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MUST READ . . .

HOW THE DEMOCRATS HAVE LOST THEIR COOL
By WILLIAM KRISTOL

When last seen before election day 2006, the Democratic Party seemed the very soul of moderation. And they stayed the course for the next two months. House Democrats refused to replace their No. 2, the moderate Steny Hoyer, with the antiwar Jack Murtha. Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphasized her maternal and grandmaternal qualities as she shepherded through the House a modest and popular agenda of ethics reform, a minimum-wage hike and cheaper drugs for seniors. The Democratic presidential flavor of the month in the shopping season before Christmas was the fresh-faced, not-too-partisan Barack Obama.

But in the past few weeks, the Democrats have gone wild. The mushy domestic agenda is quickly disappearing beneath a tide of antiwar agitation in Congress. Joe Biden is leading the way, seeking to have as one of the first acts of the new Democratic Senate a nonbinding resolution condemning a troop increase in Iraq. Others want action, not just words. On the presidential side of the party, Hillary Clinton has gone at breakneck speed from being a mild critic of the war to calling for a legislated troop cap and threatening to cut off funds for the Iraqi army. Obama and John Edwards are cheerfully one-upping her by demanding a firm schedule for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. What happened?

In part, an accelerated presidential race, with its own dynamic. In part, the fact of congressional majority status, which has its own dynamic too. But in largest part, Bush. He crossed up the Democrats. They expected him to stay the Rumsfeld-Abizaid-Casey course in Iraq. Or, they thought, he might accede to the Iraq Study Group, admit errors and lead us to gradual defeat. Neither would have required Democrats to do anything much except lament the lamentable situation into which Bush had got us. Instead, Bush replaced Rumsfeld, rejected the Iraq Study Group's slow-motion-withdrawal option and chose to try a new strategy for victory, backed by a troop surge. The Democrats were genuinely shocked that Bush wouldn't behave as if the war was lost.

You can read the rest of this EXCELLENT analysis at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1584797,00.html

BULL-MARKET CHEERS FOR BUSH
By Lawrence Kudlow
Friday, February 2, 2007

On a day when the GDP report came in strong and the Federal Reserve proclaimed a balanced economy marked by healthy growth and contained prices, President George W. Bush became only the second sitting American president to visit the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. As he moved from trading post to trading post, floor brokers and assistants stopped their work and started to cheer.

Huge cheers. Loud applause.

This is the same guy the mainstream media loves to kick around -- the same guy who suffers sinking polls while standing resolute on the subject of Iraqi freedom, and who gets virtually no credit for the Goldilocks economy and unprecedented four-year stock market boom. HE'S ALSO THE SAME GUY WHO CONTINUES TO PROVE HE HAS MORE CHARACTER THAN MOST ANYONE SERVING IN PUBLIC OFFICE TODAY.

You can read the rest of this article at
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LawrenceKudlow/2007/02/02/bull-market_cheers_for_bush

'Dog' posted this on another thread -- WE MUST REMEMBER!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaoryQ0oLh8&mode=related&search=

JUST TO MAKE YOU JEALOUS:

Hubby and I (and a hundred of our friends) will be joining TONY SNOW for dinner tomorrow night . . . Tony will give the 'keynote' remarks at our local Lincoln-Reagan Dinner -- after his remarks, Tony will visit each table . . . Should be FUN!!