David Duke says he'd support black comedian Chris Rock before he'd vote for any mainstream candidate for president, because "at least he's funny." Larry Flynt reveals he's completing an eight-month investigation into damaging secrets about a leading presidential contender. Camille Paglia warns that Democrats and Republicans better nominate a woman for vice president, "or there will be hell to pay."
Welcome to Politics2000, Salon's guide to the millennial election and beyond. To launch our new site, we went outside the Beltway to ask Rosa Parks, Steve Wozniak, Al Franken, David Duke, Larry Flynt, Camille Paglia, Jane Smiley and dozens more what they expect, wish for and dread in the coming year's elections.
Though the panel we assembled was eclectic, their concerns are mainstream: They're most worried about the wealth gap, race relations, the nation's high divorce rate, the erosion of privacy in the information age, health care, whether the military can survive the post-"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" approach to gays (or whether gays can survive the status quo).
And like most of us, they aren't entirely satisfied with their presidential choices: If they could build a composite president from the leading candidates, he would apparently have Bill Bradley's I.Q., Al Gore's wife, George W. Bush's money (and his mother), John McCain's war record, Pat Buchanan's candor and Alan Keyes' charisma.
At Politics2000, our new one-stop campaign shop, you can read Salon's daily coverage of candidates and hot-button issues, and have a chance to weigh in yourself through polls and Table Talk, our popular community site. We hope it becomes a regular campaign stop.
Because you'll need it: This year, the presidential primary season could last only six weeks, as contenders sprint from the snows of Iowa (Jan. 24) and New Hampshire (Feb. 1) to almost-spring in New York and California (March 7) thanks to a new sped-up, front-loaded primary schedule. That's less than half the length of pregnancy's first trimester, just a quarter of a baseball season, two-thirds of the average shelf-life of a Donald Trump girlfriend -- in short, it's not a long time to pick a president.
To sort it all out, you'll need a lot of information and the ability to find it fast. That's why we've built an easy-to-use directory of Salon's award-winning political content. Even though the official primary season's just beginning, we've been paying close attention -- so you didn't have to -- for a full year. In our newly organized directory, you'll find hundreds of Salon stories, which you can easily access to learn more about the candidates and hot-button issues you want to read up on. Our George W. Bush directory, for instance, has 76 stories on the GOP front-runner. The campaign finance directory already has 20 stories.
You'll also find:
- Daily original political coverage and breaking campaign news
- "Trail Mix," a daily log of the best political stories on the Web
- "Verbatim," the quote of the day
- Daily interactive polls
- Links to the hottest political discussions on Table Talk
- A calendar of major political events
- A weekly election newsletter
- Searchable video archives of campaign footage from Virage-CSPAN
So visit Politics 2000 early and often, and let us know what you think.
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