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The memory of the Vietnam War is holding an increasingly powerful sway over President Obama and his White House team as they explore ways to avoid the surge of troops into Afghanistan urgently being demanded by the US military. Mr Obama and his foreign policy circle have begun openly to use language born of the Vietnam disaster, such as “mission creep” and “quagmire”. It is a clear sign that the President harbours doubts about a deeper military commitment in Afghanistan. Vice-President Biden is leading calls for a change of plan, with a scaling back of troops in Afghanistan and a...

Communists and socialists have never been closer to taking over the United States and they know this is no time for timidity. Ignoring popular opinion is part of the game plan, as is marginalizing any opposition. It worked for three massive spending bills and it will work again. Some Democrats may lose their seats, but taking a hit for the party is a call to duty they will answer. Besides, as long as they control Congress post 2010, Democrats will control redistricting as a consequence of the census and the lost seats may be regained in 2012."

It is said that the people are revolting. You said it! They stink on ice!That pretty much sums up the attitude of the Kossacks at the Daily Kos. However, unlike the Mel Brooks version of King Louis XVI in "History of the World: Part I," the Kossacks are fearful, deeply fearful, of the people. They are worried that the Tea Party protesters who show up at the town hall meetings conducted by members of Congress might derail Obamacare due to the large turnouts and vehemence of their protests as you can see in this thread posted by Kossack icebergslim: Sure,...

EEEK! The peasants are revolting! Specifically they are revolting at the Obamacare protests at townhall meetings held by Congress folks now that they are in recess as you can see in this KOmmie THREAD, "I don't like how this is going down, period." Yeah, they don't like how this is going down because of the MASSIVE protests at those townhall meetings. I love watching the videos of people showing up at what were previously tame and lightly attended townhall meetings and loudly protesting Obamacare. Usually the folks protesting know a lot more about Obamacare than the flustered legislators. So...

Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, "Do you think they know what they're doing?" The question caught me off guard because the man is a well-known Obama supporter. As we talked, I quickly realized his asking suggested his own considerable doubts. Yes, it's early, but an eerily familiar feeling is spreading across party lines and seeping into the national conversation. It's a nagging doubt about the competency of the White House. It was during George W. Bush's...

Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, "Do you think they know what they're doing?"

Obama worries US debt may shape legacyTue Jan 27, 5:21 pm ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama told Republicans behind closed doors Tuesday that he worried about the soaring US debt because "I will be judged by the legacy I leave behind" on the economy, a source said. Wooing lawmakers openly hostile to his stimulus plan, Obama also warned that the current recession was "different, deeper, and global," and that inaction could cause "irreparable" economic damage, said a Republican participant. But "nobody is more worried about the deficit and the debt than me," he told Republicans who charge the...

SNIP Yet beneath the energy and party atmosphere – with a crowd of 60,000 it was the biggest political rally in the history of Columbus – and the heady excitement that after this marathon campaign they had at last reached the cusp of history, many of these Ohioans were suffering a new mental condition on the eve of Election Day. It could be called “Victory Will Still Be Snatched From Us Compulsive Disorder”. “I am so afraid some ghastly trick will be played again and we’ll wake up on Wednesday morning and we’ll be where we were in the last...

Based on the following: 538.Com: Pennsylvania Tightening, Virgina Tightening, Florida Moved To Toss up, McCain Win% Improves Dummies frantic, erratic now...and cannibalizing those who posts negative stories.. "Uh oh. It's New Hampshire all over again." " I think it's worth noting rather than ignoring." "I'm still soooo nervous!" "It's called being a bitter f*cking troll who does nothing but deflate" "Okay. Yes. I'm a secret closet Republican who hopes Obama loses" "Whatever man, get me banned then." "I come to DU for discussion, not propaganda" "Old Clintonite assholes coming out in droves now" "Why should everything be positive to you?"...

Typical leftist bicycle rider. Totally out of control.

Dear MoveOn member, Obama's now ahead in most polls. That's great, but there's just one problem: the polls could be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they'll do in the privacy of the voting booth. And there are plenty of other unknowns. We can't afford to take any chances with the most important election of our lifetimes. Whatever the polls say, we all need to get out, talk to voters, and make sure every single Obama supporter makes it to the polls. The Obama campaign in Denver needs...

