“Taking shots at each other isn’t doing anybody any good. It will only help Republicans in the end.”

Roe v. Wade's goose is already half-way cooked!
Amen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/politics/16obama.html?ei=5065&en=20b42c88b4 8878ce&ex=1209009600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

You are such a dreamer my friend.

John "I never met a war I didn't like" McCain is the one who is toast.

Naw.

Just as with their behaviour regarding abortion, the dems are insanely offing their own.

Herb

No.

When the nominee is sorted out, the party will unify, it will have huge GOTV efforts in place, and win nicely.

The only matter up for discussion is how long the coat-tails will be. Obama = large, Clinton maybe not so large.

That's it.

McCain is old and he's Bush round three. The most interesting prospect he presents to Republicans is the chance to pick a President again, without actually having to get them elected.

McCain will choose a VP, that is highly likely to end up President, but will not face the voters as such.

Selected, not elected 2.0.

Actually, McCain will not be Bush Round Three.

McCain, as a likeable, outspoken long-term legislator with lots of integrity ... and who is really a moderate Republican who gives lip service to the right wing, will be most like ...

May I have the envelope please ...

GERALD FORD!!

Americans won't buy a gun-grabbing socialist.

That's what Hitler was and that's all the democrats have.

McCain wins by default.

And he'll pack the Supreme Court nicely.

Herb

"Americans won't buy a gun-grabbing socialist.

That's all the democrats have."

Herb - where's your love for Obama man? You've been singing his praises in here!

Good point, Brianl.

I like Mr. Obama and believe he's especially likeable and charismatic. I also don't blame him for what his pastor, or what others say. I believe Mr. Obama is his own man.

He would be a good president, except for a few of his policies. But they are especially important policies. The right to life and the right to self protection.

As opposed to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama is better, because his is more of a slippery slope. Mrs. Clinton would push us off the cliff.

I would far prefer him than Mrs. Clinton who is, in my opinion, diabolical.

Herb

I really doubt that.

Check this out:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/big_thirdparty_dem_group _airs.php

Come on, you gotta admit it's a nice AD.

He's a Republican. He's going to have to get elected by the Republican Party. That party has a lot of stuff to account for, and it has not demonstrated it can actually do it, without some outside pressure.

McCain may well lean moderate, but he's going to be OWNED by the Republican brand and all the damage done. He either admits to that and really works to set things right, or he goes with it.

There will be no middle ground on that as a whole lot of dollars, criminal records, and careers are on the line over that stuff.

His integrity is totally in quesiton, having taken multiple positions regularly, depending on which way the wind was blowing at the time.

His current stand on not supporting the troops with a GI Bill that would actually make sense, combined with his long term war statements really do lend serious support to continuing the most destructive of the current Bush policy plan.

He's a Republican running with Republicans and will have to defend a Republican economy, Republican war, Republican crime and corruption, and Republican hits on our standing in the world, among other Republican things.

It's extremely difficult to see McCain actually able to do anything different without first seeing his party making some steps along those lines as well.

We are not seeing those right now.

Sorry man. He's old, out of touch, weak, and owned to a very high degree.

I'll give you likable though. I think that's very true. I'll also give it up for his service to the country. That's a good feather in his cap, and I don't want to diminish that.

However, we are electing the Republican John McCain we see today, and with that comes the Republican party, who got us here.

If government is the problem, how then can we expect to see them actually govern their way out of this mess?

Answer: They won't. They will continue to build private fiefdoms that do us more harm than good.

It's all the same old, same old, hashed out here and everywhere for far too long.

We need to change things up, and that's Obama speaking most clearly to that right now, not John Sidney McCain the Third.

If you think McCain isn't a round three of Bush, you're kidding yourself. Same policies for the war, same policies for the economy. GOP leadership has been a disaster for both. Why would anyone other than the die hard Republicans want more of the same?

McCain will be soundly defeated by either Clinton or Obama.

