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(This is somewhat related to Nader and third party political orgasms, but not really. I do believe that Nader in 2000 was a factor in costing Gore the election, but only A factor out of several. We would have won New Hampshire, and won Florida by a clearer margain if it wasn't for him. However, the SCOTUS, the MSM with O'Reilly and Tweety, the public's bullshit "Clinton fatigue" backlash over Monica, and Gore's dependency on Donna Brazille and others at the time, all hurt him. However, our Democratic Senators and pro-choice interest groups such as NARAL deserve as much blame as Nader for not doing enough to promote the filibuster and not mounting an effective opposition to the flurry of pro-Alito ads. Anyway...back to 2004-present.) I remember throughout 2004, there were many on the left who were chafing under the "Anybody but Bush" creed, that we would support anyone that won the primary (even Joementum) to fight Bush. I also remember scores of "I won't vote for his DLC elitist, botox-injecting, war criminal prissy-pants." I remember that in response, some ABBers gave a caveat to those who were on the fence of whether or not to vote for Kerry on November 2, 2004. It went: regardless of what you might think of Kerry, he won't put right-wing justices on the Supreme Court. If you do anything that undermines Kerry's campaign, you are enabling the overturn of Roe." Well, some of these same people who have blasted Kerry in general for the past two years are also telling us that the Democratic Party is doomed. Hell, I've even seen a few on the left say that Kerry's valient effort to stop Scalito is out of opportunism for 2008! (maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but at least he's willing to actively oppose him!) Personally, I'm not that crazy about Kerry's possible entertainment of 2008 (I believe that he's pretty much been caricatured and defined by the echo chamber to be electable. The "loser" stigma will not help him, unless we go through another Great Depression or a nuclear war, and as bad as Bush is, I don't think that the public is smart enough to vote for the guy who they should have voted for four years before.) However, I do believe that Kerry is doing a great service to the country, and to progressives in fighting the good fight.
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