The Republicans (some, anyway) will meet for their first debate tonight, May 5th.
Currently, only a handful have even declared, with many of the potential frontrunners still undecided (Huckabee, Trump and Palin).
Now compare that to 2003, where Democrats had already started gearing up to run against Pres. Bush.
The leading Democratic candidates gathered essentially four years ago today (it was on May 4th) for their
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/us/democrats-first-presidential-debate-shows-party-fissures.html">first presidential debate.
All the major candidates were there. John Kerry, Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean, John Edwards and Joe Lieberman.
Today's Republican debate, however, lacks any contending candidate.
That's telling. It's telling because the Republicans aren't ready yet. This time four years ago, Democrats were ready to pounce on Pres. Bush - not so this go around. Republicans are cautious and even some haven't decided whether they'll even mount a challenge.
It's just interesting to compare how ready the Democrats were then and how Republicans currently are still stuck in the wading pool.