I wish I could come up with a good scenario to argue with you, Ron, but that is still a clear and present danger. I see it as a combination of two things. GOP registration, while bouncing back *a little* this year, is still very low and it's still mostly the far right, family values crowd voting in a lot of those primaries. But even beyond bare registration numbers, the wings are the ones on both sides who regularly show up for primaries far more than a lot of average folks who may be registered, but only show up for the general election in even number years.

Yeah, I hate the phrase, but Afghanistan is going to be “Obama's War” every bit as much as Iraq was “Bush's War” for better or worse.

His only salvation may be the Republicans. Unless the party can convince some independents to register as Republicans you will see someone like Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum or Liz Cheney nominated because the lunatics will remain in control of the asylum and the primary process.

It's good to see that Obama, as an example, is willing to admit his mistakes in his administration picks and let them go sooner rather than later. Bush fought for months to get some of his asinine appointments confirmed and fought months or longer to keep the controversial figures in office. It's interesting that Obama doesn't have the same ego Bush has around keeping poor choices in his administration.

I think (and you may disagree with me) that Obama wants to move past the games and govern. He's certainly responded very well to critics of his administration, whether it's changing the wording in a speech, let go controversial figures in the WH or even allow Republicans to offer amendments to legislation (which is something Bush never allowed the Dems to do when the GOP was running the show). And yes, I realize the amendments and politicking around legislation is done in congress, but it's the leader of the Democratic Party who sets the tone, and in this case that leader is Obama. If Bush had wanted input from Dems in Congress when the GOP was in power, he could have said so and bipartisan legislation would have been passed.

Coming at it from another angle Obama certainly doesn't need a Speaker right now, he's not dead and his positives and negatives are well publicized. I do see your point of not passing final judgment right now but from a practical standpoint he has to be judged today, that is the nature of having a job. We can't say Jazz Shaw seems like a pretty good writer but we can't say for sure until he's been dead a while.

Anyway it was a very interesting read.