Conservatives should be conserving a little energy (you may interpret this as the "blahs") The Federalist notion of government is buried in a pile of judicial activism. The struggle to regain what has been lost (limited government) is going to be long. Compared to the liberals, conservatives have a long war ahead; the liberals will achieve their victory when they install a free spending Kerry, Edwards or whomever as President of the USA. But conservatives know that the next battle is one important step on the road home. Electing Bush means controlling or at least influencing the courts. Until we change the courts, the balanced budget battles are just a sideshow of an era of bloated government. Each annual budget battle is important but not really critical if the whole ship is off coarse. When the Dem candidate steps into the open, we conservatives will destroy him. Why, because it is step one.