Centerfield

This is such a golden opportunity for centrist Dems to have a "Sister Souljah" moment. If they could only see it.

Gotta love those symbolic protests. I guess if it makes them feel good, whatever. News media will probably give them seven seconds of video with a shot of Sharpton, Sheehan and some goofball from the crowd that will make evryone watching feel collectively better about themselves.

OT Am I the only person who now has an instant eye roll reaction when hearing about anything with Cindy Sheehan these days?

It seems admirable that someone is willing to declare the emperor is naked. No wmd, no "working" relationship with Al-Queda, no intelligent plan for peace, make a public criticism more than necessary. And no it is not just the "weirdos and freaks" who feel that we should have never invaded Iraq, it is on the order of 60% of Americans. Not I believe that majority opinion is necessarily correct. However it points up that it may be you who are out of step with the socalled center.

It seems admirable that someone is willing to declare the emperor is naked...it points up that it may be you who are out of step with the socalled center.

Shouting down the opposition is rarely admirable. Symbolic shouting-down is simply childish. As is sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming "LALALALALA!" There's enough links up there for people to make up their own minds about the center--or the extremes.

Love your new handle.

...if a pot gets banged in the woods....

If activists thought smaller they might be more influential. Instead of grand gestures what if they focused on helping candidates of both parties get elected to gradually and incrementally tilt the inclinations of the government towards progressive aspirations.

Acting out satisfies immediate gratification, but patient, boring, tiny steps can change the world.

...if a pot gets banged in the woods....

This is essentially my take on it.

This reminds me a lot of the Libertarians..who insist that their candidate can win the Presidency each year. He's viable because they say he is.

Bush isn't going anywhere in the short term. Probably not before his 4 years are up, for that matter. Standing on a big box and pretending otherwise might burn up all those chocolate chip cookies they ate on the bus while driving to DC..but its meaningless in terms of getting Bush out of office.

And honestly, it marginalizes the very real reasons Bush's presidency is such a problem.

I watched that Impeachment thing late last night-about as much as I could stomach. Look, I'm no big fan of the Bush Administration, but the idea that anyone, professing to be for peace, would sit in a room next to Ramsey "Defender of War Criminals" Clark, is beyond me. My patience for Mrs. Sheehan is nearly spent.

My patience for Mrs. Sheehan is nearly spent.

What more would it take. One of those late night ads starting with "Remember me..." and hawking "The Best of Cinday Sheehan"

Well, as Harry Truman used to say "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em."

...and the thing that the bangers are too stupid about PR, politics, and the modern age to understand is that it's likely to have enduring symbolic value not for the purpose intended, but in the same way that we all understand "tinfoil hat."

People are going to start saying things like "When you're done banging on your pot, I have a few points I'd like to make." Or "Go bang on your pots." It's bound to become a symbol of unreasonable childishness and the pretense that preaching to the choir leads to political progress.

And Carla, I agree with you that there are legitimate bases for criticizing the president even though I don't agree that these bases are as wide as you do. It's nice to see that someone who leans liberal is appreciative of the overall "get off the cross" point.

I'm new here, but I think I'll participate more often. Sort of a left-center go-between, if it is acceptable to the site owners. The idea of drowining out the SOTU was a good one to me, if they'd drowned it out with some good policy and speakers. While the left may be a bit misguided in getting a message across, at least they're doing something. Unless the centrists approve of the Bush Administration disasters; (Iraq, Katrina, Medicare, health care, NSA spying, debt, unitary executive, education, environment, energy policy, miappropriation of funds, Abramoff, Delay's money laundering, Bin Laden); maybe you want to do something besides point fingers at the left.