I thought I was talking politics, Iperson, I'm sorry you have apparently missed the point I was trying to make about generalizing individuals into simplistic groupings. I'm not sure what else can be said....

Not interested in a weather forum.

She is my president. Isn't it gorgeous?

Here are the state by state results of Super Tuesday for anyone who is interested:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/dates/#20080205

http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/02/06/presidential-...ary-in-mid-atlantic/

Campaigns Look Ahead to Potomac Primary in Nation’s Capital, Mid-Atlantic

by Associated Press
Wednesday, February 6, 2008


WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital and its suburbs have a rare opportunity to help decide a presidential election rather than just obsess about it, as next Tuesday’s three-jurisdiction contest centers on Washington and its two neighbors.

Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia usually hold primaries after the two parties’ nominees are settled. This year, however, the Democratic nomination remains very much in play — and the Republican contest still has life — as the contests move to the mid-Atlantic region.

What some have dubbed the Potomac Primary “could be pivotal,” said Peter Franchot, a Democrat elected as Maryland’s comptroller in 2006.

Most of the action is on the Democratic side. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are battling over 168 delegates in heavily Democratic Maryland and D.C., and in Virginia, once a reliably Republican state in presidential elections but now a more competitive prize.

Republicans have 116 delegates at stake that day, but virtually no campaigning has taken place so far. “There’s not much going on” in Virginia, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said Tuesday, although he is trying to stir up support for fellow Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Handicapping the Feb. 12 races is difficult. With the 24-state Super Tuesday election consuming nearly all the candidates’ time and money until now, campaign activities and reliable polling have been scarce.

In fact, people showed up at polling places across Virginia on Tuesday, thinking their state was part of the Super Tuesday hoopla rather than one of those voting a week later. Election officials in Maryland and the District of Columbia also reported phone calls from confused voters.

Political activists say Obama should do well in the District of Columbia, a predominantly black city with 15 pledged delegates. D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty endorsed him months ago.

Maryland also is well-suited to the Illinois senator, party insiders say, while Virginia is more of a toss-up.

Virginians do not register by party, which allows independents to vote in either primary. That might help Obama, but it complicates all campaigns’ efforts to target and predict likely voters, especially among newcomers.

Maryland has two large blocs of voters — African-Americans and affluent white liberals — who have flocked to Obama in other states. Black voters are concentrated in Baltimore and the large Washington suburb of Prince George’s County.

Highly educated, upper-income whites are especially prevalent in another major Washington suburb, Montgomery County, which includes Bethesda, Silver Spring and Rockville.

“It’s hard to see how Hillary Clinton finds the foundation” for a big vote in the remaining counties, said Keith Haller, a Maryland-based pollster who is not involved in the presidential race. “You’ve got the portents for Maryland being one of Obama’s best states,” he said.

Clinton is hardly conceding Maryland, however. Her endorsers include Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson, who is black.

“We feel very strong about the kind of support we’ve got everywhere” in the Feb. 12 states, said Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee.

Franchot, an Obama supporter, predicts that the Illinois senator’s appeal to liberals and blacks will overwhelm Clinton’s support from traditional party leaders. “It’s the reform wing of the party, plus African-Americans,” he said, “against the establishment.”

In Virginia, Obama and Clinton will compete for 83 delegates mainly in the populous and fast-growing Washington suburbs, which include Fairfax County.

Obama should do well in the Richmond and Norfolk areas, which include sizable African-American communities. Clinton may prevail in more suburban and rural parts of the state, where her name recognition is strong and Obama has little time to make his case to voters who do not know him well.

Clinton planned to campaign Thursday in northern Virginia, and she said she will attend the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Democratic fundraising dinner in Richmond on Saturday, a day when three other states — Washington, Louisiana and Nebraska — hold Democratic primaries. Those three states offer somewhat less prestige and fewer delegates than do the Washington-centric Feb. 12 states.

Clinton’s Virginia endorsers include novelist John Grisham. But Obama has the support of Gov. Tim Kaine, seen by some as a rising star in the party.

In an interview Tuesday night, Kaine said “we’re feeling pretty good” about Obama’s chances in Virginia. Obama was the first to secure 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot, Kaine said, and he has “a really tested team” in the state.

The governor acknowledged, however, that “Senator Clinton has a lot of friends in Virginia.”

In the GOP contest, the large number of active and retired military personnel in the Norfolk area should help McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam War hero. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee likely would split the state’s social and religious conservatives.

“My gut is, Virginia is going to be a McCain state,” said GOP Rep. Tom Davis, a veteran of northern Virginia politics and a McCain supporter.