Hillary, Bill and Gore will make NICE Supreme Court Justices.
Doesn't look good for that guy with a temper.

"Hillary, Bill and Gore will make NICE Supreme Court Justices."

That ices it.

Trixter promoting the Clinton's and Al Gore for the Supreme Court.

Bye, bye any tattered vestige of claiming you're a Republican.

Trixter = Poseur saboteur extraordinaire

Herb

Bill Clinton would probably make a fine Supreme Court justice.

Let's be realistic Herb, Roe v. Wade is NOT going to be overturned. Not in our lifetime.

I would much rather have someone like Bill Clinton and his mantra of making abortion "safe, legal and rare" with an emphasis on contraception and protection than the Bush administration, who gives money pretty much solely to abstinence-based education.

I have a fondness for Ronald Reagan. That said, the damage done by his complete ignorance of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that exploded on his watch, and the severe lack of support of education based on contraception/protection instead of abstinence was devastating. I'm sorry, but as a human being I would rather see someone in the Supreme Court, or in the White House for that matter, that will understand and promote protection and be realistic with today's times rather than abstinence-only education.

And this comes from a registered Republican. Just because Trixter doesn't thump his Bible and denounce anyone with the capacity of self-thought doesn't mean he's a "poseur saboteur extrodinaire".

"Let's be realistic Herb, Roe v. Wade is NOT going to be overturned. Not in our lifetime."

Look. If partial birth abortion could be overturned, we're now merely talking about degrees.

That being said, given new technology of photography inside the womb, would you feel the same way if sounds of pain were recorded as an unborn child was being aborted?

Don't underestimate the power of media to do well.

"...the HIV/AIDS epidemic that exploded on his watch..."

Hear me on this. We can, and should do plenty to battle ALL diseases.

Yet Mr. Reagan cannot be blamed for a nascent epidemic during his administration that is recognised to be largely, though not completely, behavioural in transmission. Don't lay the blame on Mr. Reagan.

"Gaëtan Dugas was featured prominently in Randy Shilts's book And the Band Played On, which documented the outbreak of AIDS in the United States. Shilts portrayed Gaëtan Dugas as having almost sociopathic behavior, by allegedly intentionally infecting, or at least recklessly endangering, others with the virus. Dugas was described as being a charming, handsome sexual athlete, who, according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners a year. He claimed to have had over 2,500 sexual partners across North America since becoming sexually active in 1972. As a flight attendant Dugas was able to travel the globe, at little cost, to such early HIV epicenters as Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, and San Francisco. Suffering from Kaposi's Sarcoma, and after being warned that this could be caused and spread by a sexually transmitted virus, Dugas refused to stop having unprotected sex. He allegedly informed certain sex partners that he had the "gay cancer" and perhaps they would get it too.

Back in the bathhouse, when the moaning stopped, the young man rolled over on his back for a cigarette. Gaëtan Dugas reached up for the lights, turning up the rheostat slowly so his partner's eyes would have time to adjust. He then made a point of eyeing the purple lesions on his chest. "Gay cancer", he said, almost as if he were talking to himself. "Maybe you'll get it too."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ga%C3%ABtan_Dugas

Abortion will not end if Roe v. Wade is overturned. So if your goal is to reduce abortion, I suggest you take on a more realistic approach. However, as is par for the course with the religious right, it's not really about "saving the unborn", it's more about controlling people's behavior and choices.

As for the AIDS issue, Reagan didn't give a crap about those suffering because he felt they were being punished for being gay. It was easier to just ignore the epidemic and blame the sick. I wonder what Reagan did to be punished with Alzheimers??

"...it's not really about "saving the unborn..."

It is for this conservative.

Herb

http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaindiv.htm

Herb, your guy is not much of a family man.

From what you posted, it appears that Mr. McCain was divorced in 1980.

Unlike the liberal view, I believe repentance and redemption is possible for conservatives, too.

If the left was fine with Mr. Clinton's serial adultery, lying and impeachment, why would you have to go back more than a quarter century to slime a hero?