Poor Joe. Ann Curry is concerned that the senator from Delaware was the victim of a double-standard during last night's debate that caused him to hide his light under a barrel. The Today show co-anchor [subbing for Meredith Vieira] expressed her misgivings this morning to Obama supporter Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) ANN CURRY: But he restrained himself to some degree. I mean, she called him "Joe," he called her "Governor." She attacked him, he didn't attack her. Do you think there was a double-standard at play here? Did Joe pull down his full game, and did that hurt him last...

Dems worry Bush could pardon Rove, Miers By Susan Crabtree Posted: 10/03/08 12:55 PM [ET] Democrats are worried that President Bush may pardon Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and other key administration officials alleged to have played a role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs a Judiciary Committee subcommittee, expressed concern Friday that Bush pardons on the final day of his tenure in the Oval Office could cut off any chance of former White House officials being forced to testify before Congress about their role in the U.S. attorneys' removal in 2006. The Department...

What a difference a few weeks make. It wasn't too long ago that the liberal media were already congratulating themselves on Barack Obama's "inevitable" victory. Many of those reports crossed the line into flat out gloating in which the election itself was a mere formality on the road to the coronation of the Lightworker. Well, that was then and now it appears that Obama's halo of perfection has become quite tarnished to the extent that the liberal New Republic is worrying if their erstwhile messiah is heading towards a "long, disappointing fall." John B. Judis, a senior editor of The...

Liberals are nervous and for good reason. With battleground state polls moving in McCain’s direction, they sense — but have not fully come to the realization yet — that this election may be a landslide for McCain. After the rollercoaster ride that Obama’s soaring speeches took the electorate and pundits on for months — a rollercoaster that they chose not to get off of — a sizable defeat of Obama would be tough to take...

The former president has been slow to provide Mr Obama's aides with details of what he will say, raising concerns that he will stop short of the emphatic endorsement they want to see. Allies of Mr Clinton say that he wants to use the bulk of his speech in Denver next Wednesday to attack the record of George W. Bush, accusing the current president of squandering the economic gains of the Clinton years. That will inevitably be seen as a message to those who yearn for a Clinton restoration, rather than a boost for Mr Obama.

Recent public polls indicating a near dead-heat in the U.S. presidential race don't worry Barack Obama's top backers, they say.

For them, this is supposed to be the Democrats' year, an inevitable march towards the White House after the catastrophic defeats of 2000 and 2004. Almost everything seems to be going their way: unpopular president, disenchantment with the Iraq war, a faltering economy and an inspirational Democratic candidate. What is worrying the Democrats, in spite of all these pluses, is that Obama's poll lead has remained stubbornly small. A tracking poll by RealClearPolitics published yesterday has Obama on 46.9% compared with John McCain's 43.3%. "I think there are a lot of Democrats who are nervous," said Tad Devine, chief strategist...

With just one month to go before Labour Day many Democrats fear that time is running out for Mr Obama to overcome the suspicions of this key swing vote. “We have got to move away from these beautifully choreographed speeches which appeal to groups of voters who are unassailably in the Obama camp already,” said a non-staff adviser to Mr Obama. “What plays well with the educated liberal voter sometimes grates with the blue-collar folk, whom we need on our side if we are going to win.” At this stage in the 1988 presidential race, Michael Dukakis, the Democratic candidate,...

WASHINGTON -- Many of the Democratic congressmen who ousted Republicans in marginal House districts last year privately express concern about the impact on their re-election prospects if Hillary Clinton is nominated for president. Because of the strong possibility that Sen. Clinton indeed will be the party's candidate, these congressmen will not openly express their fears. But they dread her impact from the top of the ticket. Clinton's opponents don't raise the question in public. But there is such underground talk in Iowa, the state opening the battle for convention delegates, questioning her "electability."

U.S. President George W. Bush has alienated Muslims around the world by using absolutist Christian rhetoric to discuss foreign policy issues, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says. "I worked for two presidents who were men of faith, and they did not make their religious views part of American policy," she said, referring to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Democrats and Christians. "President Bush's certitude about what he believes in, and the division between good and evil, is, I think, different," said Albright, who has just published a book on religion and world affairs. "The absolute truth is what...

