I had a feeling this was coming.

When will the democratically controlled congress finally start to defend the people of this nation?

I guess we just need to get more and better democrats.  The leadership of this congress has been dismal.

Speaking of which.. I recently heard an old galager joke on the subject:

"If Con is the opposite of Pro
Then Congress is the opposite of Progress."
(paraphrase)

Russ Feingold in that role. But I don't think that will happen, unfortunately.

Didn't Senator Clinton skip this vote?  I'd say that qualifies as relevant to the subject at hand, not to mention extraordinarily hypocritical, considering her lambasting of Obama's Illinois legislature voting record and argument that he hasn't been doing his job in the Senate.

I don't know what's up with Hillary's tax returns, but I doubt that would hurt her much during the GE. Hillary has been maimed before, and I don't think the GOP could do much to make her look worse. They can make the people who already hate her decide that they hate her more, but the people who discarded the rumors about the Clintons' "involvement in murders" and god knows what else won't be affected by the Right's rumor-mongering. What really might do her in, though, is a large percentage of African Americans feeling somehow cheated or disenfranchised. If Obama loses the nomination, I think there will be some real resentment in the AA community, and who could blame them? Some of them might not turn out on election day. Also, enraged college kids are scary. I'm afraid that they might not just refuse to vote for Hillary -- they might vote McCain out of spite.

And Obama will have a really rough time, too. Right now, national polls indicate that he's more "electable" than Hillary when they go head-to-head against McCain. But people forget, the MSM and the GOP have been vilifying her for years. The fact that there's only a few points difference between McCain/Obama and McCain/Clinton is incredible. And even in these early polls, Obama isn't beating McCain by much. His numbers have nowhere to go but down. At this point back in 2004, wasn't Kerry polled as beating Bush by about 12 points? That didn't turn out so well.

Obama's healthcare plan strikes me as being nearly as "dangerous" as Hillary's/Edwards' in the GE. He has a mandate, too, and the qualifier, "Only for children!" won't mean much to a lot of people. It's still a mandate, and Hillary's argument that it's a bad idea to mandate healthcare for children without also mandating it for the breadwinners of the family is a good one. Republicans won't forget it. Oddly enough, I don't think Rezko will turn out to be a big deal. All politicians have "scandals". The only way this hurts him is it undermines that message of hope and change, "an escape from the politics of old." Maybe the whole scandal is a nonissue, but it casts doubt -- it makes people think, "Is he just another politician?" Right now, this whole NAFTA thing is mainly an issue because OH is coming up tomorrow. But as time goes on, little nit-picky things (that many Obama supporters are quick to shrug off) will start to add up, especially when the media decides it's more exciting to trash him than to sing his praises. Some of that is already starting. November is a long way away, and if enough disillusionment sets in, he might not turn out the numbers we've come to expect. And if people think the GOP won't find a way to paint him as a closet Muslim with an unpatriotic wife, they're living in a fantasy world.

Also, I think people are underestimating the number of women who may have some pretty bitter feelings towards both Obama and the media if he wins the nomination. If Hillary loses, there's going to be a LOT of analysis trying to figure out exactly what went wrong and how this could have happened -- and it won't focus solely on her campaign's frequent bouts of incompetence. Sexism has played a role in this, whether people want to admit it or not. Look at Chris Matthews. He can call her a "she-devil" and get away with it, but we'd skewer the bastard if he made a pseudo-racist remark. Racism is often blatant, whereas sexism can be much more subtle.

And McCain is a war hero. His background comes across as being a lot more honorable and courageous than that of either Democratic candidate. The far Right may dislike him, but not as much as they hate Democrats. They'll rally their base. He will be difficult to beat.