in that last graph. that means they're a little bit skeerd of him, or the people behind him. that's the second "performance" related piece i've read on him today.

3 rethug candidates have/had cancer. they are also pretty old. that's telling, in a lot of ways. we're not looking at the 'new blood' of the party, we're looking at the old right guard. if you think of it as the cheney admin, that's another group of folks headed up by someone from back in the day.

the next generation of republicans will be different, is different. hmmm, there's an essay here.

testing....1 2 3

I think my first comment got spam filtered so let's try this with respect to Thompson:

Viva a popular erectile dysfunction drug so that Thompson can perform for his lovely wife 2o years his senior.

It did, polishifter.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

Let us raise our voices "What a Fred we have for Jeebus."

I've maintained since last winter that polls don't matter much anywhere outside of Iowa, until about October. It's clear old Fred has sufficient sense to wait till the Petraeus Midway Carny Show is complete before jimping in with a third way, the Thompson Way.

Basically, if he can stay awake and speak in complete sentences, he can outshine the rest of the GOP field except Huckabee. Yet both together can't defeat any Democrat on a level playing field. They'll have to demonize immigrants, mention 9-11 five times a day, blow Ronald Reagan's corpse and hope for an Al Qaida attack or a war on Iran, just to stay in striking distance till November 2008.

Thompson's an idiot, but his handlers are not.

I love John Keegan (even if he has written some pro-Iraq stuff. Military historians, sigh...)

Especially excellent is Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America. He gives a wonderful sense of America as terrain, and has a concept of "nodes"--geographical locations that because of their situation and physical characteristics tend to be fought upon over and over. IIRC, it's not a coincidence that McClellan in the Peninsular Campaign used some of the same earthworks that the Brits did in Yorktown. (I may have gotten my facts muddled on that, though. Xan would know better, I'm sure.)

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

and it was clear to me he is setting himself up to be the "third way" guy, and biding his time. he spoke in carefully constructed dogwhistle terminology, making it clear he hates women, brown people, atheists, just like all 'good' republicans, but didn't shy away from admitting that his party is facing some real problems and only a 'new' vision like his can solve them.

we'll see if republicans buy it.