Thanks for putting all that into perspective.

Though, Kucinich never said he saw aliens (you didn't say he did), he said he saw an object in the sky, and I was impressed that he admitted that he saw something. Personally I think it was god(dess)'s way of telling us that (s)he wants us to scrap NAFTA, or at the very least seriously overhaul it.

I have a hard time not totally loving Kucinich, and I feel that in a more perfect world Kucinich would be a more viable candidate. One thing you can say about Kucinich is that, like all of the the 08 Democratic hopefuls, he is a candidate of strength, principles, passion, compassion, and conviction, and is willing to put his life on the line to make the country a better nation. But I believed a phased, timetabled, redeployment from Iraq would be a better and smarter course of action than a quick withdraw.

Back in 1988, in which I was a sophomore in high school, I remember being sick to my stomach at the field of Democratic contenders that were going up against a very beatable Reagan successor. I couldn't get over Jesse Jackson's fake MLK blood scene or his anti-semitic NYC comment, and Dukakis looked nerdy, strange, weak, and out of touch with reality (the Cold War was still very much on at that time), and I could never get over the "who the hell is that guy" impression Dukakis left on me.

None of the 08 Democratic candidates appears weak, none of them looks all that nerdy (Kucinich kind of does, but when you look at his wife you realize no nerd could get a woman like that), none of them seems strange, and all of them give the sound impression that they know what they are talking about when they talk about global issues.

I talk to a lot of hard right, conservative, white men (all of which considered themselves in the vein of Jim Webb), and the prevailing opinion is that it will be a Democratic rout in 08 (everywhere) regardless of which Democratic faces whoever wins the Republican nomination. Though, I agree with you that the Huck vs. Edwards match-up is the Republicans best chance of keeping the White House.

Sorry I meant to say, Prudence Bushnell. My apologies to Prudence Bushnell.

Thanks. You presented your argument a lot better about the quantity and quality of the intelligence that the Clintons most likely had access to prior to the invasion of Iraq. But I still say that even if the intelligence reports had been made public to the American public, prior to the invasion of Iraq, that Saddam had no ties to terrorism, had no WMD, and was 100% supportive of the west and America, Americans still would have overwhelmingly supporting giving Dubya authorization to take preemptive action against the Saddam regime (Saddam was a totalitarian, heavy handed, dictator who gassed his own people, and invaded both Iran and Kuwait), because most Americans still would have believed that Dubya was a rational man who would have exhausted all avenues of conflict resolution before invading Iraq, because at that time few people had reason to believe that their president was not a rational man.

I'm not so much of a fan of Bill Clinton either, but I am huge fan James Lee Witt, a big fan of Al Gore (and am even bigger fan of him now that he is out of politics), a big fan of Hillary Clinton, a huge fan of Richard Holbrooke, A huge fan of Madeline Albright, a huge fan of Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Reich, Janet Reno disappointed a few times, but for the most part I agreed with the job she did, and I am absolutely in love with Nancy Soderberg and Purdence Bushnell. And those are the people I really remember from the Bill Clinton administration (and I was sad that they could not carry on their work into the Gore administration).

It is not the name on the ballot that we are electing, it is the entire executive branch that we are electing, and I feel excited about a lot of the people that Hillary Clinton will bring with her, should she win the White House in November.

AKA Smith has made it clear that she likes all of the Democratic candidates; "Senator Clinton, as well as Senator Biden, Senator Dodd, Senator Obama, and Mr. Edwards", so your assertion that she is an "obviously a Hillary devotee" is a lie, disingenuous, and rude.

I won't speak for AKA Smith, but I know I hate it when people put words in my mouth, or twist what I write.

If you are going to argue with someone be respectful to what they say, because otherwise you just come off as a prick.

For the record, and I have stated this on several salon threads before, I like Senators Clinton, Obama, Dodd, and Biden, former Senator Edwards, Governor Richardson, and representative Kucinich. And I think all of them have very impressive spouses.