America made a very wrong decision in 2004. John Kerry understands foreign policy from the viewpoint of a Vietnam war veteran. He has lived through a war that was fought for the wrong reasons. He will lead us out of Iraq!

Come and visit, I don’t think that you should right off Kerry so fast! He doesn’t win elections from the front-runner position. “Come from behind” Kerry is worth another shot in 2008.

Visit my blog at http://kerryforpresident2008.blogspot.com .

Bob

Nah. I think she’s hewing to Bill’s position of “safe, legal, and rare.” The gap between the absolutists on both sides is easily wide enough to stake out some room in the middle. As a society, we can easily reduce the number of abortions with sane policies on sex eductation, contraception, and health care.

Not a bad point. I guess I can’t prove she has become more moderate. Merely an impression. But many other observers have noted a more moderate/conciliatiory tone from Hillary on things like abortion and defense. Maybe it is also the lack of a confrontational attitude on her part – such as we (Rs that is) see from Hodean and Reid. Its still my belief (and others) she is tacking right -at least in appearance- to position herself for 2008.

Dugger

Any analysis depicting McCain as the GOP front-runner in ‘08 would be nothing if not worthy of a Rod Serling commentary.

McCain has essentially burned all bridges with his party, and by that I include not only with the religious right (whom you libs both loathe and fear), but also with the Buckley-style conservatives of which I count myself as a member.

The only possible future for a McCain presidential bid is a third party candidacy. And as for the obligatory comparison with elections past, McCain makes me think less of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 and more along the lines of a John Anderson in 1980.

The Republican presidential field in 2008 is wide, wide open.

Details, please.

Dugger

Condi also isn t qualified, having never held elected office and never having governed

Note to M’sieu Loopy: As I have commented before, never having been elected could be a plus: it could mean she has never sold out, taken a bribe, or kissed ass. As for never having governed, check out the statistics for Stanford U, where she was Provost for 6 years, ” responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students”. That’s more money, and more people, than lots of American states, and lots of foreign countries.
As for the National Security Agency:

Neither the number of employees nor the size of the Agency’s budget can be publicly disclosed. However, if the NSA/CSS were considered a corporation in terms of dollars spent, floor space occupied, and personnel employed, it would rank in the top 10 percent of the Fortune 500 companies

Short version: She has indeed governed, amd I’m glad she’s never been elected.
Don’t be such a parrot. Think for yourself.

Remember what all this gay-bashing, Arab-ass-kicking, and “values” Bible-thumping is about: it’s a way to divide the country, but also pick up key Black, Hispanic, Jewish, and other important minority (and soon-to-be-majority) votes. They don’t call ‘em “wedge issues” for nothing, ya know. The Repugs are attempting to divide the country in such a way that they end up with an unbeatable majority on their side, for generations.

African-Americans and Hispanics tend to be religious, and, sadly, just as homophobic as white males, maybe even moreso. And Jewish voters have a soft spot for Israel (even if they may hate Likud). So the gay-bashing, the Jeebus-praising, and the Neocon conquest of the enemies of Israel are all huge electoral wins: a way to peel these traditionally Democratic “base” voters away. We’ve seen them already be somewhat effective at this. This is their strategy for expanding their coalition.

Instead of bashing black folks, now they’re bashing gays and “Ay-rabs”. Instead of preaching white-supremacy, they’re preaching “American Judeo-Christian” supremacy. It’s a much bigger tent, but it’s still defined by who it excludes, moreso than by who it includes. The hate doesn’t go away, it just changes scapegoat (or bogeyman) of the moment.

This is not a new observation. Marx and others described over 150 years ago how the ruling elite cynically uses nationalism and ethnic differences– now called “culture war” or “values”– to divide and conquer working people so that we don’t instead gang up on the elite and take back from them the power that should rightfully be ours. Nothing new here– but it still sucks.

When I see evidence to the contrary, I will continue to beleive that exact statement. The Republicans ran a race of division during the 2004 election cycle. But let’s go back several months before the height of “Campaign 2004″. George Bush calls for an ammendment to the US Constitution to ban gay marriage. Did Bush do this because of his own morals, concerns and religious beliefs, or was it foresight by Senior adviser, Karl Rove who knew he would need at least 2 million votes from southern Evangelical Christian voters to make up the difference in a close election? You decide, but please don’t insult my intelligence by suggesting it was the former.

Now let’s speed ahead a few months to where 13 states decide to place referendums on gay marriage on the ballot. Now ask yourself would that have happened had Bush not called for an ammendment to ban gay marriage. From there the dialogue over the course of “Campaign 2004″ was soley about gay marriage. Karl Rove succeeded in changing the political discourse of the entire season. Four million more Evangelicals voted than in 2000, thus tilting the election in favor of the President.

When you have folks from the south calling up on American Journal on CSPAN, saying that although unemployed for several months and realizing that the economy does better under a democrat, they would still vote republican because Kerry was going to throw away bibles and let gays get married, something is wrong. This leads me to believe that some would rather limit the rights of others rather than eat.

Rove and company could have allowed political discourse to be focused on the real issues… Social Security reform, unemployment, and education, but using division to get their legions to the polls was the goal. Now that the election is over don’t you just wonder why the entire discussion over gay marriage went? Hmmmmmmm…..