Sen. John McCain couldn't possibly win the Republican nomination for president:

- The guy had tried, and failed miserably, to pass immigration reforms that a majority of Americans saw as amnesty for illegals.

- His moderate persona on social issues infuriated the conservative Republicans -- especially those on the religious right -- who supposedly drive GOP primary outcomes.

- He'd spent a Senate career being too much the maverick. He was often disloyal to his party -- and more often a *****ly and righteous annoyance to his colleagues.

- By mid-2007, his presidential bid all but folded for lack of money -- or adrenaline.

- He'd supported from the get-go an unpopular war in Iraq. He then advocated a surge strategy likely to prolong it -- and even more likely to mire his fellow Republicans in its presumed failure.

- McCain reveled in such disagreements. In December, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that the characteristic on which he ranked lowest among Republicans was: "Shares your positions on issues."

- Come August, the aging war hero will turn 72, and -- isn't that really old?

And so on, as you've heard and read through this campaign season. Nobody ridiculed McCain for taking one last trot around the track. But with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney (and later Mike Huckabee) soaking up so much attention, most political junkies gave McCain zero chance to prevail.

Except.

As Tuesday night slipped to Wednesday morning, John McCain had gone a long way toward locking up his party's nomination for the presidency. He hasn't yet secured enough convention delegates, but you won't find many people willing to invest in Mitt Romney futures or Mike Huckabee futures.

The political market is bullish on McCain.

So how'd that happen?

Dial back to that December survey of Republicans nationwide. They said they don't always agree with McCain. But they gave him higher marks for being knowledgeable and experienced enough to be president. For being honest. For being straightforward.

Starting in New Hampshire, McCain has been attracting Republicans who'd once dismissed him, plus centrist independents and some Democrats repulsed by the conniving that passes for governance in Washington.

Our wager is that McCain's voters -- like many of those who support Democrat Barack Obama -- are a big reason why the public's approval ratings of Congress and the White House are so dismal. These folks are driven less by ideology than by a yearning for a nation in which people pull together.

Consider another Journal/NBC poll finding, this one from late January: Asked how each candidate could unite the nation, 67 percent of respondents said Obama would be very or fairly successful; McCain was a virtual tie at 66 percent. Hillary Clinton's numbers totaled 55 percent; Huckabee's and Romney's totaled 42 and 41 respectively.

Of course, uniting the nation is a swell idea when it's the other side caving to our demands and not the opposite.

That said, McCain's evident character, his trademark candor and his evocation of a less partisan America have carried him where, for much of 2007, he seemed utterly unable to go.

From Chicago Tribune.

Wow, now that is very interesting.
For me McCain is simply a spineless sleazy liar, but that's just me. I don't believe a word of what he's saying.
And if he doesn't stop the blinking, I'd have to switch the channel every time he's speaking.

But what's remarkable is how much Republican party is sick of the current administration. A little too late ey folks?

So Davdah, if this isn't a bankrupt nation than what is? Minus 2-3 trillion dollars lost in Iraq.
America is heading into DEEP RECESSION:

AP
U.S. Service Sector Slows Down
Tuesday February 5, 5:20 pm ET
By Vinnee Tong, AP Business Writer
U.S. Service Sector Shrinks for the First Time in 5 Years, Heightening Recession Fears


NEW YORK (AP) -- Lingering hopes that the U.S. economy might avert a recession withered Tuesday after the nation's service sector -- its banks, travel companies, contractors and stores, among others -- shrank for the first time in five years.
ADVERTISEMENT


It was unwelcome news for many investors, who were beginning to believe that the Federal Reserve might engineer a way out of the worst economic slowdown since 1991. Stocks tumbled, with the Dow Jones industrial average losing 370 points, its biggest point drop since August.

Much of the talk was not about whether there would be a recession, but about how bad it might be.

"The number's so terrible it's almost beyond belief, especially among the optimists," said Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. "I think the writing's on the wall. More and more economists are talking about recession, and whether it'll be a severe or mild one."

The January reading from the Institute of Supply Management "was about as big a shock as you can probably get," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Commerce Bancorp.

Anderson said he believes January may end up being the official start of a recession. Many businesses already suspect as much.

Moving company Allied Van Lines filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, saying it had fallen victim to the downturn in the housing market and its own heavy debt load. Charming Shoppes Inc. -- which runs the Petite Sophisticate and Lane Bryant clothing stores -- said it would cut 200 jobs and close 150 stores.

