McCain has stayed below the radar, no one is actively digging up dirt, and all attention is on the Democrats. Once the nomination is decided, and we Democrats have taken a deep breath and come back to our senses (deciding that neither Obama nor Hillary are Satan), McCain's skeletons will start coming out of the closet and he's in for a rough ride. While I think McCain is generally an intelligent person, he's a terrible speaker and debater, especially up against either Obama or Clinton.

The good thing about this early ugliness is that a lot of issues against Obama and Clinton are being vetted, and the public is already tired of hearing about them. When McCain goes to push those same issues, people are already going to be sick of hearing them. I can't imagine anyone caring about Obama's preacher or Clinton's Bosnia episode 6 months from now during the generals. Attacks on McCain, however, will be fresh and juicy.

While the data certainly indicates that race has impacted Obama's voter base (both positively and negatively, depending on the state), it's also abundantly clear that gender has impacted Clinton's numbers. There's a huge difference between saying "Race is a factor in this campaign" and "Obama's success is because of his race". Ferraro said the latter, and it's inherently racist.

Beyond that, though, much of the backlash was justifiably a reaction to Clinton's own reactions to similar incidents. Others have mentioned Powers, but going back a bit further, consider the Farrakhan incident. All Farrakhan did was make a statement in support of Obama, a statement that in itself insulted no one, and the Clinton campaign immediately threw a fit, insisting that Obama denounce Farrakhan. If that situation was guilt by association, the Ferraro incident was doubly so, and Obama's camp had every right to make an issue of it.

Even though I haven't decided whether I'm voting for Obama or Clinton in my state's primary (Illinois) and I am tired of Iowa and New Hampshire deciding the nomination, I'm even more tired of the amount of Spin going on on Salon regarding Hillary. I know War Room tends towards the speculative, but there was very little actual fact in this article, and a lot of wishful thinking about the Clinton campaign. If you want to take sides, be my guest, but either be honest about it or cut down on the speculating.

Sounds like Janet Huckabee has more military experience than President Bush.

I'm no gun lover, but she has a legal firearm and carries a permit; I'm not sure this is exactly damning news. On the other hand, Huckabee's populist demeanor does worry me a bit; he's a lot more extreme than he comes across in the popular press.

I'm not defending the polls, but there's another explanation for the inability of polls to predict a winner before the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primaries: Iowa and New Hampshire have an undue influence in the nomination process that doesn't reflect the sentiment of the country. Attack the polls all you want, but the nominating system is also fatally flawed and hardly representative of the will of the voters.

All this extra time to prepare, and Thompson doesn't have a coherent policy (or, at least, talking points) about either Iraq or gay marriage? He knew he was running as a Republican, right?

Here's a hint, Fred; better brush up on the whole abortion thing.

(sorry if I'm misremembering this slightly)

"If we didn't have free speech, how would we know who all the assholes are?"

Dems: A Chickenhawk in Every Pot

Dems: "Democracy Begins at Home"

Barack Obama, Karl Rove, and Osama bin Laden all enjoy Fruit Loops for breakfast! It's like they're the same person! A vote for Obama will embolden both the Bush administration and the terrorists simultaneously, causing a universe-ending explosion.

I may not agree with much of Gingrich's politics, but a lot of what the media spun about him even in his heyday was gross misrepresentation. One day I saw him on C-SPAN talking intelligently about the technology gap, and that night every reporter in Washington was claiming that Newt wanted to give laptops to starving children instead of feeding them. Say what you will about Newt, but he does at least have a functioning brain, unlike half of the current administration.

I hope none of those young conservatives listen to him, frankly, because if they keep drinking the Kool-aid, it's going to take neocon powermongers years to recover from the Bush/Iraq fallout.

Bill Clinton spent a lot of money on stuff, too. Every single year. So there. Check and mate.

Pray that God would supernaturally activate the Christians in Iowa

I'm not a prayer expert, but that doesn't seem like the kind of thing you should be asking God to do. It sounds a bit like they want to create some sort of zombie army for Brownback.

If the government spent $500B on Twinkies, they would end up buying CheneyCakes (R) instead. CheneyCakes would be made by a subsidiary of KBR, and since they would cost 100X what normal Twinkies do (as laid out in a no-bid contract), we'd actually only get 50/each. That would just make us all fatter, requiring us to give more money to HMOs and the pharmaceutical industry.

Eating 5,000 Twinkies each would pretty much make terrorism a non-issue. Of course, Hostess would probably be bought out by KBR.

Who in their right mind takes advice about manliness from Tucker Carlson? Even as a life-long geek, I want to give the guy an Atomic Wedgie every time I see him.

What's truly sickening is that this came less than 24 hours after President Bush pleaded with Republicans for patience on his Iraq policy. Pretty soon, Senator Lieberman will just be standing behind George lip-syncing his words for practice.