Yes, I still believe Kerry would have made a great president -- perhaps one of the greatest ever.

There's no accounting for opinions like this. What a terribly weird and delusional thing to say.

He was less than perfect as a candidate, but who wouldn't be?

Surely not one of the potentially greatest Presidents ever!

He allowed himself to be poltiically strangled by a rich and admirable Senate record that, absent early and effective politicking or a more astute media, only those who pay close attention could fully appreciate.

Truly hilarious. I can't imagine what would move someone to share such an assessment with others.

Yes, I still think Bush is a criminal who, if he could, would happily march us to Armageddon while Cheney keeps picking the public's pocket.

I just don't know how you people manage to operate. I would be scared to find my self believing as you do.

This election was fascinating. I can only read about it, however. Can't stand to hear the talking heads. I think we've been ill-served by most all of them except for a couple...Moyers and Jon Stewart.

Yeah, but, Marg, Jon Stewart will be the first one to tell you that he is not to be taken seriously. Except, of course, for those times when he desperately uses the attention he gets from people like you who regard him as an intellectual spokesman for the Democratic Party.

If you accept the premise that Clinton's election was an aberration, you must conclude that Democrats have become a minority party with marginal ability to control any of the three branches. The federal judiciary consists largely of conservatives and moderates; Clinton was largely unable to appoint liberals. Congress has shifted further to the right. The Presidency is even further out of reach. The narrowness of the margins is no comfort -- minority status is minority status, whether its by one point or thirty.

If you do not attribute this to a failure to articulate ideals, what then? We witnessed, in this election, the spectacle of the Democratic nominee having to apologize for not injecting more religion into government. Can you imagine Kennedy having to do that?

Sneer at Enlightenment ideals all you want, but this party will not prevail unless it gives people something more to believe in.

I agree that Kerry's potential is far greater than many realized. But if we are correct in this, it will become exceedingly clear in the next two years of his Senate service. If he has longed for the top job as long as has been reported, he's not of the mold to walk away now, having come so close.

And though you've tired of post-election analysis, it's quite clear to me that the lack of followup attacks by Al Qaida gave Bush a head start that was nearly insurmountable, that the court in Massachusetts added another couple of points that caused the loss of Ohio, but the real key to the campaign from there - and all future presidential contests - was and will be the Latino vote.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

John Kerry damned near unseated a sitting wartime president. And we still haven't heard the end of the mendacity and fraud in Florida, Ohio, and God knows where else. GWB is a weak reed.

As a conservative Republican, who's horrified at what's become of my party, I can assure you that the wingnuts in charge of the GOP are afflicted by toxic overreach syndrome. Who's going to balance the budget? If nobody, then who's going to defend the dollar? If nobody, then who's going to buck up our yawning trade deficit? The good folks now hunting Arlen Specter for being pro-choice?

And once we've taken Fallujah (again, say in June 2006), will we finally have peace enough to pull the Oregon National Guard out of Baghdad car-bomb-magnet duty?

Arg arg arg. Forget the Baptists. They're heretics, deniers of infant baptism, and they're going to hell anyhow. Let's hope they don't take us with them.