton has proved to be a disciplined and smart politician.
They would all be better than Bush.
On the Republican side, I like Mitt
Romney. He's a good manager who has run an excellent campaign against
great odds. To tell the truth, I also support Mitt because of his
late father, George Romney, who ran for President in 1968. My own
father was a friend and colleague of George Romney at American Motors,
and, before that, at the Automobile Manufacturers Association and
the Automotive Council for War Production. That was an age of American
heroes. Mitt's father was one of them. Mine, too.
Let me say, I tend to favor mavericks.
I like both Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican from Texas, and
Mike Gravel, the left-leaning Democrat from Alaska. A long-time
friend, Brian P. Moore of Tampa, Florida, is also seeking the Presidency
in 2008. He'll run as a socialist. Good for him - shake things up,
Brian!
On the whole, then, the candidates
aspiring to pick up the pieces of what the Bush-Cheney administration
will leave our nation seem to me like a pretty good group of people.
Good luck to them all. They'll need it. Let's hope we don't have
another war before the election.
