That would be...Salonista's. Boy what a self-congratulatory, myopic bunch many of you are! My memory is a tad longer than most of yours, because I remember how George Bush won in 2004 (Republican) by about the same margin as Obama in 2008 did, and how all of you were sobbing and swearing you would be moving to Canada...any day. Only you never did; so much for braggadocio.

I'm a Democrat and I don't pretend to speak for Republicans. But I do know that politics runs in cycles, and that the Republican Party has been around for over a hundred years. It keeps changing and reinventing itself, so Mr. Greener's suggestion that they "rebrand" is probably a pretty accurate reflection of what they will have to do. And so will the Democrats. Because times change...candidates change...world conditions change. That doesn't invalidate the Republican Party or its message to those who accept or believe in it.

I respect Obama, but he's not a man-god nor "the anointed one". It's bizarre how quickly people are forgetting that he was hardly a shoo-in and up until around late September, it actually looked like McCain/Palin would win...they were ahead in the polls for a while. Had the economic crash held off a couple more months, I am convinced that McCain would have won the election by a small margin.

You also must absolutely NEVER talk to any real young people. "Young people" are not some monolithic block of mostly privileged (and yes, WHITE!) kids who attend college and all think alike. They are as diverse as any other age demographic. Some -- quite a few actually -- are conservative. My stepson is 28 and my nephew almost 20, and they BOTH VOTED REPUBLICAN last November. Why? They are crazy for Sarah Palin...and they are one issue voters. And that issue is....gun control. They felt Obama would "take their guns away". Nothing I could say -- about the economy, about health care, about Iraq -- could dissuade them.

And -- young people have a curious way of growing up, having families, and becoming more conservative. Present day baby boomers -- Geo. Bush is one! -- grew up with Woodstock, drugs, sex and rock n' roll, yet they are ALSO the architects of the Wall Street-driven economic collapse, and ALSO the ones who got us into Iraq and who botched Katrina and who created the housing mess. In other words, the most "liberal" hippie generation ended up being one of the most Conservative generations in US history. I suspect so-called "liberal young people" today will be pretty similar in time.

And young people don't actually vote that much. Not compared to old people. Old people would go to the polls to vote if they had to creep on their walkers through live bullet fire through streets of broken glass. Young people only turn out for a handful of issues or charismatic candidates (Palin or Obama). Then they go back to their i-pods and PlayStations. Keep in mind that the fastest growing segment of the population is OLD PEOPLE, and this will be true for a quite a few decades into the future.

And Latinos -- sorry, but most of the Latino and Hispanics I know are Catholic and pretty darn traditional. As they achieve the American Dream (whatever is left of that tattered old thing) and become more middle-class, they will adopt middle class ideas and values and become more protective of their status -- i.e., more conservative. Just as what happened to other immigrant groups as they became assimilated.

As far as Sonia Sotomayor, she was grilled over, but not any differently than I think Supreme Court candidates have been in the past. Robert Bork wasn't exactly handled "respectfully" and gently by Democrats. The reality is that the opposition party is always pissed off by Supreme Court nominees that they feel (often correctly) will simply rubber-stamp the current White House occupants favorite political schemes. Sotomayor is just replacing Souter; she doesn't represent that much of a threat, and hence the "opposition" to her has been pretty lame. Senator Graham as much as admitted she was a shoo-in; this is a lot of noise about nothing.

The worst mistake ANY political party can ever make is to underestimate the opposition -- the assume that because they won last time, they will EVERY time and forever into the future. That is never true for ANY party. The losing party sulks...regroups..."rebrands" and reinvents itself. Then they come back, stronger than ever. It looked like the Republicans were in the dumper after Carter was elected, and they had the whole Nixon mess to deal with. They came back with Reagan. After 12 years of dominance, it looked like they had total control...then the economy tanked, and Clinton was victorious. Again, arrogant Democrats assumed this was some sort of mandate; it wasn't. Clinton screwed up (literally), and Bush was elected...due in large part to a Supreme Court stacked by Reagan and his daddy. History is weird, and amazing, and politics weirder and more amazing still.

So put on your seat belts. I can promise you a bumpy ride. There are no sure outcomes, and only total fools and delusional idiots pretend that they know how the future will be, or count their opponents out before the game is over.

I got as far as the part where Greener started blamming the "big city" media. He's good with numbers but has no values. How stupid does he think people are? The pea brains among the Dems do the same thing by pointing out the media is in the hands of the corporate elite, which is no less true and just as easily manipulated.

The seminal political event of my lifetime was not the election of Obama--it was the re-election of Bush. How does a nation put a fool into office who only represents his interests and that of his class? Not once, but twice, and after he made it totally clear where he was coming from? They are a distinct minority without a conscience.

The problem was that the Viet Nam generation copped out of the political process for most of their liftime and the elite took control. You aren't going to see this analysis in the mainstream media or almost anyplace else. Obama represents the cultural evolution that began at that time and remained dormant since then. It ain't rocket science, but the blinders have been on for a long time.

The truth is that the Grand Old Party is either going to have to change its policies, tone, and constituancy or become extinct. Their own greed has led to their primarily being dominated by a bunch of con men. Chances are it will remain that way until the party splits, is re-built, and a figure comes along with the insight, savy and integrity to lead them in a new direction that genuinely represents the interests of a voting majority--regardly of whether they are black, white, Latino, or aquamarine. They are hard to come by, not just here but everywhere.

I don't think Bill Greener is that guy, and if they listen to him they ain't gettin' very far either.