About 3 hours ago, the following message arrived in my email box, from a politically active Democrat from Trumansburg:
"I went to the Arcuri talk. After listening to him with an open mind, I'm left feeling a little more pissed off than before. Before, I would read his weak website statement on Iraq, and wonder if someone else wrote it, and hope that he was actually for a timetable. Nope. He said he thought we should redeploy troups to the perimeter of the country - then we could easily send special forces back in for strategic strikes. I said that wasn't good enough, we have to get out, the American people want us out. No answer. Someone asked if he was in favor of Conyers HR635 and if he would investigate wether there were grounds for impeachment. Nope. Someone asked him about economic revitalization of the district - he tried to change the subject to repairing roads - the question was a little over his head.
I don't know why I'm telling you this. I guess because you asked for a report on your blog. I hope he wins. I'll vote for him. I'd vote for a dead fish if thats what the DCCC put on the ballot. I was just hoping for a little inspiration for the phone campaign ya know? A woman from the State Democratic Party spoke a little about the phone campaign. Fortunealtly, the way it works is you call and ask if they support Hillary Clinton and Elliot Spitzer and if they intend to vote. If you get 3 yeses you say thanks, bye and mark em down so we can keep calling them up until the election to make sure they get to the polls. Supposedly this is, the most efficient way to get votes. So I wouldn't have to convince anybody what a great guy Mike Arcuri is."
If anyone else who was at the event has anything to say about it, I'd love to hear more. The same goes for the Democrats over in Caroline. Michael Arcuri was over there too, just a bit before his Trumansburg appearance. I wonder if he got the same kind of questioning there.
17 comments:
Hi Jon,
I didn't think you were going to post my Arcuri comments. It's OK, I just wouldn't be so harsh if I was writing for the public. I don't want to discourage anyone from getting to the polls. Even though I don't like Arcuri, I think it's extremely important to vote for democrats this year. We need 15 seats. We need to give John Conyers the chairmanship of the House Judiciary. We need our country back.
I've heard similar themes from many people. What I don't understand is how people can still say they are going to vote for him. He is just not a good candidate. Democrats (and others) are voting for Arcuri just because he is not a Republican. Well, that's crap. Vote for someone else - the Libertarian candidate, write-in, or someone.
Remember, this person is representing OUR area. Do we want an unethical, unqualified, and generally sub-par candidate to represent us? Even if the Democrats take control of congress, what good is it to us to have a bad representative?
"Do we want an unethical, unqualified, and generally sub-par candidate to represent us?"
YES! Don't you get it? This is bigger than our district. This is about life and death, and the shredding of our constitution. I wish Les Roberts was still running. I wish we had instant runoff voting. I wish we had a viable third party, but let's stop wishing and take a hard look at reality. It's between Arcuri and Meier. A vote for a third party candidate is a waste. A vote for Arcuri is a vote for a Democratic majority in the House - subpoena power! congressional oversight! separation of powers! Democracy! A vote for anybody else is a vote to allow Bush to continue to act as a monarch, spy on us, give tax cuts to the rich, privatize social security, bomb Iran. Congress can stop these things, but only if we elect a Democratic majority. We are rapidly approaching economic disaster, environmental disaster, a constitutional crisis, and a permanent state of war. The only power that can stop it is us, the electorate of the United States. Lets use our vote wisely.
You're not the "Karl Rove blew up the World Trade Center" Allen Carstensen, are you?
Yeah, so let's put someone incompetent in congress. Wonderful strategy.
This stuff about Meier being a Bush cut-out is propoganda. Take the protest of the Boehner speech as an example. Meier's comment after that (summarized): I'm against privatizing Social Security. Look at my voting record and that is clear.
You are advocating electing a bad official, when the other candidate is a strong candidate and is being unfairly categorized into something that he is not.
"You're not the "Karl Rove blew up the World Trade Center" Allen Carstensen, are you?" Wow! You're referring to a letter to the editor of the Ithaca Journal back in August 05? That must have made a big impact on you, Mr. Anonymous! This was about the big stir Karl caused by slamming liberals in a speech;
Karl Rove said that after 9/11 conservatives prepared for war while liberals prepared indictments and offered therapy for our attackers. Liberals all over the country are outraged. I think they are over reacting. Remember how manipulative he is, and be wary. He has successfully moved the mindset of the left, a little bit to the right. Most liberals react just the way he wanted them to, and say "we wanted to strike back, just as much as you right wingers". I wish I could hear more people say something like this:
If we had prepared indictments, in other words, pursued Al Qaida within the confines of international law, we would be much better off than we are today. I'm not sure how effective therapy for the terrorists would be, but it would be wiser to try to understand their motives and work towards changing the world in a way that would lessen their desire to kill us.
