I remember reading in the 4T something along the lines that one of things that might bode well for the outcome of the crisis is to look for strange bedfellows finding common ground....like corporate farmers and environmentalists or something.

That is what came to mind when I saw Rev. Jesse Jackson tonight coming out to support Terri Schiavo. And its the third such alignment alignment I have seen between Blacks and Republicans in the last year...gay marriage, the election (at least they shifted 10pts in GW's favor, and now right to life. The Conservatives on both sides are a natural fit on cultural issues.

Now I guess what to look for is a compromise between them on some social issue, like healthcare, which is what I think Jackson hinted at when I say him on the tube tonight.

Originally Posted by DKG 1962

I remember reading in the 4T something along the lines that one of things that might bode well for the outcome of the crisis is to look for strange bedfellows finding common ground....like corporate farmers and environmentalists or something.

That is what came to mind when I saw Rev. Jesse Jackson tonight coming out to support Terri Schiavo. And its the third such alignment alignment I have seen between Blacks and Republicans in the last year...gay marriage, the election (at least they shifted 10pts in GW's favor, and now right to life. The Conservatives on both sides are a natural fit on cultural issues.

Now I guess what to look for is a compromise between them on some social issue, like healthcare, which is what I think Jackson hinted at when I say him on the tube tonight.

You may be right, but even as old school populist silents like Jackson and Ralph Nader side with Tom Delay xer Republicans like Glenn Reynolds (who has done no shortage of hacking for Bush in the past few years) not to mention 80% of the American people (including almost 70% of evangelicals) are expressing a certain revulsion. With respect to African-Americans, I happen to think that the GOP may bleed off more black votes as they become more populist (although Bush only improved his numbers in 2004 over 2000 - which were pathetic even by Republican standards - by a few percentage points). Losing (working class) African-American and more Latino support though will make the Democrats the party of white collar voters and new economy money, and free them to ultimately become the small government federalist party. They've had to pretend since the early 1990s that they give a damn about class and income disparity but that's largely been for the benefit of working class people of color. It won't be long before the Democratic Party looks more like the party of Taft, Goldwater, and Reagan than FDR or Truman.

Originally Posted by Tristan

Originally Posted by HopefulCynic68

[
It could , but that may miss the point.

The 'trigger' probably can't work until the 'fuel' is dry enough. The fuel (IMHO) is now getting quite dry, but maybe not quite dry enough, yet. The 'water' in this metaphor is the cultural, economic, political, and social influence of the Silent, of course, if we assume the S&H theory is right.

Each Cycle is unique in its detail, and I've developed the suspicion that one of the uniquenesses (if that's a word) of our Cycle is that the Silent are more influential than the Adaptives usually have been, even if they didn't produce a President. This is making the fuel a little more 'damp' than it would otherwise be at a given time, if I'm right.

If you are right about this, the 4T will not come until around 2008 or 2010.

Perhaps he is. One of the likely key elements of the coming Crisis, the bursting of the housing bubble, I predict will not arrive until around 2011, when the first core-wave Boomers...the 1946 cohort...hit 65 and start retiring en masse. There will suddenly be a glut of $600,000+ homes on the market... and while there may be plenty of $400,000 Xer homeowners ready to trade up to them, there won't be many Millies with a cool quarter-million just lying around to put down on the latter, and so all the prices will fall like dominoes.

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

Originally Posted by Tristan

Originally Posted by HopefulCynic68

[
It could , but that may miss the point.

The 'trigger' probably can't work until the 'fuel' is dry enough. The fuel (IMHO) is now getting quite dry, but maybe not quite dry enough, yet. The 'water' in this metaphor is the cultural, economic, political, and social influence of the Silent, of course, if we assume the S&H theory is right.

Each Cycle is unique in its detail, and I've developed the suspicion that one of the uniquenesses (if that's a word) of our Cycle is that the Silent are more influential than the Adaptives usually have been, even if they didn't produce a President. This is making the fuel a little more 'damp' than it would otherwise be at a given time, if I'm right.

If you are right about this, the 4T will not come until around 2008 or 2010.

