If republicans had run someone better, more reasonable . . .

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3. once you start campaigning their asses

they revert to their ugly selves.

Campaigns have come a long way in informing the voters about these folks who run. The faults don't just evaporate into distant memory anymore with all of the data sources available to store them and produce them over and over.

It's really the republican agenda and their electorate's cultivated extremes which keeps most republican presidential aspirants down. They're hard to live up to beyond their primaries.

Still, it can't be overlooked that our Democratic party has many, many initiatives and proposals which are in tune with the mainstream of a majority of Americans. That's the hook which advantages our candidates to victory, not just the vacuousness or the repugnance of the republican opposition.