...then the question is, who will be the new puppetmaster?

Oh my God, it might be Nancy Pelosi. If the Republicans are ready to cut George Bush loose, and if Bush doesn't want to submit to his Dad James Baker's advice, then Bush might have to throw himself to the Democrats and do what they tell him to do. Otherwise Bush may end up all alone in the White House with no support at all, and no idea what to do next.

Bush could end up his presidency being Nancy's poodle. I'm not sure I could bet against that.

...he made it clear that Senatoral candidates who didn't respond to attacks within 24 hours would not get any money from his committee. So the rest of the Democrats do seem to have learned something.

Lessons we've learned:

We need to fight back, and fight everywhere. (And that's what Howard has taught us.)

Competition is good. The Lamont/Lieberman fight didn't hurt the party at all, but may have helped it by making Democrats focus on being Democrats.

George W. Bush is the best campaigner Democrats have ever had. Everywhere he went, Republicans lost.

Lessons we still need to learn:

How to present a coherent and unified message to the country.

How to talk and think at the same time. (Please, Kerry, take note.)

...is for Hugh Hewitt, not Mallard Fillmore.

"Unbiased Media Chicken," is the giveaway, I think.

...the oil companies can go back to charging full price for gasoline again.

How soon will it go back up over three dollars? Or even four?

...victory is impossible, and defeat will be calamitous.

Thanks a lot, Frum.

...and voters know it. And Republicans are unable to tell people otherwise.

Economies go through upturns and downturns, bascially no matter what is done by government. However this does not mean that government has no effect on the economy.

If after siz years of tax cuts, the economy finally experiences an inevitable (and fairly weak) upturn, it's just as easy to argue that the tax cuts delayed the upturn and weakened it. And I think this is the case.

We have soaring deficits and failing companies and we have declining wages and people getting poorer and we have stagnant development and less innovation. This is the same as the Reagan years, when the same supply side idiocy was tried as well (and when we were also told what a booming economy we supposedly had, even as jobs drained out the ecomony and went overseas).

Tax cuts don't spur economies, they simply allow rich people to pocket their money and not have to reinvest it.

This country should be able to do a lot better than the kind of growth we've had.

...what would be the most fucked up thing Bush could do in reponse?

He could resign on Wednesday along with Dick Cheney and give the presidency to Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi would then be faced with impossible choices: leave Iraq or increase our presence there? Or just keep punting the ball like Bush is doing now? Whatever she chooses, it will be she and the Democrats who will likely have to pay the consequences for Bush's mistakes, not Bush. And the consequences could be severe.

What if we get hit by a terror attack during the Pelosi administration? The Republicans will spend the next fifty years blaming it on the Democrats--and maybe on the fact that Pelosi is a woman.

How can Pelosi get the economy back on track? She would have to reverse Bush's tax breaks for the rich--that would save the country from the consequences of Bush's economic folly. It would also happen to save Bush and the Republicans from the consequences of their economic folly as well. Once taxes are raised, the Republicans will just go back to playing the same old tax cut game all over again.

Could anything be worse? Yes, the Republicans could win on Tuesday. Then there will be absolutely no restraint on their impulses at all. Then the country will REALLY go to hell.

The country needs the Democrats to win on Tuesday. But winning might kill the Democrats. Losing, however, might kill the country. Some choice, hunh?

The Democrats better plan on being patriots the next few years. The satisfaction of having saved the country might all the reward they're ever going to get.

...and Dan Akroyd did do the same character years ago--but much more sympathetically. Sympathy seems to be an emotion that's utterly gone with the wind now, though. Along with thinking things through and taking responsibility and trying to be smarter and....

Borat, I think, is really today's Jerry Lewis. Just look at the way he went after Conan O'Brien's 'pubis.' Which would seem to make the US and Britan today's France--and not in the good way.

...because the Democrats finally fired back. Kerry got his side of the story out to the media, as well as some of his own shots at Bush.

Democrats are learning, slowly but surely. Now if they could just learn to think while speaking. Maybe they first need to learn to think.

>As a result, at a time when Republican incumbents are spending upward of $4 million to defend their seats, Schmidt is trying to make due with a $500,000 campaign.

If you wanted to say, 'make doo,' that would be at least clever.

...is that Democrats are now firing back, unlike in the last two presidental election cycles. It's clear from reading the AP wire story today that the Democrats have now learned to get their side of the story out in the media. This is just so important to do.

Even better news would be if the Democrats could now turn this lame story against the president: Kerry may have botched his words, but you botched the war, Mr. President.

...vs a botched war? It's astounding that there's even a contest!