Many people think that 9/11 was planned by right wingers. The authors of the Project for a New American Century (including Paul Wolfowitz) wrote that what was needed was another Pearl Harbor type event to galvanize support for their imperialistic ideas. I'm not convinced that these "conspiracy nuts" are right, but they do provide convincing arguments. Let's assume for the sake of argument that they are right. What does that do to our reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan? Obviously we would have no right to strike them in self defense, if they weren't the perpetrators. There is a lesson here. It was pretty obvious who attacked us at Pearl Harbor, and our response was justified. When it is not clear, we must be very careful. When we went into Afghanistan, we were acting as judge, jury and executioner without examining all of the evidence. This is a strong argument in favor of approaching situations like this, as international crimes, not acts of war.
Yep, that's me. I'll admit I'm a liberal. I'll admit I'm disappointed that Les Roberts dropped out. You won't admit who you are. Arcuri is a middle of the road Democratic candidate. "unethical, unqualified, and generally sub-par" are your words not mine, and fit Meier better than Arcuri.
Meier is not a strong candidate. He's simply another self interested career politician and one who's party is wrecking the country. It's time to throw the regressive Republicans out of office. Time for a change.
The problem with this particular race is that Mike Arcuri needs to pick up quite a few independent and Republican votes. And the one big issue where he can pull votes from passion is the Iraq disaster. Huge numbers of Independents and Republicans want us out of Iraq and quickly. Playing armchair general is not leadership and is not going to persuade those voters. Since Bush will not move to withdraw, this will be the defining issue of the 2008 Presidential election. Giving Bush free reign between now and then will make the reversal more stark but the interim much more painful. Arcuri needs to actually think about this and stop playing defense by being afraid to say enough is enough.
The comments on this blog are amazing. Mike Arcuri is a strong progressive Democrat and the best shot that we have to take back this district. But all people seem to want to do is complain and complain. Remember, electing Mike Arcuri is not the end of the story. It's only the beginning. Which candidate, Meier or Arcuri, do you think will be willing to listen to progressive voices after they're in office? There's no chance of that with Meier, but with Arcuri will we still be able to make our case with him (though in 9 out of 10 issues, we don't need to make our case since he's already with us).
We also need to remember that the easiest thing for Rove Republicans to do is hang out on blogs like this and put up posts saying, "Mike Arcuri is no progressive. Better to sit this one out." Shouldn't we be spending our time on conservative blogs saying the same thing about Ray Meier?
It's ironic that so many of the extreme leftist comments about the Trumansburg appearance don't get it. Only a Trumanesk Democrat can win in this District.If Arcuri sticks to his current message and adds a decent jobs/economic message he has a shot.Bowing to the radical Left= big loss
So the drones from Oneida county were right when they said we should quit whining? We would end up voting for Arcuri anyway?
Unbelievable. We really are whores.
Extreme leftist? Oh, you mean the people opposed to an unwinnable and meaningless war in Iraq?
The facts are that Saddam was faking having WMDs to keep the superior Iranians from invading and taking over Iraq. The Iraqi trained Hezbollah stopped the Israelis cold and the Iraqis could drop the Iranians in a New York minute.
The Republicans in Washington need to pay a hefty political price for such monumental stupidity. Even half the Republicans in the 24th recognize that.
Since he knocked Joe Lieberman off in the Democratic primany, Ned Lamont has improved from 12 points behind in the general to 2 points behind in just two weeks. Being decidedly anti-war is a winner.
Bush's approval rating nationally is still at 36% and it's a lot lower than that in upstate.
I want to see Arcuri commercials with Meier's face turning into Bush's face.
I think its amazing that commentors here actually think that Michael Arcuri "listens" to them.
I have tried for months to contact the Arcuri Campaign with information they would do very well to act upon, but to no avail.
After deciding that Mike is too "allof" to listen to a little old voter, I contacted Ray Meier's Campaign, and not only did they greet my suggestion with open arms, they sent someone out to actually visit me and get the whole story!
Actions speak louder than words: My mind is made up!
Well looky here, Mike was in Manhattan raising money Tuesday.
"While Walsh was celebrating the dispersal of taxpayer money, 200 miles away, Maffei was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan Tuesday to raise money at a fund-raiser with fellow upstate New York House candidate Michael Arcuri, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Rep. Charlie Rangel."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
14480505/
Let's make it a HUGE wave!
I think it's amazing that Arcuri's campaign would NOT have someone - a volunteer, and intern, perhaps - keeping track of comments about the Arcuri campaign and Meier campaign online and in area publications, and submitting reports so that the campaign can get a snapshot of its image.
I don't know if they have someone doing such work, but if they don't, they're fools.
That's not to say that this blog in particular is influential with Arcuri - it isn't. Arcuri's campaign staff has not shown itself to be made up of the kind of people who listen.
If that comment about Ray Meier's response is accurate, I don't think it reflects genuine concern on the part of Ray Meier, but I will tell you that Meier has better skill working with people. As a District Attorney, Arcuri only had to work with the "right" people, and he's running his campaign that way.
What record, when did Mier ever vote on social security.
And Ray Meier is the third best funded Congressional candidate by Rightroots (ABCPAC).
http://www.abcpac.com/rightroots/
No question he is a darling of the extremist right wing, the folks who have engulfed us in enriching the already rich and endless death and cost in Iraq for absolutely no end.
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