I know it isn't too serious, but I thought some of you might be amused by this quiz to find out which candidate you line up with most closely. It is a bit simplistic, but still fun and amusing...
For my part, I am sad to report that I apparently line up most closely with Mike Gravel. shudders

http://www.gotoquiz.com/candidates/2008- quiz.html

Could our "liberal" political leaders finally STAND FOR SOMETHING?  With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans???  

When the country is desperate for change, isn't it time for leaders who will... er... LEAD US there?  From the War in Iraq to universal health care to SCHIP to immigrant rights --- why can't we have leaders who believe in something and help persuade the nation, rather than pandering.  

Check out this great cartoon about the spineless pessimists and pragmatists standing in the way of a better future.  

Brought to you from the folks at the Movement Vision Lab

Someone once told me, "We have to meet people where they're at --- but we don't have to leave them there."  Same with the country.

After countless days of color commentary and size-80 font Drudge headlines regarding Hillary vs. Rudy, I figured that we'd never get a solid break from the same ol' quasi-incumbent snarkfest.

Until today.

Giuliani spoke today at a forum hosted by a group known as the Republican Jewish Coalition (you can't make this stuff up, folks!). And surprisingly, he took a brief break from chastizing Senator Clinton with this remark about another Democratic candidate:

Quote after the fold...

Guiliani still beats Hillary in this pro-Democratic environment:

50% to 44%.

http://www.tarrance.com/11363Qper.pdf

Rasmussen can out with a new poll today.  While Hillary is leading in the primary, the general election numbers are interesting...

According to the poll, Obama is within the statistical MOE against Guiliani trailing 43-44%.

He is tied with McCain - 44%-44% and is leading against Romney 51-36% and Huckabee 53-32%.

HRC trails Rudy 41-49%, McCain 48-41%, and leads Romney 50-41%

Edwards trails Rudy 48-41%, but leads McCain 48-37%, Romeny 55-29% and Huckabee 50-33%.

So currently, Edwards is doing the best against Romney and McCain (although everyone beats Romney) and Obama is doing the best against Huckabee and Guiliani (although both he and Edwards do beat Huckabee.

What's this prove... well see that after the break...

OK Kiddies, do you guys want to WIN in 2008?

Here's how you really hit Rudy. He was a former federal prosecutor. What do prosecutors do with a high number of their cases? They plea bargain.

Find a defendant that he plea bargained and gave probation or a short prison term (doesn't matter what the crime was) that subsequently committed a terrible crime (preferrably a sex crime). Then claim that Rudy advocates probation for pedophiles.

Cross-posted from the Buckeye State Blog because I just had to share that picture.

It'd be nice if Gramps, Mitt, and Rudy would get together to celebrate Romney's 60th birthday today. Romney's big 6-0 got me thinking...

For kicks, this morning I went through the list of prezzies grabbing birthdates. I wanted to get a handle on the age range of the folks running for the WH, where they're coming, their capability to execute the office later down the road, that sorta thing, yadda yadda yadda. I've posted numbers for candidates' age at the time of the election, and when they might exit office following their potential 2nd term. Without further ado, on the GOP side:

Candidate	Birthdate	Age '08/ '17
Guiliani	May 28. 1944	64, 72
Brownback	Sept. 12, 1956	52, 60
Romney	March 12, 1947	61, 69
Huckabee	August 24, 1955	53, 61
Hunter	May 31, 1948	60, 68
Hagel	Oct. 4, 1946	62, 70
Paul	August 20, 1935	73, 81
Tancredo	Dec. 20, 1945	62, 70
Thompson	Nov. 19, 1941	67, 75
McCain	Aug. 29, 1936	72, 80

Between Gramps, Romney, and Guiliani the average age for GOP contenders at the end of a potential 2nd term comes to 73.5 years young.

On the Dem side of things:

Candidate	Birthdate	Age '08/ '17
Obama	Aug. 4, 1961	47, 55
Edwards	June 10, 1953	55, 63
Clinton	Oct. 26, 1947	61, 69
Richardson	Nov. 15, 1947	60, 68
Dodd	May 27, 1944	64, 67
Kucinich	Oct. 8, 1946	62, 70
Biden	Nov. 20, 1942	65, 73
Clark	Dec. 23 1944	63, 71

The average age for DEM contenders at the end of a potential 2nd term comes to 62 years young.

While I was looking up ages, a couple surprises hit me. First, I never realized that Dennis was one of the older candidates on our side of the primary. I was also surprised that the Dems didn't have any candidates from the 30's (the GOP has two, McCain and Paul). Also, I was intrigued by how old Guiliani is compared to the rest of the field. Maybe it's just me, but I think he's played his age down well...I've never thought of him as one of the older candidates in the field.

UPDATE: Romney updated his site within 24 hours, but I still haven't got an email, thank you card, or call from the Romney campaign. Frankly, that's just bad manners. Strike two.

Cross posted at The Buckeye State Blog...

Cruising around presidential exploratory websites tonight, I noticed something interesting: the Republican prezzie hopefuls are all morons. No seriously, they're about as stupid as you can get, follow me here.

These exploratory/presidential website donor pages have $2,100 listed as the max amount any individual candidate can give:

Tom Tancredo (R)
John McCain (R)
Guiliani (R)
Mitt Romney (R)
Sam Brownback (R)
Duncan Hunter (R)
Ron Paul (R)

Problem is...that'd be cool if we were partying like it were 2006, but on January 1st caps were raised to $2,300 (they raise every two years due to inflation). Just kinda interesting none of the GOP movers and shakers campaigns are organized well enough to even ask for the full amount - leaving money on the table is a cardinal sin in politics. If these guys don't have finance directors that are competent enough to ask for the full $bling$, Republicans are going to be in trouble. GOP faithful reading this blog, I'd get on the horn to your boys.

It's funny too...all of the big names on the DEM side got it right:
Hillary Clinton (D)
Barack Obama (D)
John Edwards (D)
Bill Richardson (D)

I mean I'm not complaining...GOP donors, feel free to keep giving $200 shy from what you're allowed to shill out for your team.