This matchup is like Reagan-Carter, in that one candidate doesn't have to do a whole lot more than ask, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" in order to make a compelling case. This candidate is not John McCain.

This matchup is like Reagan-Carter, in that one candidate doesn't have to do a whole lot more than ask, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" in order to make a compelling case. This candidate is not John McCain.

I agree with Gary Kamiya that the vast majority of HRC supporters will line up behind Obama once he is the nominee (although I think as penance for her divisiveness and grasping, Hillary should be made to campaign as tirelessly for Obama, from the convention to the election, as she has for herself), and that the key to the whole thing is working-class white males (and to a lesser extent WCW females). I don't agree that McCain is running as son of Bush--as someone else pointed out, he did that to gain the nomination but has now started running for the center. In order to flank, Obama must, must, must pick a Southern white male. (And he's got to have military experience, to counter the plausible charge that Obama is insufficiently versed in matters military). There is more to this than racism--I think that anyone who is so thoroughly racist that they wouldn't vote for a black man, wouldn't change his mind because a white guy is at the bottom of the ticket. However, WCWMs and Fs have a legitimate right to want someone who represents their interests and values on the ticket (various other identity groups--Hispanics, women, etc. etc. can also make this legitimate claim, but they are less important to a Democratic victory this November). An Obama-Webb ticket would reconstitute the New Deal coalition of urban intellectuals, blacks, and working-class whites (north and south) that put Democrats in the White House for 20 years.

The last Democratic ticket that didn't have a Southern male on it was Mondale/Ferraro in 1984. Think about it.

Clintonite childishness aside, I think the race is Obama's to lose (especially now that Bob Barr has entered the race). If he wants to have a chance, John McCain will need to pick a running mate that demonstrates that the GOP isn't just the party of middle aged/elderly white guys. It seems critical to me for McCain to pick a female--this will be especially important if, as I suspect, the Democratic ticket is all-male. Kay Bailey Hutchison seems like a logical choice, and one that I have suggested before: she's a Governor, which balances McCain as a Senator; she's relatively young and can appeal to independent females who are into the gender-identity thing.

Her disadvantage is that she is from a Southern state that the GOP is likely to carry anyway. Since John McCain is also from a Southern state that the GOP is likely to carry anyway, so KBH doesnt bring a whole lot of value-added in this regard. This made me think about female Republican governors from the Northeast, and naturally I thought of Christine Todd Whitman. If McCain goes this route he will have an excellent chance to present the public with the image of a moderate/centrist ticket, but risks alienating the right-wing base. With Bob Barr in the race, this may not be something he can do and he may need to tack to the right. This is actually what makes McCain's tssk so daunting, in my opinion (both in terms of VP picks and his campaign strategy in general)--if he tacks to the center, he can easily lose the crazy base (either to Barr or to just sitting out); if he tacks to the right, he can lose independents and Reagan Democrats to Obama.

I will certainly defer to first-hand knowledge from a Virginian, but the idea that Webb had the campaign "handed to him" on a silver platter by the absurd George allen seems far-fetched. He unseated a sitting Senator who had been a popular Governor (winning the election by the largest margin in recent Virginia history). I would instead argue that Allen had all the advantages and pissed them away, and that Jim Webb is lucky to be where he is. The fact that Webb got lucky does not mean he is not an excellent choice for the VP slot.

Re: Robert Rubin, an NYC-born, Miami-raised Jewish investment banker is really, really not what a party who has issues with 'elitism' issues, and problems in appealing to working-class and rural white Americans, wants on its ticket. He certainly did a fine job as Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury. So why not make him, you know, Secretary of the Treasury?

The whole point of this article is that the technology and tactics employed did *not* destroy with no risk to the soldiers involved. The point is that the nature of fighting a counterinsurgency of this kind requires going out in small numbers and exposing soldiers to extreme amounts of risk in an extremely tense and dangerous environment. This kind of stress and fear results in the bad decision-making that led to the killings described. Nevertheless a major function of the NCO corps and, especially, the officer corps is to maintain a morally proper environment in the face of bad situations and difficult decisions, which the officers in the battalion clearly failed to do--indeed, they apparently actively contributed to the degradation of moral decision-making in the sniper section.

Individual responsibility is important; the snipers on the ground made the wrong decisions and should have been punished, but it is disgraceful that the only guy to face jail time, out of everybody involved, was the lowest-ranking enlisted soldier.

Among the greatest tragedies of this occupation is the way it has degraded the moral fabric of the armed forces.