Media Massacre

Yes, Dennis Kucinich is my first choice. If he is nominated, I will
probably not vote Green. Sharpton may also be acceptable because he is such
and outsider.

Dean is in danger of destructing, but I don't think he's doing it himself.
Everything we see is filtered through the media. The "Howard Howl" could
just as easily be portrayed as a good thing. When Clinton lost in New
Hampshire, he energized the troops with "I know how to take a punch" and the
media thought it was a stroke of genious. When Ventura "shocked the world"
with his undignified persona, he was a media darling, as least in the early
days.

With owners like GE, TimeWarner, Disney, and Viacom, I expect the media to
go after any candidate that threatens their power. I actually see the
current media massacre as a sign that maybe Dean is for real after all. No
truly good candidate will ever get to the presidency without first being
blasted by the media. At the same time, I don't think the media is all bad,
and a lot of good stories get through. But when push comes to shove, I
think the media steps in.

Most people, meanwhile, just want to pick the winning horse, so they're
frantically trying to second-guess other voters. Without time to research
the issues, afraid to stand out from the crowd, and looking for any cue,
they're easy targets for the media. The media tells them who the winning
horse is, and the people place their bets.

To be honest, my research on the candidates is quite incomplete. Since the
MPR survey looks for exact issue matches rather than shades-of-degree
rankings, it may have less accuracy. On NAFTA, for example, some want to
change it and some want to get rid of it. Only Bush wants to keep it
without standards for labor, the environment, and human rights.

So my positions might not be as divergent with Edwards as the results
indicate, but there are still some differences. Edwards wants to keep the
Patriot Act. Like Dean, he wants to offer tax credits for health insurance,
which I think is convoluted. Also, running so soon after joining the Senate
in 1998 might make him look like a good outsider, but it reminds me of Norm
Coleman--perhaps too much personal ambition.

As for Clark, he wants to develop more ethanol, even though it takes about a
gallon of ethanol to make a gallon of ethanol. Also, I believe he sits on
the board of George Soros' International Crisis Group (ICG) with the likes
of Zbigniew Brzezinski and Richard Allen, former Reagan National Security
Advisor. The media jumped on Clark, though, about Michael Moore calling
Bush a deserter, but I thought that was true. Moore's book "Stupid White
Men" said he skipped out from the Texas Air National Guard for a year and a
half.

One of the main things I look at is how the candidates get their money.
I'll vote Green before I vote for Lieberman or Kerry, and I am suspicious of
Clark and Edwards. I like that Dean gets small contributions from the
Internet.

One other thought, some pundits have really jumped on Dean for criticizing
Fed Chair Alan Greenspan. The precious metals community is also critical of
Greenspan for jacking up the money supply. Also, I think Dean reads
copvcia.com because the media also jumped on him for mentioning some 9/11
theories. To me this is a good sign that he has an open mind.