in his ears than thedirkatron has on his head.

He did a good job at criticizing both Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress. It was somewhat subtle, and it wasn’t received very warmly by the audience, who weren’t in the mood for any blame thrown their way. But it was a good calling out of people who need to be called out.

Its not fair to compare his style to Obama or Palin – he’s not a charismatic speaker like they are. No matter what the speech was, it was going to be a little bit of an emotional dud

i think the republicans are complaining with the with way the media is “treating” her but they gotta ask questions and look into her. they know nothing. she’s not like other other guys that have been in the spotlight and looked over. i think lots of things will come out. lots of garbage that hopefully goes away, and probably some bad things that are real, hopefully they are brought into the spotlight. she’s looking more and more like the “bitch” that hillary is, the “bitch” that republicans and half democrats hate.

states like Wyoming with low population yet high infrastructure costs are going to get a disproportionate amount of money. I’m sure Wyomingites would be fine if there were no highways other than between Casper and Cheyenne, but the people driving trucks between Montana, South Dakota and Colorado wouldn’t be so happy.

If you ask me, the federal government should spend money on 3 things, and 3 things only: Military, Infrastructure (basically hwys), and foreign affairs. Basically, if the cost affects multiple states, then it should be federal, if it affects a state’s individually, it should be state. Red States tend to be physically bigger, requiring more interstate infrastructure, so they should get a l. But if blue states don’t think they benefit from money for a highway through Nevada, then they’ll be surprised when their Napa wine shipments take longer to get to them

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Divide-Retro-Metro-America/dp/0976062100

It is an interesting study on that subject among others. To your point, essentially Texas was one of the only red states that gave alot more than it got back.

McCain is the only candidate that can get away with that, because it is pretty well known that most hard-core Republicans despise McCain. Which is also why I think the “he’s the same as Bush” argument won’t work either.

It may not be true anymore, but Bush and McCain are well-known to the average American as enemies. Most people know McCain only as “that guy who ran a bitter primary against Bush in 2000.” It makes the “McCain = Bush” argument more difficult to make and sound a little hollow. It may stick, but Obama will need something more than a 90% voting record (which is probably one of the lowest agreements of Republicans in the Senate)

Completely implausible hypothetical, but if in 4 years, suppose Obama’s been an utter disaster and Hillary is running for the Democratic nomination, she’ll be able to run as a “change” candidate, even if she votes with Obama 90% of the time going forward. She and Obama are going down in history as not liking each other.

I think Obama has the image of someone who can inspire large groups to work together

…now if only he did that in practice lol

that is kind of my point.

Nixon was far more corrupt, secretive, dirty, vulgar, etc. than Bush. Yet his reputation has improved, not decreased, over time. Because there was good with that bad – there always is. In the big scheme of things, Nixon visiting China was more important for the US and the world than his stupid decision to break into a Democrat office on the Potomac. Valerie Plame, Tom DeLay, Alberto Gonzalez, etc. are big deals, but they are big deals to Democrats and political junkies today. They aren’t giant issues that affect our daily lives. Bush will be forever tainted by scandals, but that anger will fade once he leaves office.

obama wants to go into an ISLAMIC country with NUCLEAR weapons and UNSTABLE leadership…when that was essentially what started this entire thing in the first place…

i believe he said that if terrorists are in pakistan yes we attack them. but he would speak to their leaders first of course. dimplomacy, blablabla. besides, republicans loved it when bush said, “with us or against us”. and obama said he wouldn’t take any options off the table. all politicians say that (except maybe kucinic and gravel and paul) because you weaken the us if you take that option off.

saying “all options are on the table” does not = i will nuke yo haji ass.

He’s a good guy, and really smart. Just the wrong career choice for him. He thought he’d eventually get better at it, but you know what? They didn’t renew his contract. So I guess it’s not impossible to get rid of bad teachers, after all.

According to your fiance, success or failure?

and my mother was a speech pathologist at a 3A school for 20+ years and is now at an elementary campus which is a feeder to a 4A school in e. texas

If parents would take responsibilty for their children’s education then the schools would be better. It is not that hard to do. Communicate with teachers, help with homework and take an interest in school activities. I don’t have a problem with TAKS or any other type of assessment test. It establishes goals and accountability. Also, I have heard that joining the PTA makes one qualified to be VP. :)

But it was from The Daily Show regarding Fox News’ hypocrisy in the Palin case…

Karl Rove supporting her, saying she was the mayor of “the second largest city in Alaska”, then blasting Tim Kaine because “Richmond is not a major city, and if he was chosen, he wouldn’t be ready to lead the country if something happened to Obama”… then Bill O’Reilly saying that Bristol Palin’s teen pregnancy is a family issue and as long as no government support is needed, that it isn’t a big deal, followed by him blasting Jamie Lynn Spears parents and calling them pinheads. Finally, there were statements by Greg Harris regarding the media being sexist to Palin, then saying HRC was just playing the gender card, followed by Palin herself making a statement to the same degree.

I’ve read your schpiel and I think you’re one of the very few who base your vote on that and nothing else.

voting for who you think would be the better president? That’s silly.

but have you looked at the futures?

and hidden away from the budget process. Having Halliburton make billions does not make me sanguine about all the money spent on Iraq. All that money could have been spent with American companies in countless other ways, like repairing infrastructure. Infrastructure is something not getting talked about enough. I’d much rather the next pres spend money and political capital on major infrastructure projects than budding their nose into local schools. Why people think the federal government should be telling states and municipalities how to run schools is beyond me.

Happen all over the world all the time. Doesn’t mean it’s our job to fix them.

They’ve condoned torture, went into Iraq under false pretenses, have done more to energize an young Anti-American base in the Islamic world than Osama Bin Laden (who is still on the loose, but the administration truly doesn’t give a shit) could’ve done in a thousand lifetimes… it has been a total failure.

And I say this as someone whose sister just returned from Iraq (I signed up to join the Navy out of high school myself, and if it wasn’t for a back condition I’m sure I would’ve seen time there too).

No more families should have to undergo what mine, or even worse, what the families of those who have lost children have gone through, not for this pointless war.