Stocks of rental car companies plunged Monday after Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. slashed its 2007 earnings guidance. The company said it sees weak demand in the travel market and soft used-car sales.

Ryan Kaminski, who runs a Mexican restaurant in Sarasota, Fla., said the squeeze he has felt as both a business owner and a consumer since last summer is growing worse. The restaurant's traffic started thinning out last summer, pulling 2007 sales down 10 percent from a year earlier, and so far this year sales are down 15 percent from a year ago.

"I used to be able to find a person from any trade -- carpenters, electricians, plumbers -- in the restaurant every day," he said. "Since the housing market crashed, it's just dried up. Those type of customers are just gone."

Kaminski, 31, said he and his wife don't spend much anymore either. "We've cut out eating out and we didn't go on vacation last year," he said. "It's getting bad."

In the tourism sector, water park operator Great Wolf Resorts Inc. is seeing a drop in business at its resorts in Traverse City, Mich., and Sandusky, Ohio -- two areas where jobs are dependent on the sagging auto industry, said the company's chief executive, John Emery.

Business is up slightly overall for the Madison, Wis.-based operator of 10 resorts. But at the Rust Belt parks, families are cutting their spending by 2 percent to 4 percent. "Those are tough markets for families for right now," Emery said.

Executives surveyed for the service sector report by the Institute for Supply Management fretted over the economy, high oil prices, the falling stock market, lower customer demand, stiffer competition and sluggish sales, said Anthony Nieves, chairman of the trade group's non-manufacturing business survey committee.

The ISM's new composite index measuring the health of the service sector was 44.6 in January, below the level of 50 that indicates expansion. The group's measure of non-manufacturing business activity fell to 41.9 in January from a revised reading of 54.4 in December -- its largest drop ever. Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR had expected a slight slowdown but had still forecast growth, with a median estimate of 53.

The last time the ISM reported that the service sector shrank -- that is, registered less than 50 -- was March 2003.

"I think it will be tipping plenty of people over the edge" in convincing economists that the U.S. is in a recession, said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight.

Gault said that in March 2001, the beginning of the last recession, the index had a break-even reading of 50. And during that recession, the index hung around 48 or 49 -- several points higher than January's reading.

"This is an absolute collapse of this index," he said.

Two measures that fell were those for new orders and employment, and that could signal more trouble ahead. New orders fell to 43.5 while employment fell to 43.9. The drop in employment is especially troubling, because the service sector has been the overall economy's engine of job growth for months.

Factories eliminated 28,000 jobs in January and have cut 269,000 jobs over the past 12 months, the government reported last week. The economy as a whole lost 17,000 jobs last month, which was the first nationwide loss of jobs since August 2003.

The financial services industry, part of the wider service economy, has been especially hard hit by falling home prices, mortgage defaults, and the devaluation of mortgage-backed investments.

After writing down their portfolios and putting money in reserve to prepare for further losses, banks, mortgage lenders and brokerages are now strapped for cash and have pared their payrolls to cut costs.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a placement consulting firm, said companies announced 69 percent more job cuts in January than in December, and about 21 percent of those were in the financial sector. According to the firm, the financial sector eliminated more than 153,000 jobs in 2007, a record amount.

AP Business Writers Dave Carpenter in Chicago, Emily Fredrix in Milwaukee and Madlen Read in New York contributed to this report.

No where near a bankruptcy. A slowdown yes. But we have had economic growth for several years and its part of the economic cycle. There is no such thing as 100% growth 100% of the time. Wishful thinking but not realistic.

Truth of the matter is it has nothing to do with the economy at all. Its looking for ammunition to throw at the Republican party.
Here is some truth that shows Bill had a recession too. Clinton Recession The next pres will inherit a slowing economy. If its a Dem of course it will be blamed on Bush. If its a Republican it will be used by the left to say the Republicans are ruining the economy. Neither Bush, Clinton, Mccain or anyone can have that dramatic affect on it.

But the war does. And it depleted American coffers, the whole surplus is gone completely driving US debt into hundreds of years of paying the national debt.
The remaining money is held tight by the 10% of the wealthiest. And it's getting worse by a minute.
The American economy coupled with growing global economy is never going to be the same.

What?! Where do you get your facts from???
What surplus? When did the national debt hit zero?

