Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Used to be the Republican party was the party of fiscal responsibility. Now it’s the party of rampant deficit spending. Sure, they cut taxes, but spending rises without control or concern.

The Democratic Party has shown in the last decade that it has become the more “conservative” party when it comes to handling the people’s money. The GOP hands out programs & pork like it’s Christmas, and puts it all on the Visa.

The GOP also has the audacity to accuse anyone opposed to it of being unpatriotic. It’s only a matter of time before the GOP just comes right out and advocates a one-party system. With John Ashcroft as Minister of the Interior. Oh, happy day. .

“Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both” – Abraham Lincoln

Everything Bush has touched has, sooner or later, turned into horse manure. Everything. His original overriding agenda was to do the opposite of whatever Clinton did. What that brought us was escalated warfare in Israel, the brink of nuclear war with North Korea, the bitterness of allies left disrespected and unappreciated, and the list goes on.

Bush offers no hope, no vision for a better America. Sure, he talks a good game, saying he supports Americorps, “leave no child behind”, better schools, but when it comes down to dollars and cents, Bush has nothing and reveals his hypocrisy. Bush’s vision is his personal post-administration enrichment, and the enrichment of his cronies. Woo hoo. Halliburton got no-bid contracts in Iraq. So did Bechtel. Big surprise.

Ultimately, if Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein aren’t in US custody or verifiably dead come November 2004, Bush loses. If gas prices are still north of $1.50/gallon, Bush loses. If unemployment continues its spiral into the 7% range or higher, Bush loses. Are you better off now than you were in 2000?

I wrote that on September 17, 2003 – when my blogging hobby was a week or so old. Aside from the atrociously incorrect prognostication in the last paragraph, the sentiments from almost 3 years ago still ring true today.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the blog lately, and how it’s changed and morphed since I first got it started back in September 2003. Back then, there were probably only a handful of active Buffalo-based blogs. Craig’s was one. Kelly’s was another. Jen was another, (her archives were scrubbed).

At the time, WNYMedia.net was just getting started, and was hosting other people’s columns rather than entire blogs as it does now.

Originally, I posted calendar information about the Clark campaign, and added my voice to the myriad blogs already doing national issues. While many posts were pretty run of the mill, there are some that I can still read with pride, like the one about taking my daughter to see Wes Clark in Peterborough in January 2004:

On Wednesday, January 7th, I traveled from Boston to Peterborough, NH. Peterborough is in South-Central New Hampshire, not far from Keene. It is a typical, picturesque New England town.

Wednesday was rather cold, with high temperatures reaching ten degrees or so. I went up to NH with my three-year old daughter. On the way, I told her we’d be seeing Wesley Clark, a general who would be our next President.

After Clark dropped out, I wrote:

Thanks for visiting this weblog. I don’t know if I’ll keep updating it or not. Check in and see.

Hm.

By February 2004, John Edwards came to town, Clark endorsed Kerry, and I openly debated which of these two I would support. I looked over Kerry’s and Edwards’ strengths and vulnerabilities. Then I wrote:

My concerns with Kerry are that: 1) Karl Rove and his stormtroopers will misrepresent portions of Kerry’s personal, military and congressional record; 2) That same crowd will (possibly with some effect) pin Kerry as a new Dukakis; 3) That Kerry won’t do well in the South. Doing well in the South is important– About a month ago, Kerry made a bad gaffe that may come back to haunt him. He said that Al Gore proved that you don’t have to win the South to become President. I would argue that Gore proved that you DO have to win the South to become President. Gore won the popular, but that didn’t count.

That week I saw Edwards speak in Buffalo and found:

I honestly wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be. He’s a good speaker, and has a folksy manner about him. I disagree with him on some issues, and I just don’t think he made a strong enough case for voting for him over Kerry. I refrain from calling him a lightweight, because GWB is the lightest of the lightweights.

Four days later, I threw my support behind Kerry.

In October, the blog changed into its more-or-less current iteration:

This blog started back in September 2003 as “Western New York for (Wes) Clark”.

When Clark dropped out of the race in March 2004, it became the “Clark Democrat”, in the hopes that Clarkies would remain as a somewhat cohesive group of Democrats who were particularly concerned about National Security issues. I don’t really think that’s happened. The fact that Clark meetups halted in March underscores that.

When Kerry chose Edwards as his running mate, I changed the name again to “Western New York for Kerry/Edwards.”

Well, the election is only about 3 weeks away. I think I’m going to continue this blog when it’s done. Therefore, I’ve changed the name to “BuffaloPundit” because this blog contains my opinions about things political, and I’m doing it from Buffalo.

Unfortunately, I can’t switch the domain from “wny4clark.blogspot.com” as far as I can tell. If anyone knows that I’m wrong, please let me know.

By November, I was crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, and otherwise being very hopeful. From my last-ditch endorsement of John Kerry:

I look forward to an America that re-engages with the rest of the world in a positive way. I look forward to reestablishing and strengthening our traditional alliances around the world. I look forward to a thoughtful and pragmatic foreign policy. I look forward to a White House that will unflinchingly defend our national security, while at the same time protecting and strengthening our national interests. I look forward to a time where we solicit our allies’ assistance not by insults, but persuasion. I look forward to a return to a time where preemptive war would only be fought where there was a clear, unassailable objective for which all other options had been exhausted, and for which an exit strategy exists.

Well, that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, and the blog plunged into some bitter disappointment. But that same week, something different happened.

A post about the NFTA.

A post about the AM&A building.

Then, a post about Giambra’s Red/Green budget nonsense, and the change of focus to local issues was becoming clearer.

UPDATE: Here’s the first post about what became the WNY Coalition for Progress? A second post, describing its first organizational meeting. A third post, outlining my initial opinions as to what it should stand for, and how it should be formulated.

So, why have I taken you on this trip down memory lane? To bore the pants off of you? Not really. Sometimes I think about the site and how I might want to mix it up. In order to facilitate that, It’s helpful for me to go back and see how and what I used to write.

It’s also fun to look back on the Presidential campaign of 2004 because it was my first foray into any sort of local political activity, which I enjoy today as a proud Democrat.

By this time next year there will be candidates shuttling around Iowa and New Hampshire.

So, as I look back, I look forward. How might the blog change? I don’t know yet. But if you’ve got a suggestion, have at it.