That could cost us the White House in 2008.  Up front, I'll admit I believe to my soul that Hillary Clinton would get clobbered by anyone the GOP coughs up.  I support Edwards.  I like Obama; not sure he could win in America 2008.  Okay.  That said ... if not for two twists of fate, we would not be in this position.  

AP reports on what they would all want to have under such conditions.  I give the nod to Tancredo with Brownback second.  Obama: take a breath, chief.  No need to poll-test your answer, by the way.  I also wonder how long before the media scum take Hillary to task for not immediately answering "My husband Bill."

Someone had to do it, just so we can see the nature (again) of our adversaries.  I eagerly await Howard Kurtz's angry denunciations of wingnut hatred .... <crickets> .... About half of Freeperville had what passes for humanity over there; the rest was: ".Edwards just used her to get free TV time on the national networks.  I always get the shivers when I see that junk science lawyer Edwards standing next to that woman, it looks like she should be his mother instead of his wife.  They needed a noon conference to tell us she had cancer again, they just couldn't write a little blog on their socialist Edwards 2008 website?" ... "Hillary needs to have a radical mastectomy. She can have the surgery done as an elective, then lie about the reason for it, since medical privacy laws give her perfect cover.  The hard part will be getting Bill to act as if he was a caring, supportive husband" ... "If Drudge is right, and he brought her to stand alongside him while he announces that the show must go on, then I'm beyond disgusted. She's just his tool" ... "ROTFLMAO! Maybe we can reverse it, make it testicular cancer for him, since she's the one who never leaves."

Never mention the name "Kerry" without spitting.

"President Bush's last-ditch push for votes and Sen. John Kerry's comments that seemed to denigrate the education level of U.S. forces in Iraq have helped energize GOP voters. A Democratic advantage of 23 percentage points a month ago and 13 points two weeks ago is now down to 7."

"Based on history, a 7-point lead among likely voters still suggest Democrats will take enough votes to win a majority of seats in the House," says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll. What gives some analysts pause, however, is the sophisticated redistricting over the past decade that has made most congressional districts less competitive."

On the HuffPo is a piece by Sheldon Drobny, who said back when Libby was indicted that Fitz dropped the ball and wasn't going to pick it up.  He now says: "Those of us who have dealt with Fitzgerald in Chicago know that he has been a political pawn of the Bush Administration since he was appointed. After his office completed the investigation of former Republican Governor Ryan which was started by the former U.S Attorney, he set his sights on Democrats in public office."

The American Prospect is a fine publication.  That said ... one Anna Scholl noted on the the website's 'Midterm Madness' blog the following, on Markos' WaPo article: "Moulitsas' conclusion that Hillary's biggest obstacle is online makes little sense."

More ...

The roaring silence at the NRO Corner on Drumheller ... got me to wondering, so I e-mailed the D.P.  It seems nerves are on edge over there.

Me: Dear Jonah -- Where are all you Cornerites on Drumheller?  Not even enough energy even to swiftboat him?  Or would mentioning his name at all just be too embarrassing to your world-view?  He flips Saddam's foreign minister to the great excitement of the Decider and the Good People Around Him -- but they don't listen! Shocking!  And neither do the "commissions" on misuse of intel!  Isn't that ... wrong? Deep down you MUST be humiliated by this pathetic jackass Bush. The rest of us are sickened by what he has wrought.

Jonah: I don't respond to email like this. Save it for your echo chamber lefty blogs, ok? I don't have time for it.

You gotta laugh at the notion of the Corner calling Kos and others an 'echo chamber' ....

Apologies if this has been covered.  Does Dobson know???

AP reports: "In college, Samuel Alito led a student conference that urged legalization of sodomy and curbs on domestic intelligence, a sweeping defense of privacy rights he said were under threat by the government and the dawning computer age.

"President Bush's choice for the Supreme Court, in a report written years before ubiquitous personal computers made electronic privacy the everyday concern it is now, warned of the potential for abuses by officials and companies collecting data on individuals.

"Three decades before the Supreme Court decriminalized gay sex, Alito declared on behalf of his group of fellow Princeton students that "no private sexual act between consenting adults should be forbidden." Alito also called for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in hiring."

Apologies if this has been noted.  Check the amazing AP story:  "The director of the CIA says he has an "excellent idea" where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the United States' respect for sovereign nations makes it more difficult to capture the al-Qaida chief.

Again ... "Our respect for sovereign nations."  As in ... well, where to begin.  And orbiting Pluto for a moment, and taking Goss at his word: exactly what country wouldn't we march on to get Bin Laden, especially with Bush's poll numbers lately?  Shamelessness hits new lows...

Read this and weep.  We MUST reform this party and get LOCAL PEOPLE WITH A CLUE as precinct captains.  The army of college kids -- no offense to anyone personally -- did not cut it, and we got killed by GOP efficiency.  Pretty damn discouraging, and something better get done by those in a position to do it.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/12/16/volunteer/index.html

I know this will disappear within minutes, but it's worth a look and a recommend for longer consideration.  Arianna -- who I don't always agree with, but usually -- makes some strong points on how the Kerry campaign's insistence on ignoring the security issue cost us.  Carville, Greenberg, even Clinton himself, plus Mr. Oh-For-Eight Shrum and Cahill, were fixated on domestic issues while Bush kept a 10-20 point lead on terrorism and security.  Kerry was focus-grouped and over-cautioned to death.

From their Election Special, which I was looking forward to if Kerry won, but now will not be able to bear.  This is from Salon.com.  The very idea that this man should have been trashed by these scumbags is more than I can take:

"But who was to blame for the fumbling of the Swift Boat response? Newsweek says Kerry blamed Mary Beth Cahill and Bob Shrum for letting it get out of control. Apparently, the duo had argued that responding to the ads would only dignify them.

Looks good to me.  Most recent day on the left.

But it's good.  I actually have seen it before but it's good stuff to pass along to our GOP "friends":

This from Ruy Teixeira's www.emergingdemocraticmajority.com.

"Inside Scoop on Rove's View of the Election" by Alan Abramowitz.

"I just received the following message from a colleague at another university who is totally trustworthy:

"I have friend who is a co-chair of the Bush Cheney campaign. Rove believes that Bush needs to have a 4 point lead going into the last weekend to win given the undecideds that will break againt the president."

This is Alan, writing to Teixeira, about a message from a friend about a friend.  Okay, it's fourth hand by now, but I believe it and furthermore, as Fox Mulder used to say, "I ...want to believe ..."

Using the fine information supplied by mydd.com, I figured out what yesterday's actual results were, to make today's Ras a 2.1 Bush lead.  Here goes:

       10/15  10/14  10/13  10/12  10/11  10/10

Bush   48.4   45.6   50.9   50.5   44.1   48.2
Kerry  47.3   46.8   44.5   45.2   48.0   45.4

I'm not sure whether this is good or bad.  But it could be better, I think.

I'm a Ras subscriber.  In a comment on another diary, I said Kerry's negs among independents had suffered in the last two days.  On the other hand, I now offer these numbers, part of the ten-day rolling in the 16 battleground states Ras polls:

Bush 46.4% 46.8% 47.0% 47.4% 48.0% 48.1% 48.5%
Kerry 46.9% 46.5% 46.3% 46.1% 46.0% 46.6% 46.5%.

So yeah sometimes I'm a pessimist and other times not.  I don't think I'm the only one ...

National: Bush 48.5, Kerry 45.9.  A real bad day will drop off for Bush in tomorrow's numbers, so be prepared.  HOWEVER: in the 16-state Rasmussen does, Kerry leads 48.4 - 45.5 (unless he messed up his posting, and I don't think so.)