Prediction: Come November, Obama beats Romney by far more than the margin suggested by polls.

[MADem]

34. We need real campaign finance reform, so we can have guys like Paul Wellstone representing us.

Nothing against these rich guys, but I don't go for the "noblesse oblige" attitude. Why should you have to be rich and spend millions to get a job that pays less than two hundred grand a year (unless you're in a top leadership job, like President Pro Tem--then you might break two hundred grand)? Something is wrong--seriously so--when people run around gathering millions to get a job that doesn't PAY millions (well, at least not OVER the table). Also, plenty of guys who started out poor in the House got rich by the time they ran for the Senate. This wasn't an accident, of course. In the "real world," they'd call it Insider Trading and they'd go to jail like Martha--in the halls of Congress, it's a time honored activity and considered a perk of the job, like free postage and rides home on the taxpayer dime to one's district. And even with recent laws passed to limit that kind of shit, it still happens, and it happens in a big way. Nothing will ever change so long as the foxes are watching the henhouse.

Back in the old days, Congressmen and Senators would room together in cheapass houses/apartments near the Hill---now, they drag their families along with them, and buy multi-million dollar homes in McLean, VA while maintaining a crackerbox in their district or state to 'check the residency block.' Hell, VA has the most "senators" of any state in the union!

When Gore lost TN, I was disgusted--particularly since we worked so frigging hard to give those ungrateful bastards thousands of US government jobs by moving the administrative arm of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (much wailing and gnashing of teeth over that business) to Millington, TN. Talk about a hearty fuck you! That move was All Gore (with a little bit of Mike Boorda), ya know. We should have left it in DC and simply done vertical staffing cuts and job realignments for all the good that did!