Senator Clinton's emergence as the early and perhaps prohibitive favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 is fueling anxiety among Democratic strategists and operatives who are worried she would lose to a Republican in the general election. Recent polling underscores some of those worries. In a CNN/USA Today/ Gallup poll made public yesterday, 51% of voters said they would definitely not vote for Mrs. Clinton if she chooses to run for president in 2008. In a separate nationwide poll conducted this month for a spirits company, Diageo, and a political newsletter, the Hotline, 44% of all voters and 19%...

WASHINGTON - A long-awaited report detailing an independent counsel investigation of a former secretary of housing and urban development, Henry Cisneros, outlines a coordinated effort by Clinton administration officials to first block and then limit the probe as a way of taking pressure off an administration that was already beset by scandals. The report, by independent counsel David Barrett, is scheduled for release on January 19. Details of it have been disclosed to The New York Sun by persons familiar with its contents. The release of the report coincides with the end of an investigation that began in 1995 with...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had just finished a typically discursive floor speech shortly before the year-end adjournment when a very liberal member aproached her second-in-command, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, and whispered in his ear: ''Steny, is it not time for a coup?'' It obviously was not time to oust Pelosi and replace her with Hoyer. House Democrats do not get rid of their leaders with coups, as Republicans have during the last half-century. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction with Pelosi's performance is pervasive across the ideological spectrum. Her colleagues grumble that under her leadership, the party lacks focus and a clear agenda...

<p>One of the saddest stories to come out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster is not the death and destruction of a major American city, but the death and destruction of American unity. The country banded together in a way not seen since Pearl Harbor when Islamic jihadists destroyed the World Trade Center towers and hit the Pentagon Continues...</p>

Yesterday’s NY Times was practically begging the Senate to nominate John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court. The Time’s front page bio was a glowing review of Roberts and his “pragmatic view of the law.” David Brooks, the Times favored “conservative” used the word “love” to describe his feelings for Roberts. The headlining reader-submitted editorials were from democrats praising Roberts as “eminently qualified” and warnings to activist groups to “back off.” Three of the five reader editorials were pro-Roberts. The grey lady knows something about Roberts and she is pushing hard for this man. Assuming the Times bio is correct...

He’s neither a savage beast nor a blithering idiot. That’s the important part. Liberals’ primary argument against nearly every Republican to come down the pike can be characterized as an attack on his kindness or, more often, on his intelligence. But not this time. Susan Estrich, longtime Democratic strategist and manager of the failed Dukakis campaign, said on international television (Fox News) that Judge John G. Roberts is a “developed intellectual” and a very charming guy—as opposed to Nino Scalia, who eats kittens. Estrich did not explicitly voice support for Roberts, but she didn’t seem heartbroken. This is in sharp...

While even Clinton critics are warning that Ed Klein's book "The Truth About Hillary" may backfire by reinvigorating Mrs. Clinton's image as a victim, privately some Democrats say they're aren't so sure. Anticipating today's "Truth" release, Eric Hauser, a Democratic activist who was press secretary to former Sen. Bill Bradley during the 2000 presidential primaries, said he fears the book could hurt her political viability. "There are widespread and legitimate concerns about her ability to win an election," he told Knight Ridder. One-time Hillary advisor Dick Morris warned last week that he thought that Klein's unsubstantiated allegation about Chelsea's conception...

WASHINGTON — When Howard Dean was chosen to head their party, Democrats looked forward to the benefits of his bristling energy and zest for political combat. But at a private meeting Thursday on Capitol Hill, a number of worried Senate Democrats warned Dean that he had been going overboard and needed to choose his words more carefully.

Howard Dean unmuzzled Robert Novak (archive) May 19, 2005 | Print | Send WASHINGTON -- After Howard Dean last weekend declared Tom DeLay ought to be in jail, a longtime Democratic operative told me the party's national chairman had momentarily ripped off his muzzle but that it soon would be restored. My source erred, however, in believing that Dean ever had been muzzled. It's just that nobody has paid much attention to his rants. Since his election as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Feb. 12, Dean has studiously avoided most national television exposure. But he has been...

