2004

I voted for Dukakis in '88. I think i voted absentee for Clinton in '92 when i lived in England but can't really remember. If i didn't, i wanted to. I voted for Harry Browne in 2000. I'm pretty sure I speak French better than Kerry. I've spent time in Germany, France, Holland (if you think it's 'The Netherlands' you didn't stay long enough), Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Brussels, Sweden, Japan. I paid $20 or so for a moveon.org movie called "uncovered". I loved Michael Moores's TV show "TV Nation". I listen to Air America a lot. I've never voted for a Republican for President in my life. This time i did. If you've listened to enough of certain media figures, you now either hate me or think i'm dumb. But if JFK was running i would have voted for him. If our recent Democratic governor of Georgia Roy Barnes was running for president i would have probably voted for him. I would definitely not vote for our current Republican Governor Perdue if he ran for president (as if).

I used to identify with Democrats. I don't think i've changed that much. If anyone who knows me thinks i have let me know. Have i lived in the South too long? Is that bad? Am i parroting Zell Miller? Maybe so because that's what i'm getting at.

Zell wrote an article for the AJC (atlanta paper) yesterday. It was not like the RNC convention speech. That RNC speech was a little much. Don't be afraid to read this -- it's a lot more measured than his recent media appearances. He says that with what is seen as "bad economy, bad deficit, bad foreign war, bad gas prices" it is astounding that an oppostion party could not win. The South (1980) used to have 20 Democratic Senators and just 6 Republicans. Now it has 22 Republican Senators and just 4 Democrats. And that's despite a massive exodus of african-americans from the Northeast and Northwest to the South which the non-southern pundits would (i guess wrongly) assume favors Democrats in the South.

He says nothing has changed but the Democratic party itself. He certainly does not believe he has changed and i tend to believe him. He was happily retired when Senator Paul Coverdell died and Governor Roy Barnes appointed Zell to fill his spot. That's the only reason he is even still in politics -- he tried to get out and was pulled back in. He is speaking as a man who has no need to "say the right thing" to try and keep a committe chairmanship. Usually that means you want to hear what that person has to say. He wants the Democrats to be a winning party again and hints how. The article is here. mirror Skip the first two paragraphs.