I've known for some time now that this election process would be extremely tough going for the republicans.  The smear campaign against Bush that's been going on since the beginning of the war hasn't let up yet.  We still don't hear anything good about the situation in Iraq.  That things are going better goes unnoticed.  Admittedly, better isn't perfect or quite there yet, but you have to admit a stable Iraq would be a huge win for us, and we seem to be, if ever so slightly, creeping in that direction.  The democrats have yet to even admit how great it would be for us if we could achieve a stable Iraq.  They are still all about the losses and not the win itself.  Of course they still have to pander to their base.

The economy is slow and things aren't looking too great for the immediate future.  The method in which the media is reporting on the economy is questionable in my view.

Hillary is being criticized by Obama for her initial vote to go to war, since he can very conveniently claim that he was against it.  Remember lots of senators weren't really for it and there was much debate and soul searching before the authorization.  At the time they thought they were doing the right thing.  To bad they didn't invite in the armchair generals and the yet to be elcted US senators to put in their two cents.  At any rate, most of the democrats, true to form, started undermining our efforts almost immediately after voting for authorization.  I don't know how they sleep at night.

Well here we are in the process of determining our next president.  I'm not a Hillary fan, and her stand on the present situation in Iraq is not in line with what most Republicans believe, but she has indicated that when she starts pulling troops out, it will be in a more "responsible" way than what obama is advocating.  So on that issue, I guess Hillary is the lesser of the two evils.

Obama seems to me to be the crowned media darling this election year.  I don't blame the democrats for falling all over themselves for him.  After all he is a very liberal democrat; he's young; good looking; charismatic' a great public speaker; and he's promising something, nobody seems to have ever heard of before: change.  To his credit, all of the other candidates are realizing the great need for change.  So change we will have.

While I can't really blame the democrats for their love for Obama, what completely dismays me are the rumblings I've heard about republicans supporting him.  Yes I get that we need a change in Washington.  The republicans forgot their place and behaved badly with their big government spending.  You have to admit that they took a very public beating in the 2006 election.  Our republican candidates are smart enough to recognize that we mean what we say when we say we want change.  We are now holding their feet to the fire.  We will get our change.  So when I hear about republicans supporting Obama, I just don't get it.  They must be voting with their hearts and not their minds.  He must be getting support simply because he's young; good looking; charismatic; a great public speaker; and he's promising change.  BUT, AT THE END OF THE DAY, HE IS STILL A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT.

To any republican who is thinking about supporting Obama because you think we need a change in Washington, I implore you to look beyond the charismatic good-looking fellow and research his political views.  There is a very definitive line between republicans and democrats.  We will get our change in Washington, without having good republicans having to cross these political lines.   True republicans will vote with their minds and not their hearts.  True republicans will vote for change in their own party and then hold their feet to the fire.