Or would it make you feel better if I blamed it on Mr. McCain's post-traumatic stress from spending 5.5 years in a Vietnamese hell-hole, no thanks to 'Hanoi Jane' Fonda?

The left's duplicitous, ham-fisted approach is disgusting.

Herb

"Unlike the liberal view, I believe repentance and redemption is possible for conservatives, too." WHAT BS!!

The way you spin things around here it's amazing that you can even stand up straight.

Herbie, get a grip. Is it not you that keeps accusing everyone else of parsing out the arguments to the provable points? That is exactly what you have become yourself.

Jane Fonda? No, Herb, if there is anyone most responsible for Mr. McCain's imprisonment, it's the vile, criminal, paranoid and anti-semitic Richard Nixon. He became president just after McCain became a prisoner.

Herbie, you really need to try to not rewrite history every time you make a post. You may fool some of the younger people around here, but you don't fool me. Stick to thumping your bible and your English spellings, but don't think for a minute you are going to get away with your outrageous revisionism.

Shalom.

Hey, I never defended Clinton's adultery, but he at least stuck with his wife.

McCain went for the money and a much younger woman while cheating on a woman who cared much for him.


PTSD did not send him to an heiress.

"No, Herb, if there is anyone most responsible for Mr. McCain's imprisonment, it's the vile, criminal, paranoid and anti-semitic Richard Nixon."

LBJ escalated the war.
Mr. Nixon got us out of Vietnam.

God bless Richard Nixon, flawed as he was.

Herb

"Mr. Nixon got us out of Vietnam.

God bless Richard Nixon, flawed as he was. "

Nixon would have kept expanding the war into SE Asia had Congress not stopped him. By his own admission in 1988, Nixon claimed his biggest mistake was not escalating the war in Vietnam sooner. Had he done that, maybe Mr. McCain would have been freed earlier. Maybe had he done that we would all be giving him some credit for a victory we never achieved. The operative word being "maybe."

The G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would never bless a non-repentant anti-Semite like Nixon. Uh uh. No effen way.

"The G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would never bless a non-repentant anti-Semite like Nixon."

You can speak for God if you want.

But Mr. Nixon was a WWII veteran. Because of brave men like him, we ousted Hitler.

Mr. Nixon's early efforts also helped Mr. Reagan to stare down the Russians, whilst breaking godless European communism, thereby freeing hundreds of millions enslaved, many of them Jews.

Revise on.

Herb

Nobody cares.

It's 2008.

The nation is in a mess. We need to fix that and move forward, period.

OK, Herb, since you cannot read U.S. English very well, here is an excerpt:

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs." Such behavior was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates..

Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position "to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy's Senate liaison office. It wasn't long before the "fun loving and irreverent" McCain had turned the liaison office into a "late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind."

In 1979 at a military reception in Honolulu, McCain met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. Cindy's father, Jim, founded the Hensley and Company, the nation's third-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor.

McCain described their first meeting, "She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 17 years my junior but poised and confident. I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping Carol and securing a divorce. The newlyweds honeymooned in Hawaii.

McCain followed his young, millionairess wife back to Arizona where her father helped catapult McCain into politics,

"But Mr. Nixon was a WWII veteran. Because of brave men like him, we ousted Hitler. "

Nixon served primarily in the U.S. in bureaucratic positions. His only service in the hot zones was in the Pacific theater. He had nothing to do with ousting Hitler. Besides, being a veteran does not qualify you for political office.

"Mr. Nixon's early efforts also helped Mr. Reagan to break godless european communism and free hundreds of millions, many of them Jews."

Tripe. You accuse me of revisionism. Look at yourself, Herbie.
Allow me to dispell the myth that Reagan should receive any credit at all for breaking the Communist block.

Here is the biggest myth of them all: Ronald Reagan won the "Cold War". In reality, Reagan did nothing to bring down the Soviet Union.

