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Perhaps the accusations are true that the Biased Liberal Media are unfair to Republicans. In recent months, we have been subjected to a constant barrage of news about the Democratic contest. There were the candidate announcements, followed by live coverage of the debates among contenders, then hours of on-the-scene reporting from Iowa and New Hampshire, and finally, the results of actual caucuses and primaries.
Along much of the way, we were presented with expert analysis which proved conclusively that former Vermont Governor Howard Dean had the race sewed up before the first ballot was cast.
Through all of this publicity for the Democratic party, did you read or hear a single word about any competition for the Republican nomination?
Probably not. I know I didn't, although I have to
confess I have not paid close attention to the coverage of
either party's contest for the nomination. After all, we
live in fly-over country, so ignored by Washington that
Karl Rove, the main political strategist in the White
House, can say utter flat-out lies about us (Take the
state of Colorado, for instance. Its finances are in good
shape,
he said in January), and nobody calls him on
it.
We tried to cure such national ignorance by having our own presidential primaries in 1992, 1996 and 2000. But even though our 2000 primary was fairly early, in March, it was too late: by then, the Bushites had persuaded South Carolina Republicans that Sen. John McCain was deficient in patriotism, and it was over.
Colorado didn't have a presidential primary this year because the legislature eliminated it in order to save money. The savings will doubtless go to some worthy purpose like the Academic Purity Enforcement Bureau or the Magazine Rack Modesty Enforcement Posse Co-ordinating Council.
At any rate, there has been no meaningful media mention of the contest for the Republican nomination for the presidency, and in the interest of fairness, I checked the official results of the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire, and found 14 Republicans on the ballot, along with some write-ins.
One George W. Bush of Crawford, Texas, finished first, with 53,749 votes. That's about 85 percent of the total, which means that one out of seven Republicans in the Granite State would prefer some other candidate.
The next three Republican primary finishers were all write-ins, and none was a Republican: John Kerry, 1,420; Howard Dean, 974; and Wesley Clark, 851. You've read plenty about them elsewhere, so we proceed to the next real Republican finisher, Richard P. Bosa, who got 826 votes.
He is the former mayor of Berlin, N.H., and now lives in
Portsmouth, N.H. In a newspaper interview, he blasted the
big-money media
for ignoring his candidacy, and his
website says he is running because The new ruthless
authoritarian executives of giant multinational
corporations demand a cult-like loyalty to the company, but
without reciprocating loyalty to employees, place, or
nation. They eliminate, merge or buy competition. This
demands justice.
Only 10 votes behind Bosa was John Buchanan of Miami
Beach, Fla., an Honest Republican for President
who
wants to stop the corporate coup d'etat.
He's a
journalist by profession, which may explain why his
campaign material consists mostly of questions. He asks
Would you like to end secret government, domestic spying
and the shredding of our Constitution under the so-called
Patriot Act?
Further, Do you think this White House works for
Corporate America rather than the people of our land?
and Do you think they misled us about the need to
sacrifice hundreds of brave young American lives and
hundreds of billions in Iraq -- while awarding the lion's
share in no-bid contracts to Halliburton, Bechtel and their
arms merchant friends?
Another Democratic write-in, John Edwards, finished right behind Buchanan, so the next real Republican was John Donald Rigazio, with 784 votes. He's 72 years old and ran for president as a Democrat in 1992.
Millie Howard of New Richmond, Ohio, the only woman
seeking the Republican nomination, said she wants to
challenge all of us to question every decision made by
our government.
She received 248 votes.
Bill Wyatt of Los Angeles got 148 votes. He ran for
California governor last year, and seeks the GOP
presidential nomination this year because Without some
action that sincerely broadens the appeal of the GOP, I see
no future for their candidate, George W. Bush.
That's a sampling of the discussion in just one of the many Republican presidential primaries this year, and it appears that many candidates are raising some important issues that should be put in front of the public. But they are ignored, thanks to the media's total focus on the Democratic race.
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