Brain Fertilizer

At least, if you are a Republican...

Go check it out.

The bad news is that the increasing optimism about the economy, the handling of the Global War on Terrorism, the increasing support for GOP in Congress, and the small lead for Bush in popularity all do not yet translate into an electoral college lead for President Bush. Yet.

Afghanistan will have elections nearly a month before the US elections. We still have more than three months for stability to improve in Iraq. We've found more than 30 artillery shells with various forms of WMD. The Olympics will increase feelings of national pride, patriotism, and optimism...which still works to the advantage of Republicans. Joe Wilson has been shown to be a liar, and President Bush has been shown to be telling the truth*. The GOP convention is later in the year than the Democrat. And people are growing wise to the bias in the news media, so the last-minute "discovery" of some trumped-up issue should have less impact than before.

I still think it's gonna be a landslide for President Bush, and that he'll have fairly long coattails. I'm praying they'll be long enough to help us unseat Sen. Patty Murray here in Washington.

*some people on the left have been frustrated with President Bush's ability to evade accusations, much like Republicans were frustrated with Bill Clinton's ability. As a result, President Clinton was called the Teflon President by some. But the disparity is interesting: President Bush constantly endures a massive onslaught of baseless charges assuming the very worst; eventually, he is proven to be correct. During President Clinton's Administration, strong evidence of wrong-doing or ethical violations were constantly popping up...but the Administration would stonewall, and investigations (when Janet Reno couldn't find a flimsy pretext to reject one) foundered, not on lack of evidence, but on Democrats' unwillingness to testify, shredded documents at the Rose Law Firm, missing documents from Vince Foster's desk, etc. Bill Clinton has never been vindicated for a single accusation...there was just never quite enough evidence to convict him of anything except perjury under oath, and he even got away with a slap on the wrist for that.

The difference is strking. Democrats, you should be proud.