By 1980, the Soviet Union was trying to cut its own defense spending. Reagan made it harder for them to do so. In fact, Reagan increased the possibility of a nuclear war because he was -- frankly, and sadly -- senile. He thought we could actually recall submarine-launched nuclear missiles (talk about a Reagan myth), and bullied the Soviets to highest alert several times.

Critically, Reagan never even tried to bring down the Soviet Union. Blind hero worship of Reagan - which ignores the facts and spouts pure fantasy - is a testimony to the great Reagan public relations operation. Reagan's handlers were among the best at putting the best spin on events, and in Reagan they had a trained actor able to hit his mark and fake any emotion they needed at the time.

Reagan clearly did NOT win the Cold War. It's foolish to claim that anything he did decisively undermined the Soviet Union. In fact, Reagan lifted crushing sanctions Carter put on the USSR, enabling them to stave off their hard currency crunch. Reagan rhetoric aside, he actually made the USSR stronger than they would have been.

Reagan's aggressiveness undermined Soviets with a cooperative bent like Gorbachev and empowered hard-liners in the USSR. Reagan's "jokes" about attacking the Soviets nearly provoked WW III as Andropov put their nuclear missiles on the highest alert - closest to launch.

Reagan didn't "win the cold war" - in fact he didn't even try to defeat the USSR. Reagan claimed the USSR was a threat to attack the USA, and even insisted the Soviet Union had a more powerful military. Reagan called this "the Window of Vulnerability."

After Reagan left office, he visited the USSR where he said it was no longer "the Evil Empire" and predicted his "friend" Gorbachev would continue to lead the USSR for many years to come.

Mere months later, a surprise kidnapping / coup swept the Soviets from power. Nothing Reagan did made that fluke more likely and nothing Reagan did made certain that the hard-right conspiracy would fail when Boris Yeltsin stood up to the tanks.

It could have easily turned the other way, with a junta of generals prevailing and heating up the Cold War. Reagan didn't win the Cold War, we're lucky he didn't start WW III. The bravery of Yeltsin and Gorbachev, rather than anything Reagan did, brought about freedom in the former Soviet empire.

Wasteful overspending on defense didn't end the Soviet Union. In fact, it played into the hands of authoritarian "Communist" hard-liners in the Kremlin. Reagan thought the Soviet Union was more powerful than we were. He was trying to close what he called "the window of vulnerability."

This was sheer idiocy. No general in our military would trade our armed forces for theirs. If it were to happen, none of the Soviet military command would turn down that deal. We had better systems, better troops, and better morale.

Here's the truth: we'd already won the Cold War before Reagan took office. All Reagan needed to do was continue the tried-and-true containment policies Harry S. Truman began and all subsequent presidents employed. The Soviet Union was Collapsing from within. The CIA actually told this to Reagan as he took office.

Here's an example: the Soviet Union military couldn't deal with a weak state on its own border, the poor, undermanned Afghanistan. Most of the Soviets' military might had to make sure its "allies" in the Warsaw Pact and subjects along the South Asian front didn't revolt. Even Richard Nixon told Reagan he could balance the budget with big defense cuts. Reagan ignored this, and wrecked our budget.

We didn't have to increase weapons spending, but Reagan didn't care. He ran away from summits with the dying old-guard Soviets, and the new-style "glasnost" leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev baffled the witless Reagan and his closed-minded extremist advisors.

Maggie Thatcher finally cajoled the Gipper into meeting Gorby, and Gorby cleaned Reagan's clock. Reagan's hard-right "handlers" nearly had to drag Reagan out of the room before he signed away our entire nuclear deterrent. Reagan -- and the planet -- was lucky Gorbachev sought genuine and stable peace. Had Yuri Andropov's health held, Reagan's "jokes" and gaffes might have caused World War III.

Eventually Reagan even gave Gorbachev his seal of approval. Visiting Moscow before the August Coup, Reagan said the Soviet Union was no longer the "Evil Empire." He predicted his friend Gorbachev would lead the Soviet Union for many years to come.

