James, you are elevated to near-God status in my eyes.  Comparing the Republican party to an abused spouse was solid gold! 

Seriously, like the peace I made with Steve Lyons last night, I now pledge to lay off of James, too. 

I think true liberalism has been out of favor for awhile.

I think most of the country is moderate, leaning conservative on some things.

I don't think the country is comfortable with the very liberal position-Michael Moore's Naders and clearly they have doubts whether democrats in general can lead in times of (1) war and (2) crime.

However, i think much of the country is also uncomfortable with much of the religious conservative "agenda."  But, they have enough clout in crucial states to make a difference.

In recent history (post 60s) truly liberal candidates have not done well. Clinton won as a moderate/pragmatist.  Carter was more liberal but not super-duper and helped by Watergate.

Two conservatives, though, have won. Reagan and GWB. 

So conservatives can win, if they smile enough and they are nice enough.

I don't think liberals can.

However, domestically, the public only supports the more conservative point of view so far-even if they agree in a poll or an election, there are many things when it comes down to it, they won't lose.

Still, Presidents are judged also n a very individual basis, so it is hard to tell.

But history says a moderately liberal southern easy going Democrat is needed to win the next election.  Can Bill be enough of a wild card to push it to Hillary? We shall see.

It's kind of like the woman who keeps firing the gun at the corpse of her abuser long after she's pumped the whole clip into him; some have been down so long they don't know what up looks like. 

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James,

Are you consistent/principled enough to INSIST that JB call Marvel by their REAL NAME when he refers to them as M****L (and keep taking him to task over and over again when he doesn't change his ways for you)?  He often says some highly critical and unflattering (I'm being polite here) things about them without ever using their actual name.  I think we should all go through some current and previous threads and see if/when you EVER challenged him on it.  Or is it just message board critics/detractors FOX "news" that you choose to take on? 

By the way, not firing someone for making up quotes about a sitting U.S. Senator and nominee of his party for President, while he was in the heat of presidential election for the highest office in the land was WRONG and you know it.  You slammed back at someone because CBS did a hit piece against President Bush during an election, implying it was worse than what the FOX reporter did to Kerry... you do know that Bush was not the only person running in that race?  Was it alright to hurt Kerry during a campaign, but not Bush, or vice-versa??  I remember reading that article and believing that Kerry said those things, and dropping my jaw at how crazy he must of had to be to have said such stupid things.  If a NEWS organization's reporter (the guy who was COVERING the Kerry campaign, no less) makes up quotes that cause even a libertarian-leaning Democrat like me to think a guy running for president must be "crazy"--- it doesn't exactly help the poor bastard.  And to top it all off, the guy wasn't even removed from his role in covering the Kerry campaign!