I agree that the Evangelicals who found a party that would embrace them in the GOP with Bush 2 at the helm, will try to form their own party as the true conservatives take their party back. Palin would be their likely candidate. This would split the current GOP in two thereby halving their party just like Nader and the Green party performed a bloodletting on the Democratic Party in 2000. Let's see how the GOP likes it!

I woke up at 5:30AM this morning in the UK to the victory of Obama. Crying and laughing at the same time, I remembered where I was 4 years ago. I was in Boston with my fellow volunteers for the Kerry campaign. We had gone to what was supposed to be a victory rally. It had ended in pouring rain as we cried in horror at the giant screen showing states falling into red. I didn't stop crying for 2 weeks. Then I moved to the UK and I've watched in still more horror as the death toll rose in Iraq and I watched my beloved country swallowed up by religious fanatics. Now, I'm yelling on the streets of Cardiff, Wales 'PRESIDENT OBAMA'!

I'm proud to be an American thanks to Obama's brilliance and brilliant campaign that reached anyone that was willing to listen. A debt of thanks is owed to those people in swing states and even the Deep South who opened up their minds and gave Obama a chance. To those people who are Republican, Independent or who had never voted. They rose together and helped us Democrats put Obama over the line.

He is truly OUR president.

I was appalled when I found out Prop 8 passed. I'm not gay and don't need to be to hear this alleged whistle. Dan Savage's assumption that we all don't care is completely off-base and actually made me a little less sympathetic, at least to him. He wrote not of the amazing victory of Obama but bitched and complained like a liberal in-fighter. Does Dan Savage not get it? We won because we beat the GOP at their own game: we were united under one goal, one man. And as a volunteer for the Kerry Campaign in several swing states, I do have resentment of those that dragged Kerry off of one focus and divided the party. He wasn't a bad candidate.

And now some positive words, which only I and apparently 'dcp618...' have read about the Defense of Marriage Act:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/06/doma/index.html

There is something we can all do besides whine. Contact your representatives in Congress and let them know that repealing the DOMA is important to us.

How many more conservatives can you throw out of your pitiful little band known as the GOP, labeling them RINOs and traitors? How many more do you think you can spare? You're already crowding together like a bunch of meerkats on a tiny island in a stream. Smith is just asking completely valid questions that didn't get answered, by the way. And 'Karl Rove is a genius, I guess' is not an answer.

This is why I'm glad Hayden is no longer running the CIA: he doesn't understand his enemy. A True Believer (those that believe martyrdom is the way to Heaven) and those most likely to carry out a terrorist attack like 9/11 are not going to be stopped by the threat of torture. Those on-the-fence who can be psychologically reached can yield information and they will do so without torture. Hayden is a fool in thinking that his enemy thinks rationally.

I support Obama in 'moving ahead'. The money it would cost to prosecute Bush, Cheney and their cronies just doesn't exist right now. I didn't like paying Kenneth Starr to go after Clinton any more than I would want to pay more prosecutors to go after Cheney. Besides, Spain has a case and they are pursuing it and many other countries have a case against those responsible for torturing their citizens at Gitmo.

If you are well, if you can walk and work, you can contribute to society and the economy. That means you also earn a paycheck, from which come taxes which pay for universal healthcare.

I'm an American living in the UK. From my paycheck comes the same percentage that used to be pulled out in the US, except I have the NHS. What does that mean in regular every day terms? If I get sick I call my surgery (=doctor's office) and come in the next morning. If I'm injured or very ill, I go straight to the hospital or walk to the out-of-hours surgery in my neighborhood. I see a DOCTOR. I don't see a nurse practitioner or some crap like that. All this 'someone between me and my doctor' bull makes me so angry. There's no bill, just care. We have the option to have private insurance, which is mostly just for dental care, from my friends that have it. It's brilliant. It works. And the US doesn't have to re-invent the wheel, and given the fact that a 1000+ page bill was put together rather quickly, I think they aren't re-inventing the wheel. They're looking at the glorious working model right here in the UK.

I'm thankful for this article written by a caring and frustrated doctor. Those of you who think they're covered, be afraid if you get in a car accident or are stricken with an illness, because that's when you'll find out that there IS someone between you and your doctor: the insurance company and they'll be telling you what care you can have, if you can have any at all.