October 31, 2006

IT'S 2004 ALL OVER AGAIN:

Gay-marriage ruling recharges GOP (Steven Thomma, 10/31/06, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS)

In the final stretch before Election Day, embattled Republicans feel as though they have received a gift from an unlikely donor: advocates of gay marriage.

They think that last week’s ruling by New Jersey’s Supreme Court ordering equal rights for gay couples — seven of whom had sued for the right to marry — is re-energizing Christian conservatives, who had been losing interest in politics. Republicans predict that could draw more conservatives to the polls next week, especially in the eight states that will vote on proposed amendments to their state constitutions to ban gay marriage.

Among the eight states are Virginia and Tennessee, which have close Senate races that could decide which party controls the Senate next year. The other states are Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wisconsin. [...]

Nearby, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., visited two largely black churches Sunday, where he invoked the New Jersey ruling as a reminder of the need to pass the proposed amendment to the Virginia state constitution banning gay marriage.

"The Supreme Court decision in New Jersey this week showed even more importantly to the people of Virginia why the Virginia marriage-protection amendment is so important," he said afterward.


Sen. John Kerry: 'I Apologize to No One' (Newsmax, 10/31/06)
At a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Seattle, Kerry said "I apologize to no one” for what he categorized as criticism of the Bush administration’s Iraq war policy.

Kerry touched off a storm of protest when he told a college audience on Monday that "if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

The comments drew demands for an apology from Sen. John McCain, the National Commander of The American Legion, and others.


Democrats have forgotten rule one: hide everyone in the party and everything they believe from the voters.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 31, 2006 4:44 PM
Comments

Maybe he thinks that because he got lower grades at Yale and scored lower than Pres. Bush on the military's intelligence test, he ended up in Vietman rather than Pres. Bush.

Posted by: GER at October 31, 2006 5:27 PM

The average age of American troops killed fighting in Iraq is 28. The current US military has the highest educational levels ever; more than 94% have a high school degree or better.

The military requires that volunteers pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), also known as the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT). The minimum %-tile is 31, which means roughly 1/3rd of volunteers get immediately washed out by the test.

Kerry took the NOQT (the Naval Officer Qualification Test). According to documents Kerry posted on his website during the campaign, he scored in the 50% percentile.

Bush took the AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualification Test), which is a variant of the AFQT used by the Air Force. He scored 85%-tile verbal and 65%-tile quantitative.

Posted by: Gideon at October 31, 2006 5:37 PM

Kerry was a terrible, terrible candidate who ran a very good campaign in 2004. He couldn't quite pull off the Casey strategy of never saying anything due to the much higher profile of a Presidential race, and the serious gaping flaws in his resume.

But he's become convinced that he was a great candidate who ran a terrible campaign. Which leads to events like this, producing great humor for those of us on the right and potential disaster for the left.

Posted by: b at October 31, 2006 6:08 PM

The GOP needs as much of this stuff as possible to get the last minute votes which will helpfully put them over the top in some races.

Posted by: AWW at October 31, 2006 6:40 PM

Kerry is living proof of the adage, A little education is a dangerous thing.

Posted by: Qiao Yang at October 31, 2006 7:07 PM

Did Kerry attend Wellstone's funeral and pep rally? Gotta love these self-inflicted "October Surprises".

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at October 31, 2006 8:41 PM
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