Perhaps he is. One of the likely key elements of the coming Crisis, the bursting of the housing bubble, I predict will not arrive until around 2011, when the first core-wave Boomers...the 1946 cohort...hit 65 and start retiring en masse. There will suddenly be a glut of $600,000+ homes on the market... and while there may be plenty of $400,000 Xer homeowners ready to trade up to them, there won't be many Millies with a cool quarter-million just lying around to put down on the latter, and so all the prices will fall like dominoes.

I don't know . . . it seems we have a coming combination of rising short term interest rates and rising inflation fears (which will raise long term rates). That combination should end housing speculation, which in turn, should prick the bubble. What's worse, this should also coincide with the end of the credit binge. Said ending will mean unemployment when the party finally stops. THAT will really bring the house prices down. I see this all happening well before 2008, not to mention 2011.

All this talk about moralizing society and media circuses can be attributed to either a 3T and a 4T and maybe more than that, so I don't think that saying the former is evidence for a 4T and saying the latter can still be attributed to a 4T are good arguments that we are actually in a 4T.

The very simple reason that I don't think we are in a 4T is that there's just no..real...crisis. Enlighten me if I'm wrong. Is it the war on terrorism? Give me a break. I'm a supporter of the war on terrorism and I still don't think its something that warrants a 4T. Terrorism is far too nebulous of a thing, it's a moral conundrum, and it's not really a threat to society as a whole. Terrorism is a thing of third turnings. Besides, I think that now, a little while ago, or soon it will be as close to won as it ever will be.

If there's going to be a 4T at all, it's yet to come. And if it is here, my Lord, what a dissapointment.

A 4t will be grimmer than we have seen and be a real danger. The war on terrorism hasn't manifested that sense of imminent peril that characterize a genuine crisis. We've felt the chill but we haven't seen the snow. Possibilities are: North Korea/China alliance, a stock market crash with massive unemployment and immigration from Mexico. I personally think the Mideast is going to be kind of a sideshow, really.

Originally Posted by spudzill

A 4t will be grimmer than we have seen and be a real danger. The war on terrorism hasn't manifested that sense of imminent peril that characterize a genuine crisis. We've felt the chill but we haven't seen the snow. Possibilities are: North Korea/China alliance, a stock market crash with massive unemployment and immigration from Mexico. I personally think the Mideast is going to be kind of a sideshow, really.

I don't know. 9/11 has wholly transformed our politics and our geopolitics, and has had some pretty profound implications for the economy, culture and society as well. I certainly don't rule out the possibility of multiple phases or fronts to this crisis (a major economic meltdown, peak oil, the culture wars leading to some kind of civil unrest - there were after all two phases to the last crisis [the depression and then the war]) nor do I rule out the distinct possibility that it may get much worse before it gets better, but four hijacked planes being used to kill several thousand people smells like a catalyst to me. Who knows though.

Originally Posted by Peter Gibbons

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

Originally Posted by Tristan

Originally Posted by HopefulCynic68

[
It could , but that may miss the point.

The 'trigger' probably can't work until the 'fuel' is dry enough. The fuel (IMHO) is now getting quite dry, but maybe not quite dry enough, yet. The 'water' in this metaphor is the cultural, economic, political, and social influence of the Silent, of course, if we assume the S&H theory is right.

Each Cycle is unique in its detail, and I've developed the suspicion that one of the uniquenesses (if that's a word) of our Cycle is that the Silent are more influential than the Adaptives usually have been, even if they didn't produce a President. This is making the fuel a little more 'damp' than it would otherwise be at a given time, if I'm right.

If you are right about this, the 4T will not come until around 2008 or 2010.

Perhaps he is. One of the likely key elements of the coming Crisis, the bursting of the housing bubble, I predict will not arrive until around 2011, when the first core-wave Boomers...the 1946 cohort...hit 65 and start retiring en masse. There will suddenly be a glut of $600,000+ homes on the market... and while there may be plenty of $400,000 Xer homeowners ready to trade up to them, there won't be many Millies with a cool quarter-million just lying around to put down on the latter, and so all the prices will fall like dominoes.