WASHINGTON -- After Howard Dean last weekend declared Tom DeLay ought to be in jail, a longtime Democratic operative told me the party's national chairman had momentarily ripped off his muzzle but that it soon would be restored. My source erred, however, in believing that Dean ever had been muzzled. It's just that nobody has paid much attention to his rants. Since his election as chairman of the Democratic National Committee [DNC] on Feb. 12, Dean has studiously avoided most national television exposure. But he has been talking constantly to party gatherings across the country, and his intemperate language at...

It is conservative Christians on the State Board of Education who are sitting today in judgment of evolution instruction in Kansas schools. advertisement But their religion, of course, isn't the only one practiced in Kansas. "I think that this is trying to sneak in a certain brand of religion in disguise. I do not think that this is the American thing to do, because we do not impose one religion on everybody," said Judith Roitman, guiding teacher at the Kansas Zen Center, 1423 N.Y., and a professor of mathematics at Kansas University. "This is not just a Christian agenda, but...

<p>Howard Dean (news - web sites) is on the verge of an astonishing comeback. Can he replicate that feat for his demoralized party?</p> <p>Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate, is the frontrunner to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) when its 447 members cast their votes Feb. 12. As of Thursday, Dean had public commitments from 213 members. He needs a simple majority to win.</p>

Taliban west? Liberals worry that President Bush's reelection will lead to an American theocracy | by Gene Edward Veith Secularits are in a state of panic about the role of evangelical Christians in the reelection of George Bush. They actually believe that American democracy is in danger, that we are on the verge of becoming a theocracy. "Putting God in the public square runs the risk of turning our democracy into a theocracy," frets DeWayne Wickham in USA Today. Leonard Pitts of The Miami Herald warns darkly of "the soldiers of the new American theocracy who want to force ‘creation...

A Final Plea to Nader SupportersOctober 30, 2004 If Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Hightower, and Ralph Nader's former running mate Winona LaDuke haven't convinced you that voting for Nader is too great a risk this election, maybe nothing will. But the stakes are high enough to try. As Nader supporters continually point out, Kerry is a compromised, centrist Democrat, ambivalent at best on a host of key questions including the Iraqi war. Nader's positions may be better, and it may feel personally gratifying to vote for them. But this election isn't about abstract stands. It's about...

The cover of the Washington Monthly asks the burning question: "WHAT IF HE WINS?" The outcome of the race remains in doubt, of course, but there are huge implications for the media -- especially its openly liberal branch -- if President Bush is reelected next week. Some are already using apocalyptic terms. The New Yorker is backing John Kerry today in the first endorsement in its 80-year history. "There will be a period of grieving," says Katrina van den Heuvel, editor of the Nation. "We will continue to fight the good fight during what we think is the dismantling of...

Jewish Democratic leaders in Palm Beach County are worried. They are increasingly concerned that Republicans and the Bush administration have done such a good job of marketing themselves to Jewish voters that the once-reliable bloc of Democratic votes could go in a big way toward the president's re-election. With 22 days until Election Day, Democrats are scrambling to undo gains Republicans have made among Jews. "It's a very big problem," said Sylvia Wolfe-Herman, a vice president of the United South County Democratic Club. "We no longer have the bloc vote." The situation has attracted the attention of John Kerry's presidential...

John Kerry's FLIP FLOPPING now has even the Europeans concerned. They love Kerry (his wife is so ...'european') but they are not about to help ANYONE..ANYTIME with Iraq.

A STRONG performance in last week’s presidential debate has propelled Senator John Kerry, the Democratic challenger, into a dramatic lead over President George W Bush in the first major opinion poll since the two candidates faced each other in Miami on Thursday night. For the first time since the end of the Republican convention a month ago, a Newsweek poll showed that Kerry had surged past the president to lead by 49% to 46%. The same poll showed that 61% of Americans thought the Massachusetts senator had won the debate. Only 19% thought Bush had won, a stunning setback for...

You know the Dems are in trouble when your previous Secretary of State (Madeline Albright) gets b!tchslapped by Anderson Cooper. Man.. Anyone else see her get flustered.

