Susan--You write:

No matter how you cut it, any one of the Dem contenders is light years beyond the Repubs in every way, and on every issue I care about.

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More exactly explain what the issues are which ring your bell so to speak with Dem superiority.

Let me model by telling you the issues for which i see no substantial difference worth voting for a Democratic contenser over a Republican for President.

1. The war--Bidness gone wild or bidness gone smart, they all (except for the likes of Kucinich and Nader) are willingf to let the thing drag on and on and on.

2. Nafta/Gatt/WTO--Bidness gone wild or bidness gone smart, they all (except for the likes of Kucinich and Nader) are willing to let these things drag on and on and on.

3. Expanding medicare to include all Americans with a single payer, government run, universal coverage program.--All candidates (except for Kucinich) want to keep HMO's and Insurance companies and big pharma functioning pretty much as they always have.

4. Revocation of the Big Brother state created by Bushco. All candidates (except for Kucinich) are mute about such things as the Patriot act, restoring Habeas Corpus, the Military Commissions Act, the Protect America Act, extraordinary rendition, closing the torture gulag of CIA and military-run prisons worldwide.

5. Reducing the Pentagon budget--Not only are all the Democratic contenders bowing before this sacred cow in the federal budget (the single biggest item of federal expenditure) most are wanting to increase it! Except for Kucinich.

Do you see a pattern here? That's why I say that it is either Bush or Bush-lite so far for '08.

Now as for your concern aboiut the California initiative, while it may give Republicans some gains otherwise not available in that state's electoral count, it also is the germ of the seed for the idea of proportional vote assignment in counting election results and could be the crack in the wall that finally allows third and fourth and firth independent parties to blossom. Such an eventuality could force the so far voiceless to be heard in the corridors of power.

I would rather see Mike Huckabee and Tom Tancredo or Rudy and Freddy the Thompson (to use some really obnoxious examples) as Pres and VP than Hillary and Obama or Biden and Richardson if it was the one thing that finally convinced the Democratic Party to cease being Bush-lite.

It would also help to see the Christo-fascist element win back control of the house and senate if it finally made the Democratic party wake up and realize that leftist poklicies properly adminstered and budgeted are what is needed instead of more of the same Republican crap slightly watered down.