by Rob Kall, editor, OpEdNews.com, and in this case, reporter and photographer (all photos by Rob Kall).
What they all agree on, Good news on Computer Voting, lots of Pics.
I went to the Democratic primary Presidential Candidates Forum in Philly yesterday. At the forum, moderated by former Crossfire host, Bill Press, seven of the nine Democratic declared candidates participated. Southerners Edwards and Graham did not show.
Before the forum, I checked out the Dean Rally. The local paper estimated 3000 people in attendance.
It was a big crowd, impressive, so early in the election race. Last week, I attended a Dean "meet-up" in Princeton, NJ. My impression of that event was that the people, in addition to wanting to support Dean, are hungry to do SOMETHING. They want contact with kindred political spirits. They want a place a forum where they can voice their anger and frustration. Dean has effectively tapped into this cauldron of emotions, and since about 40% of the US public feel that George W. Bush stole the presidency, that's a lot of people with angry emotions.
Dennis Kucinich also had 25-50 visible supporters with banners and signs in the vicinity of the Constitution Center. I didn't see any groups of people supporting any of the other candidates. This tells me that Dean and Kucinich are where the passion is in this early primary season. They were the first and second place winners of the Moveon.org internet primary and they continue to inspire people to take to the streets, to take action to take back America.
This Forum was organized the the Sheet Metal Worker's Union, and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, former general chairman of the Democratic Party.
There were about 700 Union leaders, 150 VIPs and about 40 members of the press, including this row of video camera people from the networks and beyond, including an Australian crew.
Bill Press's first question showed at least one area of agreement among the seven candidates. He asked what they thought of the California recall. They all said in one form or another that this was another example of an attempt by the Bush administration, Karl Rove, the far right, republicans to refuse to acknowledge the will of the voters, an effort to steal another election.
Al Sharpton, undoubtedly the funniest, wittiest candidate that day described the Bush teams approach as "Let's do it again until we win." He added. We are experiencing a political hostile takeover of the American political system." And commenting on Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Joe Lieberman, the next funniest candidate of the day, said, "Instead of focusing on the Terminator in California, focus on getting the "job terminator" (Bush) out of Washington." And on the chaos in California, he warned, "There is a danger that we're going to look at this as another episode of Entertainment Tonight.
Next, Press asked what each candidate would do for the economy.
Here too, the candidates had a lot to agree on-- that during the Clinton presidency 22-23 million jobs were created, the deficit was wiped out and a 5 trillion dollar surplus created. How Democrats are the people who are fiscally responsible, that republicans no longer balance budgets. Dean and Gephardt said to reverse the tax break. The others said let the midle class keep their part, allow the abolishment of the marriage tax to stand and reverse the breaks for the wealthy and on inheritance.
At one point in the proceedings, Press, taking a glance towards the audience, ad libbed, "Let's hear it for the liberal media. Where are they?"
I popped up my hand, then, looking around, realized I was alone. I pulled it down. It was a rhetorical question. A joke. And I took another look at the fellow journalists and wondered if I really was a fellow journalist. I applauded when a candidate said something I agreed with. Every one of the other members of the press didn't. The difference is, I identify myself as a partisan member of the media-- a progressive, tough liberal.
I've heard from mainstream and former mainstream journalists that it's unacceptable for journalists to express opinions on or off the job. It can get you fired. Of course this doesn't apply to what Greg Palast calls the "Foxified" media. There is news of Fox News filing in court against Al Franken, for his use of the words "Fair and Balanced," which they claim to have trademarked. That's like a feces fertilizer plant trademarking the term "tastes good,' or "Delicious aroma."
The point is that the right wing can censor, selectively report, blatantly editorialize all they want and they play the Bush lie game. The call a pile of crap a sweet smelling gift. This week Bush calls forest rape-- handing forests over to commercial interests-- fire protection. It's another sweet smelling pile of crap!
So, after the forum ended, I went up to Bill Press and told him I was the lone media person to raise his hand. He smiled, then moved on to more face time with the VIPs (even Smokin' Joe, the Boxing World Champ was there with his entourage. )
Bill Moyers has said that the right has already started the class war. Al Sharpton offers some strong barrages on the economic front. Sharpton, replying to the economy question, said he would support a cap on corporate CEO salaries. He said, "We need to absolutely expose what deregulation has done to this country. If they can limit the worksite, we can limit their greed."
Kerry said we want to keep the end to the marriage penalty and keep the child credit but get rid of the high end of the Bush tax breaks and put back the inheritance tax.
Sharpton and Kucinich oppose NAFTA.
Joe Lieberman commented on how Clinton took us "out of the political wilderness." Sharpton, remarking that he's the only ordained minister among the candidates, added, "Before you can deal with the wilderness, you have to deal with the Burning Bush."
Dean said that Bush is not funding homeland security, that one third of cities are laying off police and firemen. "That's as dumb as laying off soldiers during a war."
Gephardt, commenting on Bush's abject failure at building allies and working diplomatically, said, "You, know, on the report card, where it says 'plays well with others?' I think he got an 'F'. "
Al Sharpton said, "We can't turn out democrats if we don't turn them on and we can't turn them on by acting like Republicans.
After the forum was over, I had a chance to talk one on one with a few of the candidates. I asked congressman Dennis Kucinich about voting theft. What's the point of running for office if you know the votes are going to be stolen like we know they were in Florida and like they probably were in Nebraska, Georgia and Texas?
Kucinich replied that he