As usual, Reagan was wrong. A few months later, disgruntled military officers kidnapped Gorbachev, throwing him out of power forever. Reagan remained disengaged: nothing he did caused the coup, and nothing he did made the Soviet military support Boris Yeltsin over their superiors. We're all fortunate things happened as they did -- but once again, Reagan did nothing to make this fluke more likely.

All this is vintage Reagan. Reagan took credit for others' hard word and hard choices, and blamed them for his failures. Reagan even blamed Jimmy Carter for Reagan's foolish, fatal, and reckless decision to leave 243 Marines stationed in Beirut, helpless and unguarded.

Reagan hired over 100 crooks to run our government, and broke several laws himself. His policies were almost uniformly self-defeating, wrong-headed, immoral and unfair.

Reagan was an actor playing the part of the president. He was style over substance; lucky, not good. And once the myths are stripped from the "legacy", the truth becomes obvious: Reagan was by far the most overrated man in American history.

http://www.mikehersh.com/Reagan_the_Overrated.shtml

"...here is an excerpt..."

Again.

You have to go back to 1980 to slime an admittedly flawed war hero?

Sorry, if I can't go back to 1972 with Mr. Nixon, you can't go back there, either.

Unlike you, most Americans believe in repentance.

But if you're going to beat that drum, our impeached president's activities are much more recent, tremendously more flagrant and far more public.

Yet it's kid gloves for him.

And you guys squealed when Mr. Murtha's record was questioned.

Better leave Mr. McCain alone. You're likely to be swiftboated if you don't.

Herb

You sure have a great capacity to overlook the 'flaws' of those individuals on the right side of the aise but not the same outlook towards people on the left whose flaws may or may not be on par with some of your heroes.

You're completely willing to overlook the fact that it was the Reagan administration that supplied many of the very weapons to the group that is now al Qaeda as well as supplied the weapons Saddam Hussein used to gas his own people yet Clinton's supposed selling secrets to China or pardoning Marc Rich are viewed by you as heinous and unforgivable acts.

What a joke.

"..You're completely willing to overlook the fact that it was the Reagan administration that supplied many of the very weapons to the group that is now al Qaeda as well as supplied the weapons Saddam Hussein used to gas his own people.."

Not completely.

But if Mr. Clinton had helped free hundreds of millions of enslaved europeans, LIKE MR. REAGAN DID, then maybe we could have a discussion.

One minor detail: Mr. Clinton stripped our military and emboldened our enemies, rather than defeat them like Mr. Reagan.

Mr. Clinton is the only joke, and it's a bad one.

Herb

"But if Mr. Clinton had helped free hundreds of millions of enslaved europeans, like Mr. Reagan, then maybe we could have a discussion."

Perhaps not hundreds of millions, but Clinton did his part to free thousands of Europeans.

I'll admit my ignorance on Kosovo.

And freeing a few thousand is very good.

Herb

Clinton wasn't the only advocate of reduction in military spending. Dick Cheney was pretty proud of his accomplishments, too.

"In 1990, he (Cheney) bragged to Congress that as
Defense Secretary he "cut almost $65 billion out of the five-year defense program" and that subsequent proposals would "take another $167 billion out." He highlighted, "we're recommending base closures," "we're talking about force structure cuts" and "we've got a military construction freeze".

"Mr. Clinton stripped our military and emboldened our enemies, rather than defeat them like Mr. Reagan"

The enemies were emboldened because they were supplied with weapons from Reagan.

"I'll admit my ignorance on Kosovo."

Every journey begins with a single step......


(good morning from Fukuoka!)

For the last time Herb!

Nixon was a wuss and he turned tail and ran when the going got tough. He Abandoned America when they needed a leader. Instead of taking it like a MAN and being held accountable for his actions as an American and a President he dropped the ball BIG TIME!
Sorry Herb, but your favoUrite Prez was SERIOUSLY flawed!