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With all due respect to Sen. Gillibrand, who I'm grateful defeated John Sweeney in '06, I don't think she's the right fit statewide. She's like a palm tree - she moves with the wind. She doesn't appear to have a real ideological core. Gail Goode, on the other hand, seems a more convincing candidate. She's a devoted progressive, no doubt, and I think she can better communicate with voters downstate. Gillibrand will be forever haunted by the candidacies of Carolyn Maloney and Harold Ford, Jr. They went nowhere, but they nonetheless painted Gillibrand as a flip-flopping career politician. Goode has the spine to drive the final stake in her political career.

@BillyGray
Gillibrand did indeed speak up for the public option. She was one of the six original signers of a letter to the President advocating for the public option at a point when the entire health care package seemed like a non-starter. She has blogged in favor of it everywhere, including Huffington and Daily Kos. Google and see for yourself.

'Junior Unelected Senator' is exactly right and should not be hidden but repeated as Goode does. It describes Gillibrand to a tee.

Gillibrand actually did start the letter/petition in the Senate for the Public Option, knowing full well it wouldn't ever get passed, but it would give her phony progressive cred and something to claim she did to help us. Where she could actually have had an effect, she chose to clam up with Schumer, not fighting for greater subsidies for NY'ers whose costs are much higher than the rest of the country, and ignoring NY when the rest of the Senators were fighting for, and getting, increased Medicaid payments for their state, resulting in billions of dollars in budget shortfall for the state. Bloomberg and Paterson begged her and Schumer to do something, and they sat quietly.

She also played mum during the financial overhaul debate, lest she offend her Wall St. sponsors/benefactos, and chose not to help ordinary people.

Goode may talk fast but at least she cares.

When someone overuses a term like "Our junior, unelected Senator", it turns me right off!

Dear Gail,

Please stop referring to Gillibrand as "junior unelected senator." It's obnoxious and reminiscent of conservatives calling President Obama "Barack Hussein Obama." Although each name is true, it shows poor taste and judgment on the part of the name caller.

Ms. Goode needs to calm down.

Hey, Gail actually knows / cares about transit. Another thing that Kirsten doesn't fight for. I'm liking the challenger, I might actually vote in this primary.

Wasn't the first version of the TARP bill pretty much just a blank check to the Treasury?

A lot of people besides Gillibrand had problems with that.

i still don't understand why the islamic cultural center is such a big deal when there's a burger king right across the street from ground zero. I mean i know it's been there a long time and all, but that to me is far more offensive. Maybe that needs an alternate location.

ok, another one who's talking at 78rpm. she needs to bring it down to 45rpm.

I'd like to know more about what part Gillibrand played in turning universal healthcare into a give-away for the health insurance companies. She claims to be progressive, but I don't recall her speaking up and fighting for a public option -- the lack of which is really going to seriously hurt NY in health care costs going forward. We got a raw deal, and she didn't fight for us.

Not like there's anybody else who will. But if she wants Dems to be enthusiastic about her and turn out, she's got some work to do.

end the corn subsidies