As you say not that it matters but... I have a Master's In Education and I see a number of things in this line of BS that I feel need addressing. Item number one; This man's lineage is of no import, period. Number two; the education level of his supporters, of course, will be varied and of course will include some very educated people who do an awful lot of issue contemplation. The same can, and should, be said of all Americans. Number three; from what I can see there are four issues he supports that concern me deeply and should actually be foremost in these discussions even though the gist of the article was meant to be humorous, it does so in such a flippant / sarcastic fashion that the author is bordering on destroying his own attempt at humor by insulting the intelligence of the reader, i.e. most Jerry Lewis material. (Great guy though.) Back to those issues;

1 - A complete and immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

2 - Universal (Socialized Medicine) Healthcare.

3 - The right's of the unborn child.

4 - Same gender sex, it's affect on society and the message sent to children when we ratify this behavior by allowing it to be formalized by a long standing tradition intended to support monogamy for the purpose of having offspring and raising them in a balanced (somewhat) home.

The only two I intend to address thoroughly right now are the first ones listed. They are the easiest to point out simple facts that are not arguable even if their consequences are.

1 - A complete and immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Fact, we are there, regardless of why it is a fact. The majority of their people want to form a democracy. This fact is evidenced by a higher voter turnout, in the face of death and dismemberment, than most US elections since the 1800’s. The security / police / law enforcement forces, what e’er you wish to call them, are inadequately trained and provisioned to protect the majority of the citizenry from a return of the Taliban and their oppression of freedom, women and thought in general, this too is a fact. If we add these facts and then retract our troops cold turkey or even with an ASAP tag to it then we have committed an immoral act as a people. There will be genocide, there will be mass graves etc. believe it or not these are facts. I say this is an immoral act as a people and some would say it is Bush’s fault because he got us into this. I am not going to debate that at this time because what I am trying to point out is that if we force our leadership to withdraw troops we are knowingly and willingly condemning the Iraq’s to this fate. We cannot blame Bush for actions we as a nation take when he is not in office. Obama in his inexperience does not see this greater reality that will come about if he truly does what he is proclaiming he will do. As humans who care for others we should see this too and as American’s we should be proud to fight side by side with the Iraqi people in achieving their goal of freedom. The time for blame is over. It doesn’t matter why we got there we are there now and what we decide now is not dependant on what a politician decided five years ago.

2 - Universal (Socialized Medicine) Healthcare. Just two items, one refers to a fact and the other information is a few general facts. HMO’s stink and are too bureaucratic, so what do you think a healthcare system run and / or heavily influenced by a bureaucratic government will be like? The other item is an example of universal healthcare as seen in British ruled sovereignties such as Canada. When ill you have to wait up to 6 weeks, by which time you are well or hospitalized, to see a doctor, probably not the same one you saw last time or even ever. (No choice of doctor in socialized medicine.) Also, if you are over 65 and are admitted to the hospital with a heart condition that is repairable through an expensive surgery you will be sent home to await your next heart attack or two and eventual death. Such procedures are too costly. Their tax rate, in order to pay for this, is in the neighborhood of 55% - 65% of their income. They have to give incentives for people to study to be doctors because it is a government job and you wind up overworked and underpaid. As a result you have what could be the most altruistic doctors but not necessarily the smartest since most people want to find something more profitable those with the ability to be doctors often choose other more lucrative avenues. It is rare that a new drug comes from other countries, as the money for development of drugs is limited and their drug companies have few profits to return to the consumer. Drugs are cheaper internationally and at Wal-mart, now Walgreen’s and Fred Meyer’s, because of buying in bulk not because of any great companies outside the U.S. making drugs for less. It is our drug companies that sell their government the drugs. Face the fact that capitalism is a great motivator. Now do we really want all of this? We do need to take a hard look at the issue and figure out what we can do to help where there is need, but Universal Healthcare (Euphemism for Socialized Medicine) is not the answer.

I don’t usually like pointing out what is wrong and not offering solutions but I am not certain that anyone wants to hear my solutions so I am only putting a buzz in the ear of the masses to get people thinking.

These are only two of the real issues and groups of facts that we should confront. Let’s get off of the unimportant issues like who begat who and so on.

Be well my fellow human.

Bravo! And well put. I'm Republican, so I'm not necessarily for or against Obama. But as a journalism major and a teacher myself, I cannot abide how the isses are on such things as race and religion (freedoms for which our country was founded!!!!). I like how you presented this. They are the most important factors. And yes, THESE are the things that should be considered. Thank you for posting this.

Well, thank you, it isn't often one finds a compliment amongst these political blogs.

First: apostrophes are used to indicate possessives (or in contractions), not to make words plural. You made this mistake several times, so it's obviously not a typo.

Second: the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. They had nothing to do with Iraq.

I don't know what else to say in the face of such overwhelming ignorance. It frightens me that you are allowed to have anything to do with the education of children, let alone vote.

Wow! Such astute observation astounds my ability to compose any argument to the contrary. Yes, I do see at least one occurrence where I made the gaffe of using an apostrophe in such a haphazard manner as you have described and it is my deepest apology that my editor in chief missed such a blatant error. I will have her fired immediately! (P.S. No such person lost their livelihood in this fashion.)

Now again to serious issues, you are about as ignorant as your “comeback” and twice as inept if you believe the Taliban and many others are not involve in Iraq. When our troops first arrived they found several Taliban encampments that needed to be cleaned out. Try some research.

Research sites; Item – 1 The Taliban's connection with Iraq began before the US-led attack there in 2003 ; Item – 2 Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan are in contact with Iraq and a group from Taliban and Osama Bin Laden group visited Iraq.(Circa 2003 Iraq Intelligence) ; Item – 3 Documents Support Saddam-Taliban Connection.

Oh, and if you are concerned about the education of the nation I recommend you start with yourself. You mightn’t have put your foot into it so hard in your last post.

In conclusion please dropped the punctuation issue and move on. I believe MOVE ON IS the motto of the liberal these days. Oh, and just a comment, I teach communication on the college level and my area of emphasis is not that of writing but of speaking, persuasive speaking mind you so I am not inclined to say something I can’t back up. I am, however, fallible in my written punctuation on occasion.

<b>In conclusion please <i>dropped</i> the punctuation issue and move on.</b>

Apparently You're not much of an expert on grammar either.

The first one of your research sites is a bad link, it goes no where.

Pre-war intelligence has been proven as falsified in many cases, so I'd agree that the Taliban, are in afganistan, not a major threat in any way in Iraq since their rule would have been contrary to Saddam's ideas/goals, and he had his problems with Al-queda just like us. He was not on their side.