I don't know . . . it seems we have a coming combination of rising short term interest rates and rising inflation fears (which will raise long term rates). That combination should end housing speculation, which in turn, should prick the bubble. What's worse, this should also coincide with the end of the credit binge. Said ending will mean unemployment when the party finally stops. THAT will really bring the house prices down. I see this all happening well before 2008, not to mention 2011.

Word to Peter Gibbons for nailing the inflation thing months ago. I said deflation. You said inflation. So far you're much more right than me.

Not as accurate as a stopped clock

The report implicitly absolves the Bush administration of manipulating the intelligence used to launch the 2003 Iraq war, putting the blame for bad intelligence directly on the intelligence community.

"The daily intelligence briefings given to you before the Iraq war were flawed," the report said. "Through attention-grabbing headlines and repetition of questionable data, these briefings overstated the case that Iraq was rebuilding its WMD programs."

The unclassified version of the report does not go into significant detail on the intelligence community's abilities in Iran and North Korea because commissioners did not want to tip the U.S. hand to its leading adversaries. Those details are included in the classified version.

The commission was formed by Bush a year ago to look at why U.S. spy agencies mistakenly concluded that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, one of the administration's main justifications for invading in March 2003.

"We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the commission said in a report to the president. "This was a major intelligence failure."

That the Medes and the Hermit Kingdom's boreal portion are the U.S.A.'s "leading adversaries" on the planet shows that ignorance and not mendacity still rules on the Potomac. :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

???? I don't get the Boreal and hermit king reference, but maybe you can explain without being quite so cryptic, Virgil. The worry is not so much North Korea per se-though they can do quite a bit- but the alliance with China when they both attempt to annex territories they believe are "theirs." Possibly simultaneously. When DPRK does annex they will certainly use their Nuclear Option as a first strike blow to slow down or cripple response.

Originally Posted by spudzill

???? I don't get the Boreal and hermit king reference, but maybe you can explain without being quite so cryptic, Virgil. The worry is not so much North Korea per se-though they can do quite a bit- but the alliance with China when they both attempt to annex territories they believe are "theirs." Possibly simultaneously. When DPRK does annex they will certainly use their Nuclear Option as a first strike blow to slow down or cripple response.

You just described Japan's worst nightmare.

Originally Posted by spudzill

???? I don't get the Boreal and hermit king reference, but maybe you can explain without being quite so cryptic, Virgil.

The Medes refer to Iran and the boreal (north) portion of the Hermit Kingdom (Korea) refers to North Korea.

Now if somebody will just pay attention............



Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'

Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday March 30, 2005

Guardian

The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.
The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.

"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.

The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:

? Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

? An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.

? Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.

? At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.

? Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.

? Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.

In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what today's report, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was time to check the accounts.

"That is what this assessment has done, and it is a sobering statement with much more red than black on the balance sheet," the scientists warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."

Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean's large predators - tuna, swordfish and sharks - has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.

The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.

Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change, could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.

A growing proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting advanced technology. But nature, the scientists warn, is not something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural spaces is not just a luxury.

"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of nature to the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers

Originally Posted by cbailey

Now if somebody will just pay attention............



Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'

Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday March 30, 2005

Guardian

The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.
The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.

"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.

The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:

? Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

? An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.

? Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.

? At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.

? Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.

? Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.

In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what today's report, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was time to check the accounts.

"That is what this assessment has done, and it is a sobering statement with much more red than black on the balance sheet," the scientists warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."

Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean's large predators - tuna, swordfish and sharks - has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.

The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.

Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change, could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.

A growing proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting advanced technology. But nature, the scientists warn, is not something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural spaces is not just a luxury.

"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of nature to the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers

Who needs resources when you have God.

"In Cod We Trust(ed)."

