[Liz]

A Christmas Carol, Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits

"'Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,' said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe,' but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw.'

'It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,' was the Spirit's sorrowful reply. 'Look here.'

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

'Oh, Man. look here. Look, look, down here.' exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

'Spirit. are they yours.' Scrooge could say no more.

'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy,for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless thewriting be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching outits hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye.Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.'

'Have they no refuge or resource.' cried Scrooge.

'Are there no prisons.' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses.'"

[samtheman]

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded, "The truth is, Barack Obama doesn't need lectures in political courage from someone who followed George Bush to war in Iraq, gave him the benefit of the doubt on Iran, supported NAFTA and opposed ethanol until she decided to run for president."

That's not good enough, Obama. You want the job, or don't you? Or are you just holding out for VP. Go after the galaxy of ethical abuses in the Beasts past. Speak now, or forever hold your piece.

[TommyDale]

The predictions we made earlier this year are coming to pass. The more people look at Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, the less popular they are. By the time the primaries are here, I doubt any candidate can win a majority of delegates. This could turn into a back-room power-brokering convention year.

[kittymyrib]

And who in their right mind would mourn the loss of two New York liberals running for the Presidency?

[Democracy In Iraq]

This from the woman who constantly refers to the "Republican Attack Machine", (from the article):

Meanwhile, in a bare-knuckles effort to keep Iowa from slipping through her fingers with a month to go before the critical caucuses, Clinton yesterday ripped Obama as an opportunist who ducks difficult votes, delivering an attack on his character before a small-town audience of elderly Iowans.

The offensive came just a day after Clinton challenged Obama's "courage" and "convictions" in an attack before a group of reporters. That was Sunday, when Obama pulled ahead in Iowa for the first time, according to a Des Moines Register poll.

Clinton's strategy, revealed during a two-day swing with a national press entourage, is to sledgehammer Obama's sunny and optimistic reputation.

[wideawake]

This makes sense.

The Democrat base wants an anti-war candidate - one who is clean of the taint of the Iraq War resolution. Hillary Clinton cannot measure up.

The Republican base wants a social conservative - they also want someone tough on terror, but all the GOP candidates except one are tough on terror - and Giuliani cannot measure up.

People look at a lifelong family man like Romney or a Christian preacher like Huckabee and see men who actually try to live conservative social values in their day-to-day lives.

Putting aside the fact that Romney and Huckabee's policies are from from purist conservatism, their life narratives are just more appealing to conservatives.