I'm not talking about identity politics, whatever the heck that is. I'm talking about knowing who one is and what one values -- being at home in one's own skin. The person with the more secure identity will come in from the cold and take the White House. That's what screwed Romney -- he had no identity other than what he was trying to assume to get the conservatives on his side. McCain has an identity but he's not that at home in his own skin. Huckabee is very at home in his own skin but his own skin freaks the heck out of every moderate soul in America other than his own evangelical base.

My bet is on Obama. I think Obama can do it so long as he has a strong VP candidate running with him and FOR him. If he chooses Richardson or Wes Clark, I think he could be our next President. People who don't like Clinton hate her but the people who don't like Obama don't have the same venomous energy.

Hating Hillary seems to be a sport among the impotent. They don't have the testosterone to actually compete at something. It's like strip solitaire. They can't get it up so they blame Hillary. Their lives are empty so they hate Hillary. It's the same syndrome that manifests itself in anti-Semitism.

has been the country's nightmare for the last seven years. It has impoverished us, divided us, sent us to a war we should not have waged, destroyed a major American city, sold us out to religious fanatics at least as dangerous as Osama....

We need to wake up from their dream and throw them out of bed.

It is going to be interesting to watch the religious right do their contortions. I can also imagine (because I don't listen to or watch these folks) Limbaugh, Coulter and Hannity writhing in pain as the field narrows.

They're stuck. Either they sit on their hands (my choice for them) or put their muscle behind Huckabee, who doesn't have a chance in the world.

Now that Romney's dropped out, where will the McCain haters go? Huckabee? I don't think so. Too "religious" though spellbinding. Paul? No way. McCain is all they have and if they destroy him, they destroy themselves for at least four years.

I have this wonderful vision of Ronald Reagan in the afterlife. He is looking down at the Bush presidency (this one) and the field running to replace him. He is sitting there strumming his well-earned harp and singing "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to." Between McCain, Huckabee, Romney, Paul, Giuliani and the Law and Order guy, Fred Thompson, I don't think all the Kleenex in Heaven is going to be enough.

The primary issues will be competence, the economy and the war, all of which line up neatly behind each other. McCain has the first (sort of) but flunks the second and third. His cred on the economy is marginal and the idea of prolonging the war is not going to play well because of the estimated 2.3 trillion dollar estimated cost -- a drain on the economy. McCain flunks both major areas.

As for the extreme right (Limbaugh and company), as David Brooks put it on PBS Tuesday night "return to sender." They will have to deal with McCain. The question is whether he needs them as much as they need him. I don't think so.

Is Senator Obama getting to be a better campaigner rather than becoming more "establishment," whatever that means?

I am going to be pretty content with whomever is the nominee of the Democrats but I would hate to see them tear at one another. I think Howard Dean made it pretty clear to both of them (as did the results of the primary after Bill Clinton ripped Obama) that the politics of destruction destroys everyone. I hope they learn that lesson.

Lieberman was, at one time, valuable as a kind of moral ballast in the Senate but his influence has gotten to him and he now seems to be a sanctimonious windbag.

Nothing that appears there is credible by anyone but knuckle dragging revenants. They still believe that Ann Coulter is a woman. Murdoch owns it, f'Heaven's sake.

No wonder they published Lieberman. He is a disgrace.

McCain is human, Romney is not. Granted McCain is explosive but I also credit him with a pulse and real reactions to real events. I don't agree with him on views but he is a person and not some kind of hologram of the well-adjusted whatever.

I find myself in the same predicament. I don't know who to vote for. Clinton has been a wonderful Senator for my state. Obama is extremely exciting.

I think I would like to find out who they would run with as VP. If Clinton said she would run with Wesley Clark, she'd have my vote in a second. Same with Obama. Bill Richardson would seal the deal, too, either way. The person either of them choose as VP is crucial in this election.

It is not fair for anyone to take a person to task for attending the funeral of a head of a church, especially if the attendee knew the departed. I would have thought less of him had he not attended because it might twist some evangelical knickers in a knot.

If Romney's memebership in LDS is a problem for someone, it oughtn't be on this issue.

Karen