While there has been a great deal of talk concerning the 'baggage' of HRC, I would contend that such baggage - while real - will have virtually no effect on the GE.  If Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle proved anything, they proved that VP's cannot LOSE elections.  I don't think Cheney brought ANYTHING but negatives for GWB and yet he still triumphed.  Repubs don't rally around a 'VP candidate'...so I really don't think HRC's going to rally the Repub troops as a VP.

So, what is HRC's best asset?  We know about her strengths with Latino, Catholic and Appalachian blue-collar voters, but here's the key for me:

HRC actually can pull in SINGLE women who are, by far, the most difficult group to get to the polls.  More after the flip.

From what I've read here, many have found the ultimate bogeyman: homophobic fundies.  Sure, they're homophobic, close-minded and unified.  However, we can still win some Southern states that Clinton won and do NOT have to kow-tow to this 'we need to be more religious or religiously themed' ideal.  Americans - especially rural Americans - want straight talk and value 'character' yes 'character' as in HONESTY, FORTHRIGHTNESS, and TRUST.  Intelligence is great, but if you can't trust a nuclear physicist, then it doesn't matter how smart she is.

I'm surrounded by fundies, but, hell they're only 40% of the population - EVEN IN THE SOUTH.  I'll tell you what burns ALL Southerners and many rural voters is an intense distrust of slick, arrogant Yankees.

I truly admire John Kerry.  However, throw in an effete, intellectual, DIVORCED, pro-choice Catholic from Massachusetts and he didn't stand a freakin' chance in the South.  Gore was at least from Tennessee - but even he came across as an arrogant Washington insider.  

Kerry's 'tortured soul' act on abortion said one thing to Pro-Choice (more of them than you might think) Southerners and rurals in Ohio: this guy is a politician and wants it both ways.  It didn't say 'hey, this is a religious guy who is conflicted.'  It was as tinny as an old soda pop can.

When 70% of America is pro-choice, it doesn't mean that 100% of the South is pro-life.  Even amongst the fundies, I would estimate that probably a fifth of them don't think that abortion is a deal-breaker.  They know they're in America and that they can't enforce that rule and impose that kind of religious intrusion on everybody - including Yankees.  When some fundies come across me and I say 'so, you think that I'm gonna let a Southern FUNDIE tell my wife and daughters what they can do with their YANKEE bodies?' they freeze up pretty damn quick.  When I pose it as a threat to ME and a THREAT to my wife's body and a matter of privacy, they know they're in for a fight that they can't win.  

However, on the gay thing, they are united and they truly do feel threatened by the homosexual agenda.  Why?  Because, imho, they actually do have a legitimate beef about the 'trademark infringement' of the word marriage.  Rove and Co. channeled that fear and backlash to perfection.  

The fundies were united this time and they were pretty much in 1996 as well.  However, the vaunted Republican ground game didn't make use of them until 2004.  Me thinks that this was a perfect storm for the fundies and they've hit their high water mark.

Trust me on this one: if Rudy G. is the Republican Presidential candidate and he faces off against Mark Warner, Warner could probably pick off Tennessee and Arkansas, just upon a bit of Southern charm and trust - that is a little of Southern 'values.'  

Keep the Democratic agenda.  It's not the product, it's the marketing.

Scary thought.  Bush wins, claims it's a mandate (and it's hard to argue otherwise) and starts the slow ride into the 1950's.  

Just how far will the Religious Right juggernaut push us?  

The courts have thankfully upheld the separation of church and state doctrine for school prayer, but after abortion, this is next on their list.

Any legal scholars out there that will handicap the probability of seeing the following catastrophes/events?

1.  Overturning Roe v. Wade.
   
2.  Forcing creationism to be taught in the public schools?
   
3.  Allowing prayer in public school?

Or should I just forget about it and move back North?

Man, am I despondent.

To think I was optimistic on yesterday morning.  Alas, Rove and company used the wedge issues to their maximum benefit.  Gay marriage is the Viagara of the Republican Old Guard - it will always 'get the base aroused.'  

Many of us here want to blame the South.  It's for good reason, BUT, we need remember the South still has a visceral mistrust of anything remotely Yankee.  And Kerry epitomizes the epicurean nature of Boston.  He had virtually no chance in the South after winning the Iowa caucus.  

Our 'Southern Strategy' of Florida and keep your fingers crossed was not bad, but also very uninspiring.  Throwing in the towel may appear to be fiscally wise, but it sends the signal that the Democratic party doesn't give a shit about the South.  And - trust me on this one - Southerners realize this.

Clinton won Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri in 1996.  He was 'trusted' and had 'Southern' values.

I THINK - key word 'think' - that we have a chance in 2008 if we position ourselves better in the South.  However, I am frankly very frightened of this prospect.

I really believe we MUST reach out to the Hispanic vote.  They represent a natural outreach of the Democratic big-tent philosophy.  It's going to be tough, since many are Catholic conservatives.  That's our growth, that's our future.