[pabianice]

What happens when you spend 8 years in college smoking dope.

[Tall_Texan]

He ignores the two major problems with the Bush-Carter analogy.

1) The third-party candidate (John Anderson) was a moderate Republican before becoming an independant. This was really the RINO candidate for Republicans to choose instead of the "too conservative" Reagan (see how RINOs play the game when *they* don't like the nominee?). Anderson would be the equivalent of John McCain in a 2004 scenario.

So, of the 6.6% who voted for Anderson, my guess is that at least 2% would have supported Reagan if Anderson was not in the race - choosing party over an incumbent Democrat.

The third party candidate likely to have any effect on the 2004 race is Ralph Nader. Certainly, no Bush voters are defecting to Nader but some environuts will defect Kerry for him. How many remains to be seen, but it will be a net loss for Kerry as long as Nader is in the race (polls prove this).

It's also interesting to note that Nader claims he will be on the ballot in at least 43 states, although not naming which ones he will not make it onto the ballot. The important states to watch are the 15 or so states that could be in play, especially Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri.

2) The "Reagan" in the Carter scenario is John F. Kerry. Surely you may have noticed a substantial difference in charisma, likeability and enthusiasm between the two. Kerry can't invent warmth and sincerity.

Talk from many Democrats are that Kerry is their default nominee. That hardly sounds like a groundswell of support for national leadership.

That's why I don't think the Bush-Carter analogy holds water but, when you're drowning, I guess any reed one can grasp will do.

They were better off with the Bush-Bush scenario but, unfortunately for them, there's no Perot this time.

[Choose Ye This Day]

...he has provoked--both by his policies and his partisanship--an extremely strong reaction...

His partisanship? "HIS" partisanship?!?

What freaking planet is this guy living on?

[F.J. Mitchell]

ROFLMAO! Pulling this off would require the dems to use so much smoke that they would lose the support of the enviro wackos, and the mirrors they would have to use would deflect so much heat back at the sun that a melt down would ensue. On the sun that is, while the smoke threw the earth into an everlasting ice age.

The Dims just haven't created enough idiots to make this work, at this time.

[jpl]

Anyone who is seriously comparing the economy today to that of 1980 obviously doesn't remember that period very well or never even lived through it. About the only similarity is that gasoline prices are really high right now; in every other respect the comparison is laughable on its face.

[RightWhale]

More like an avalanche that he will attempt to ride all the way down on his snowboard.

[boxsmith13]

"What happens when you spend 8 years in college smoking dope."


I wouldnt write this off so quickly. He makes soem good points such as Bush's poor poll numbers but also he reaches by comparing Bush to Carter and 2004's economy to that of 1980