Election: Latinos' decision not an easy one

By Liz Mineo/Daily News staff
Wed Feb 06, 2008, 03:45 PM EST

Like many voters yesterday, Josemar Das Neves of Framingham went to the polling station undecided, but he had an idea to help him decide between New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

``The first sign I see, that'd be the candidate I'd support,'' said Das Neves, a Brazilian-born U.S. citizen on his way to Woodrow Wilson School in Framingham. ``I like them both. I think either one could be a good president. Hillary has experience and her husband (Bill), and Obama is young and smart,'' he said.
Reportedly, undecided voters made up a good portion of the electorate during yesterday's primaries - and Latino voters like Das Neves were no exception.

With 246,000 voters in Massachusetts, Hispanics make up 5 percent of all eligible voters in the state, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center report. With the race being so close, the Latino vote was up for grabs.

In Waltham, Paula Mendoza planned to vote for Obama. However, if Clinton goes on to win the Democratic nomination, Mendoza said she may vote for Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.
``I would have liked to support a woman for president,'' she said. ``But I think Obama could be a more decisive, reliable and stronger leader than Hillary.''

Latinos are not a monolithic block, with many favoring Republican candidates for their stands on issues such as abortion, and many others supporting Democrats for their position on health care and other social issues. Nationally, 57 percent of the Latinos are registered Democrats while 23 percent are registered Republicans.

In Framingham, unenrolled voter John Dias planned to vote for McCain because of his position on immigration reform, but said he was going back and forth between Obama and McCain.
``I'm like any other American voter,'' said Dias. ``I'll make my decision at the poll. But I like McCain not only because he's in favor of immigration reform, but also because he seems sincere and firm.''

For many Latino voters, how the candidates stand on immigration was an important factor at the polls. Pastor Marcia Cunha, who leads a Brazilian Baptist church in Holliston, said many immigrants worry about Clinton's opposition to granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Obama has said he would support such a measure.

Still, in one unscientific poll Cunha did last week during her radio program on 650 AM, most of his listeners preferred Clinton over Obama.
``Obama is too young and lacks experience,'' said Cunha, ``and many immigrants like Hillary because of her husband, who was very supportive of immigrants.''

Laura Medrano of Framingham is one of them. She said she would vote for Clinton because of her experience and her position on health care. But around her, she sees many of her Latino friends increasingly drawn to McCain. Her 18-year-old son, Diego, plans to vote for Obama.
Medrano initially supported New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for his Hispanic roots, experience and his position in favor of providing universal health care, ending the war in Iraq, and shifting military spending to human needs. She hopes the eventual Democratic nominee will consider picking Richardson as a running mate.

``In some states, Latinos could be the swing vote,'' said Medrano. ``With Richardson, that could secure a portion of the Latino vote.''
Whatever the outcome, Latinos are anxiously following the primaries, said Pastor Eduardo Sampaio, who leads a 120-member Brazilian church in Marlborough.

``People are anxious because the next president is going to make a decision about immigrants,'' said Sampaio. ``There are great expectations.''
Das Neves felt the same way. Though he became a U.S. citizen two years ago, he only registered a few months ago spurred by the failure of immigration reform and constant immigration crackdowns that were affecting fellow friends.
Das Neves, who plans to support a candidate who offers illegal immigrants a path to legalization, relishes his participation in yesterday's primaries.

``I'm an immigrant, but I'm part of this country now,'' he said. ``I want to help decide the country's future.''

You see how little you know Davdah. LMAO!

Gross National Debt:

$9,220,616,005,415

Iraq War Cost:

$462,562,705,741

Not counting the incurring costs right now, and future till the end of the year, plus the costs paid to recover WWs. Will surpass a trillion dollars easily.

Go back to school. Show me where the national debt hit zero. Something else to consider but I know its difficult with a democrat closed mind. The cost of oil which has more affect on the economy than any president could ever hope for would be what if Saddam were allowed to take over the middle east? What would our debt be then?

I've been reading everybody's posts which have all been informative. Hopefully, the exchange of opinions will not go down to the level of personal attacks. We're all just individuals with our own deeply-entrenched beliefs about certain things and we all can agree to disagree.

He kills humans, so why wouldn't he eat a kitten?

quote:

Originally posted by davdah:
Go back to school. Show me where the national debt hit zero. Something else to consider but I know its difficult with a democrat closed mind. The cost of oil which has more affect on the economy than any president could ever hope for would be what if Saddam were allowed to take over the middle east? What would our debt be then?

Davdah

When did you start believing that Saddam was going to try to take over the middleeast? You need to think of Saddam like Lex Luther.. he just wanted a little peice of the action... Kuwait. it figured it was going to be ok with us, except it was a conflict of interest because usa is the mercenary for Kuwait.

Saddam was not the big worry or foe that he was made out to be. very small fish.