[CobaltBlue]

You're very wrong about Duke's ideas.

I grew up in Baton Rouge when he was at LSU (my mother was in graduate school) and he was very far outside the mainstream, then as now.

He's just a phony opportunist, who manipulates people and rips them off. Worse than the ordinary politician because he has no shame at all.

He's sleazy even by Louisiana standards, with his bleached blond blow dried pompador, chin implants, cheek implants, nose job, and eye makeup.

He got thrown out of the KKK in 1980 for ripping them off, stealing their mailing list, setting up a black power newspaper under a phony name, and selling pornography.

Even the KKK doesn't want him or trust him.

[bigunreal]

My response is directed towards all of you who either voted for Edwards, or would have if you'd been in Louisiana. I think your posts reveal the extent of white guilt in this country. Really, even among conservatives, the greatest crime anyone can commit now is to be a racist (provided you're white, of course). Edwards was a crooked politician without a single principle- that was obvious to everyone. Duke has never been charged with anything, to my knowledge, except extreme views on race relations. Leaving aside his racial views, his platform must have been much closer to yours than Edwards'. Yet, like most white people, the single issue of race relations-and the fear you may be voting for a racist-forced you (or would have forced you) to vote for a candidate who was odious to you. Would you have voted for a Jesse Helms, for example, over Edwards? If so, what difference is there, on the issue of race relations, between Duke and Helms? I maintain that most white voters- and not just Democrats-would vote for a murderer before they would vote for a "racist."