Poll: Bush holds razor-thin lead over Kerry in Nevada President Bush holds a razor-thin lead over Democratic challenger John Kerry in the battleground state of Nevada. That's according to a new Las Vegas Sun/KLAS-TV/KNPR poll released this week. Among 600 likely voters in the state, Bush leads Kerry 47 percent to 42 percent. The poll has a sampling error margin of four percentage points. The poll shows seven percent of voters are undecided, two percent favor independent candidate Ralph Nader and two percent refuse to answer. Among those polled, forty percent were registered Republicans, 36 percent were registered Democrats and...

FOX News To Control Camera Coverage For Entire Press During First Debate And Saying They Will Not Follow Guidelines Agreed To By Candidates by Samuel A. Stanson It's truly hard to imagine. We've warned again and again that, above all else, the Kerry campaign had to guard against FOX News getting its hands on the debates. We told you the Bush team would work any angle possible to get FOX involved, and that if the Kerry campaign allowed this, we've warned for months now, they would lose the election. All seemed safe, as the moderators and hosts for the agreed...

New Poll: Kerry Losing Ground in Michigan

On the eve of the debates people are so on edge in New York that every gathering has become like a visit to the dentist. In this town of Democrats, Karl Rove's real or imagined brilliance has got people dangerously psyched out. Someone in a group always produces some new vulnerability of Kerry's to drill down on, some fresh tactical error to palpitate about. An expectation reversal has been going on that's strange to find among a candidate's own supporters. Even without the goring Bush has given him all summer, Kerry has lowered opinions of his campaigning skills so far...

How bad is John Kerry's campaign? So bad that the race is already over. By David M. Carney Trust me. I know a dead campaign when I see one John Kerry is in trouble. More precisely, Kerry's campaign is in trouble. I should know: I served on two of the worst-run national presidential campaigns in history, Bush-Quayle '92 and Dole-Kemp in '96. Watching the Kerry campaign flounder is giving me nightmares and flashbacks to those bad old days. There is no way that Kerry can win this race. He and his merry band of elitists have done everything in their...

WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle hugged President Bush (news - web sites) from one end of South Dakota to the other this summer. In his own campaign commercials. The brief embrace might seem an odd claim on re-election for the man Republicans depict as obstructionist-in-chief for the president's congressional agenda. But Daschle is one of several candidates with a common political problem as Democrats nurse fragile hopes of gaining Senate control this fall. From the South to South Dakota and Alaska, they are running in areas where Bush is popular — and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news...

"What's happening to John Kerry?" Columnist J. Jesus Esquivel spoke for the most of the international online media when he asked that question in this week's edition of Proceso (in Spanish), a leading Mexican newsweekly. Kerry, Esquivel said, "is the hope of the world to put a stop to the imperialist ideas and belligerent crusades of the Bush government." Opinion polls show people in many countries agree with Esquivel, supporting Kerry by margins of up to two to one. Yet in U.S. opinion polls, Kerry is lagging behind President Bush just days before their first face-to-face debate in Miami on...

Did someone spike Steve MacMahon's Kool-Aid with truth serum? The former Dean advisor turned Kerry advisor just let the cat out of the bag as to the deep doo-doo in which the baleful snowboarder from the Bay State finds himself. In the course of a short interview combing through the rubble and debris that are Kerry's latest poll results, MacMahon admitted the following: W had a good convention. Kerry "has a rough month ahead." Kerry is definitely behind. Kerry has "come up a little short" in various regards. Imagine what life must be like inside the Nantucket bunker if this...

LA CROSSE, Wis. - In 2000, political pundits summed up the race in three words: Florida, Florida, Florida. Here's three words to consider this fall: Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. President Bush (news - web sites) is targeting their combined 27 electoral votes — the same total as Florida, where a bitterly contested recount settled the last election. The trio of upper Mississippi River states narrowly backed Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) in 2000 and are, if anything, slightly more Republican four years later, raising the possibility that Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) could...

.....Kerry will be in Wisconsin, a battleground state where he has fallen behind Bush in the polls. Gregory B. Craig, an attorney on former President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense team, will take on the Bush role. Kerry spokesman Mike McCurry said the challenger's goal will be to introduce himself to an electorate that has yet to gain a clear impression of him. Kerry needs to "get people to understand who he is and what his leadership capabilities are [that] he really would lead this country in a different direction ... and finally to convince people that we've got a plan...