Virgil that is Japan's worst nightmare and it should be ours as well. The reason I believe we are not quite yet 4T is the fact that right now, Americans believe that there is aWar on Terrorism. To be 4T we have to believe that we can lose, and that the whole nation and most,if not all, in it will be physically destroyed. This can be by outright warfare or destabilizing due to economic meltdown but we must feel as if our collective self is in truly mortal danger. Not just a couple of really bad terrorist strikes, which while bad enough is somewhat random and will quit for a while. Think of, as a fictional example, in LOTR the people of Rohan. Their homes were being destroyed, they fled and were met by an army that outnumbered them horribly and only young boys and old men were left to defend. Unless, the situation feels that dire it's still a 4T

Originally Posted by spudzill

Virgil that is Japan's worst nightmare and it should be ours as well. The reason I believe we are not quite yet 4T is the fact that right now, Americans believe that there is aWar on Terrorism. To be 4T we have to believe that we can lose, and that the whole nation and most,if not all, in it will be physically destroyed. This can be by outright warfare or destabilizing due to economic meltdown but we must feel as if our collective self is in truly mortal danger. Not just a couple of really bad terrorist strikes, which while bad enough is somewhat random and will quit for a while. Think of, as a fictional example, in LOTR the people of Rohan. Their homes were being destroyed, they fled and were met by an army that outnumbered them horribly and only young boys and old men were left to defend. Unless, the situation feels that dire it's still a 4T

I think the Nipponese might dream of a Celestial Revenge for Nanking, et al. that would be quite a bit worse than anything the people of Chosen would deliver to them.

The same goes for the U.S. The Persians may threaten the Turks, Russians, Arabs, Israelis. The North Korerans may attack South Korea and perhaps Japan. Neither of these are the worst things that could happen to America. Can we "lose" a WMD war with Iran or North Korea? We are not worrying about the greatest WMD arsenal other than our own because our POTUS looked into the Pootie-Poots'(sp?) eyes and was reassured. Russia is at present the only power that could "win" a war with the U.S. if you define "winning" as an ability to destroy our nation. The PRC, France, the UK, Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea don't come even close to the WMD power of the Russians. There's a nightmare that I lived with for most of my life and it still continues to this day. Putin may be sane, will his successor be the same?

Virgil I'm old enough to remember the Cold War. 8) My friends and I played a game which went" The nukes have just gone up, you have 30 minutes to live what do you do?" Our answers, being in High School were silly things like "I'd break into a liquor store and drink until I vaporized" or the even less likely" I'd look for a hot chick and do her" But the fear was real we just knew we were helpless to prevent it. I very much think we could easily lose a war withChina and DPRK and I fear what happens if Europe and russia keep selling those two weapons while we're fighting. I think we'd attack out of pique and they'd all attack us. Bye, Bye America

Originally Posted by spudzill

Virgil that is Japan's worst nightmare and it should be ours as well. The reason I believe we are not quite yet 4T is the fact that right now, Americans believe that there is aWar on Terrorism. To be 4T we have to believe that we can lose, and that the whole nation and most,if not all, in it will be physically destroyed. This can be by outright warfare or destabilizing due to economic meltdown but we must feel as if our collective self is in truly mortal danger. Not just a couple of really bad terrorist strikes, which while bad enough is somewhat random and will quit for a while. Think of, as a fictional example, in LOTR the people of Rohan. Their homes were being destroyed, they fled and were met by an army that outnumbered them horribly and only young boys and old men were left to defend. Unless, the situation feels that dire it's still a 4T

Many Americans (especially Republicans) believed there would be a "return to normal" (read: the 1920s) in the early years of the depression. I don't think we've seen the worst of this 4t yet but I do think its here.

I don't think that there will be a return to normal. I just don't think we've entered 4T yet. I think it'll be 4T when DPRK launches their nukes. Or when anglophones and Hispanics are engaging in brutal fights over the same day labor job and Mecha declares the seccession of Aztlan. Or the DNC is assassinated en masse and or outlawed altogether. These things make a 4T. Not some pervasive fear of faceless terrorism. That is 3T.

