>>BTW, what is a “conservative” Democrat? What in the world would make them feel welcome in that party?<<
Think Lieberman and what the Dems did to him...
Today a conservative Democrat is some one who believes in banning gay marraiage, but allowing civil unions (which is still the same thing). They are merely socialists (who love to demogogue “big business”) as opposed to liberal Democrats, who want to nationalize virtually every major sector of the economy. Finally, “conservative” Democrats are moderates in ignoring the Constitution, which is to say they only ignore about half of it. The more liberal majority of their party wishes that the Constitution never existed as it is a constant reminder of what they cannot legally do to this country.
“BTW, what is a “conservative” Democrat? What in the world would make them feel welcome in that party?”
A lot of people register as Democrats because their parents were. They just never change although they vote Republican. You see this phenomenon in the South especially but also places like Pennsylvania where many of the “Casey” Dems are conservative only on cultural issues, like abortion and guns. If the GOP nominee does not draw a contrast on these issues, then they return to the fold.
Fortunately, these voters are ripe for the picking against the proabortion, anti-gun Obama. There is a stark contrast between McCain and Obama, the sharpest contrast between candidates of the two parties on these 2 issues in my memory.