Here's my (worthless) prediction on 2008.

Someone will come along during the Democratic primary and give Hillary a slight run for her money, egged on by the press who want a story, but Hillary winds up winning in a landslide and has a huge convention to kick off the general campaign, replete with press fawning.

The Republicans are a lot harder to call. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say it could be.....Mitt Romney. He's got the credentials (governor, conservative, successful track record) and the looks as well as the charm. He will spend the next 18 months cementing his conservative credentials to gain the nomination and will then choose Condaleeza as his running mate.

Hillary will choose Tom Vilsack.

It will be fascinating from start to finish.

sharptalk

It seems clear to me that the left wings opposition to President Bush has been a perfect example of a solution in search of a problem.
What I mean is this. From the day he was sworn into office they have felt that he should be removed. That was the solution. Get rid of George Bush.

So they seem to have tied themselves into knots trying to apply that solution to every problem that America faces. Here are some examples:

1) Enron was crooked, therefore Bush must be crooked and he must go. But they cup their hands over their ears and shout "LA LA LA LA LA" when you point out that Enron execs gave to Dems as well as Republicans and many of its abuses happened under Clinton. (For short, we'll call that the "La La" treatment.)

2) We didn't find WMD's in Iraq, therefore Bush lied and must go. But they can't face the reality of their own leaders statements that were precisely the same as Bush's. It's met with the "La La" treatment.

3) Oil prices went up, therefore Bush must be helping his Big Oil buddies and he must go. But they fail to acknowledge the supply-demand relationship driving those prices up. And they fail to notice that their own radical environmental protection votes are keeping supply low and demand high. They respond with the "La La" treatment.

4) They claimed the U.S. economy under Bush was the worst since the depression. But they failed to acknowledge that Clinton handed over an economy in a free fall (GDP actually declined 2 of the last 3 quarters of Clinton's presidency - after growing 4% in the quarters leading up to his Presidency which they claimed caused all sorts of suffering - enter Bill to 'feel your pain'). Now that the economy has overcome the Clinton pain (recession) and is booming, those folks have shifted their attention to other grievances and give economic growth the "La La" treatment.

5) They claim Bush should act unilaterally on North Korea. But isn't their big gripe about Iraq that he DID act unilaterally (by their definition)? Once again, that's met with the "La La" treatment.

6) They call the Bush administration corrupt. Well, so far we've got one guy indicted for a different account of who told whose name to whom and when 2 years ago. But the Clinton administration set a record for indictments, convictions and memory lapses. Not to mention the odd "left the country during the investigation" scenario. So we are supposed to turn to another Clinton for moral leadership? The actual architect of the sleaze campaign against the Bill Clinton accusers? Reason has left the building.

This list could go on and on. But their solution doesn't seem like much of a solution to me.

sharptalk

Cindy and I worked out this past summer for 3 months before going on vacation and I've never felt better.

So we started again a week ago. I plan to have the best summer I've ever had at 44 years old.

Monday update: We worked out again last night on the "Weights" portion of the Power 90 workout. That's officially day 8 of the workout. I'm already starting to feel a little different.

sharptalk

Who else would do this? Who else, on a mission to find terrorists would be detoured to bring a baby with Spina bifida (sp?) back home for treatment like the reservists from Georgia? Who else's military would have the resources and the compassion?

America is a shining city on a hill. The Pakistani and Afghan people have come to realize this again recently with our support of earthquake victims. The people of Indonesia saw our military response from the tsunami. We led the charge to bring relief, safety and food and medical support to this country where America was bitterly hated.

Who else would do this? The radical Muslim terrorists? Communist dicatorships? More likely mass graves from those crowds.

Only one. Only America.

God has blessed America. And he's blessed the world with America.

sharptalk

I saw an article in the news yesterday about the ever-closer relationship between Dick Cheney and President Bush.

I saw an article a couple of months ago about how they were growing increasingly distant and Cheney was "falling out of favor" as the war wasn't going well and Halliburton was in the news.

How much useless, baseless stuff have I put in my head just because it was in print.

sharptalk