I figured out how we'll know we're 4T. Think back to just after the WTC. The period known as the Era of Good Feelings. When Fallwell said those things people just got kinda sickened by his snipings. It was far less important whether or not we were gays or pagans or whatever what mattered was that we were Americans! All other considerations were not important. S&H say that when 4T is fully upon us the culture wars will come to complete stop, and we will fully unite. We know what that's like, because we felt it briefly, but it settled down to a particularly brittle and shrill 3T. S&H say this is something that can happen as well(just don't remember which page)

Originally Posted by spudzill

I figured out how we'll know we're 4T. Think back to just after the WTC. The period known as the Era of Good Feelings. When Fallwell said those things people just got kinda sickened by his snipings. It was far less important whether or not we were gays or pagans or whatever what mattered was that we were Americans! All other considerations were not important. S&H say that when 4T is fully upon us the culture wars will come to complete stop, and we will fully unite. We know what that's like, because we felt it briefly, but it settled down to a particularly brittle and shrill 3T. S&H say this is something that can happen as well(just don't remember which page)

Yes, and of course Strauss has also suggested (at least in a radio interview he gave some months back) that the culture wars may be a chief ingredient of this 4t as well. In other words there is the possibility that they won't die down, but become central to the conflict(s) of the next twenty years. I don't know which it will be, but Bush seems intent on doing everything in his power to pander to the theocons - not unite the country around democracy promotion in the Arab world - and the Schiavo debacle suggests this thing is not over yet. What happens when Bush nominates hard right conservatives to supreme court vacancies? What happens if (or rather when) congress, the white house, and the Bush court tries to impose red state cultural values on blue states that want nothing to do with them?

Originally Posted by Milo

Yes, and of course Strauss has also suggested (at least in a radio interview he gave some months back) that the culture wars may be a chief ingredient of this 4t as well. In other words there is the possibility that they won't die down, but become central to the conflict(s) of the next twenty years. I don't know which it will be, but Bush seems intent on doing everything in his power to pander to the theocons - not unite the country around democracy promotion in the Arab world - and the Schiavo debacle suggests this thing is not over yet. What happens when Bush nominates hard right conservatives to supreme court vacancies? What happens if (or rather when) congress, the white house, and the Bush court tries to impose red state cultural values on blue states that want nothing to do with them?

It could cut both ways. Suppose, for instance, Hillary (or some other liberal Democrat) wins in 2008, and has a Democrat majority in both houses to work with. How might the Red States react to attempts to cram Blue State values down their throats? Slim chance of that happening, but not impossible.

Originally Posted by Sabinus Invictus

Originally Posted by Milo

Yes, and of course Strauss has also suggested (at least in a radio interview he gave some months back) that the culture wars may be a chief ingredient of this 4t as well. In other words there is the possibility that they won't die down, but become central to the conflict(s) of the next twenty years. I don't know which it will be, but Bush seems intent on doing everything in his power to pander to the theocons - not unite the country around democracy promotion in the Arab world - and the Schiavo debacle suggests this thing is not over yet. What happens when Bush nominates hard right conservatives to supreme court vacancies? What happens if (or rather when) congress, the white house, and the Bush court tries to impose red state cultural values on blue states that want nothing to do with them?

It could cut both ways. Suppose, for instance, Hillary (or some other liberal Democrat) wins in 2008, and has a Democrat majority in both houses to work with. How might the Red States react to attempts to cram Blue State values down their throats? Slim chance of that happening, but not impossible.

That's true, but the key words here are slim chance of that happening. Hillary is about the only major Democrat in Washington (aside from Obama, who will be president but is too green now) that understands the emerging realpolitik, is an unabashed liberal hawk on foreign policy, and is repositioning herself as a populist (rather than a liberal/centrist-libertarian like her husband) on domestic issues. In the event Hillary was elected (and even in the event she runs) you'd see plenty of rhetorical and policy outreach to moderate evangelicals on both economic and social issues. She knows there are certain lines she can't cross vis a vis the base, but not crossing certain lines vis a vis the base and using multiple branches of the federal government to impose a particular cultural agenda on the whole country are two different things. I doubt anyone could fully unify this country at this moment, but a Hillary Clinton presidency holds the potential of claiming the broad populist center, marginalizing the extreme theocon right on the one hand, and the anti-war left on the other. Can she pull it off? Dunno, but I'm less skeptical than I might have been a year ago.

Milo, great post. Who's Obama is he related to Osama?